Smoke Detectors

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electricguy

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British Columbia Canada
I have a customer that has called saying her smokes are 2 years old since the last replacement.they work for about the 2 years and then they start going off consistently. The Home was built in 2001 . The smokes are hardwired and the brand is kidde.... There wasnt any problems during the 2 years until now. These are not battery back up. any ideas I am sure she will want to replace them again but She figures they should last more than 2 years. We are in a dry climate
She has turned off the circuit for the smokes and has 2 small children It is a higher end type home.
 
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Sounds like dust is building up in them, fooling the photoeye into thinking there's smoke.

Clean 'em out with the brush attachement of a vacuum cleaner.
 
No battery backup?

Smoke alarms should last up to 10 years. That is, if they are not exposed to excessive dust, or other contaminant materials.

Find out of the homeowner is properly filtering their heating and cooling system.
 
Smoke detector installed too close to a heating vent?
Spiders making a web inside smoke detector?
Teenage son smoking pot in his bedroom?

If they're interconnected it only takes one to make them all go off.
I would try disconnecting them one at a time to locate the problem one.

Mine used to go off occasionally at about 2:00am. Why they seemed to do this only in the middle of the night is beyond me. Not much fun being woke up at 2:00am this way. The kids would sleep right through it though. There was one that was a couple of feet from a ceiling heating vent. I disconnected it and the problem went away. Relocated it and haven't had a problem since.
 
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electricguy said:
I have a customer that has called saying her smokes are 2 years old since the last replacement.they work for about the 2 years and then they start going off consistently. The Home was built in 2001 . The smokes are hardwired and the brand is kidde.... There wasnt any problems during the 2 years until now. These are not battery back up. any ideas I am sure she will want to replace them again but She figures they should last more than 2 years. We are in a dry climate
She has turned off the circuit for the smokes and has 2 small children It is a higher end type home.
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Find out when she replaced them if all were replaced, they need to be from the same lot and serial number to function without problems.

We find a lot of people will go tothe box store and by either a different brand, and try to mix them, or they will only replace 2 when there is 3 or 4 in the system, mixiing will almost assure problems, along with dust and dander, cats and dogs, in a home, depending on the owners cleaning habits, and the smokes will have to be cleaned every 3 to 6 months to prevent them from going into alarm.
 
electricguy said:
Talked to customer she siad they used "dust off" compressed air to clean them and her twins are a bit to young to be smoking yet :)
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All the cleaning in the world will not help if she did not replace them as a group all the same lot and model, and if she missed on smoke then they were not all replaced, many times a customer will replace the one in the 3nd floor hallway, and the one in the 1st floor and forget the one in the basement, now they have mixed lots.

You have to check yourself, they will tell you they are sure there no other smokes, then when you find the other one, "OH I din't know that was there"

Well this post made me laugh, you don't know how many jobs a year we get with smokes in false alarm, and it turns out miss matched detector, rather then durty chambers.
 
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