smoke detector

[mdh]

I am sorry if this is some what off topic
A customer's new home that I wired about 8 months ago has about 8 smoke detectors one in each bed rm and outside of them in a hallway,one in the laundry rm one in the basement and one in the garage and one over the stair way,all interconected.last week they started going off in the middle of the night without any reason! btw all are 120 volt with battery back-up

anybody know a easy way to find the bad one?

thanks MDH

 

[mdshunk]

anybody know a easy way to find the bad one?

Certain brands will turn on a red light on the one that is causing the alarm. Maybe you could have them look?

For only 8 months old, I don't even fool around with them. I'd replace them all and take all 8 back to the supply house. They may or may not credit you much for them, but a smoke alarm going off in the middle of the night would really piss me off. I don't want pissed off customers. You can screw around trying to locate the offending alarm and maybe guess wrong anyhow. Replace them all.

 

[Pierre C Belarge]

I am sorry if this is some what off topic
A customer's new home that I wired about 8 months ago has about 8 smoke detectors one in each bed rm and outside of them in a hallway,one in the laundry rm one in the basement and one in the garage and one over the stair way,all interconected.last week they started going off in the middle of the night without any reason! btw all are 120 volt with battery back-up

anybody know a easy way to find the bad one?

thanks MDH

The laundry room or garage units may be part of the problem. Those locations generally are not good locations for smoke alarms. Check those to see if they are dirty/dusty/full lint.

It may also be possible that one of the bedrooms is dusty...

 

[brantmacga]

The laundry room or garage units may be part of the problem. Those locations generally are not good locations for smoke alarms. Check those to see if they are dirty/dusty/full lint.

It may also be possible that one of the bedrooms is dusty...

Yeh. . .the garage isn't the best place to put one of those.

 

[westelectric]

I have the same call coming up begining of next week. About 12 or 13 detectors I installed about 7 years ago. Have changed the batteries once or twice in the past. Told the HO to try and locate the one that flashes when its alarming and thats the one. Dust and even cobwebs and spiderwebs will definetely false alarm the detectors too. Maybe a CO detector too close to a gas boiler room. I hope for both of our sakes the calls go easy and painless.

 

[peter d]

Yeh. . .the garage isn't the best place to put one of those.

We have a local requirement here to put a heat detector (instead of a smoke alarm) in the garage.

 

[brantmacga]

We have a local requirement here to put a heat detector (instead of a smoke alarm) in the garage.

Alarm co's usually put heat detectors in the attics and garages here too. The directions in the Kidde smoke detectors I install say don't put it in the garage.

 

[ItsHot]

replace all

replace all

I am with Marc on this one. Replace them all! Where is the quality in products anymore?

 

[electricguy61]

Slightly off topic: don't use the batteries that come with the detectors. I learned this after numerous clients had them "chirping" in the middle of the night and having to take them all down (they weren't happy campers).

Now we throw away the cheapy batteries that come with the "smokes" and use good ones (Energizer or Duracell) Haven't had the same problem since.

 

[kwired]

The laundry room or garage units may be part of the problem. Those locations generally are not good locations for smoke alarms. Check those to see if they are dirty/dusty/full lint.

It may also be possible that one of the bedrooms is dusty...

I have had the smoke detectors in my own home do this - they would sound for just a short time (of course in the middle of the night) usually only once and you don't know why. There was not necessarily a pattern to when it happened - mostly at night but not always and not necessarily every day.

one night after it woke me up I pulled down the unit that I suspected to be the one triggering the alarm and was looking it over figuring that I would probably end up replacing it and then a tiny spider crawled out of it.

I figured the spider must have entered the sensing chamber and caused the alarm. I put the unit back into service and have not had a false alarm since then.

since then I have had customer who I wired new home for in the past call with the same type of problem, explained what happened to me and told them to maybe try to vacuum each unit - they never called back about this problem so hopefully it was solved

 

[quogueelectric]

Slightly off topic: don't use the batteries that come with the detectors. I learned this after numerous clients had them "chirping" in the middle of the night and having to take them all down (they weren't happy campers).

Now we throw away the cheapy batteries that come with the "smokes" and use good ones (Energizer or Duracell) Haven't had the same problem since.

Good Idea and shows customer you give a crap.

 

[mdh]

Thanks Guy,s I just replaced all of them,btw HD replaced all of them for new ones,have not any trouble with them so far today

MDH

 

[normbac]

Loose neutral will cause all the smokes to sound off check connections in each j box make sure smoke neutral is solid

 

[wbalsam1]

Remove the one in the laundry. The super-heated blast of air from the dryer will do it every time. A blast of hot air from a nearby bathroom showerstall will put a smoke alarm in alarm mode, too. Or a microwave or toaster.
Put a rate-of-rise heat alarm in the garage. :smile:

 

[Wire 2 Race]

I had a similar deal in Miami that about drove me to drink 15 years ago, after Hurricane Andrew.

Again, always in the middle of the night. I replaced all the smokes, and it still happened. I finally, out of desperation, read the instructions, and called the factory. I talked to a rep who asked me if they had an ant problem? I said what????? The rep goes yeah, it happens ALL the time. The ants get into the unit and trip the infra red beam which triggers an alarm. I didn't know it before, but that is all a smoke detector is anyway, an infra red light beam, that when broken triggers the alarm.

I asked the owner if they had an ant problem (before explaining why the question) she said oh yes, since the Hurricane, they had been UNSTOPPABLE! I told her about the conversation with the factory rep, and told her I would send a crew down there ONE MORE TIME. That they would remove, and re-hang the smokes with a shot of silicone around the wire to isolate the hole in the drywall from the smoke detector.

End of problem.