Smoke Detector Bleg
Posted by
tgirsch
I have a confession: For the better part of the last three years, I’ve been without a working smoke detector in my house.
I bought the house about five years ago, and it was equipped with a smoke alarm in the hallway connecting the bedrooms. But we started getting false alarms — a lot of them. Tried changing to a new battery, same result. The result was ultimately to remove the battery from the detector. Realizing this is a Very Bad Idea, I put the battery back, and we started getting false alarms again. There was no visible dirt in the detector, so I figured the detector itself must be the problem. I went out and bought a brand-spanking-new battery-operated smoke detector, and installed it. Different detector, same problem: relatively frequent false alarms. I’ve even tried moving the detector to a different part of the hallway, with no change in results.
So this leads to two questions:
1: WTF?!
and
2: What can I do to fix this? I really need a working smoke detector in the house.
Any and all serious suggestions are appreciated.
May be a silly question but is it also a carbon monoxide detector?
Comment 2/22/2008
Uncle:
No, smoke only.
Comment 2/22/2008
Other than maybe old paint from the ceiling flaking to the sensor, I am stumped.
Comment 2/22/2008
dust might be able to do it; smoke detectors work on particulates interfering with electrical conductivity, so any kind of particulates of roughly the right size and electrical properties might set them off. dunno what your home environment’s like for that, though, and i’d think normally the detectors wouldn’t be so sensitive as to be set off by less than “mild sandstorm” levels of dust.
Comment 2/22/2008
Did false alarms correlate with the bathroom being used?
What time of the day did they tend to occur?
Does your house have a basement?
Comment 2/22/2008
Oh, and were they optical detectors or ionization detectors?
Comment 2/22/2008
Also, are there any flourescent lights near the smoke detector?
Comment 2/22/2008
Nomen:
Several pets, so there’s a lot of pet hair and dander around, I’m sure, but that’s it.
Stormy:
Did false alarms correlate with the bathroom being used?
No. By the way, not sure if that’s supposed to be a joke, but it’s funny anyway.
What time of the day did they tend to occur?
No pattern that I could discern.
Does your house have a basement?
No.
Oh, and were they optical detectors or ionization detectors?
I’m honestly not sure. If I had to guess, ionization.
Comment 2/22/2008
Also, are there any flourescent lights near the smoke detector?
The hallway light uses CF bulbs, but it’s gone off falsely when the lights aren’t on.
Comment 2/22/2008
>The hallway light uses CF bulbs, but it’s gone off falsely
>when the lights aren’t on.
How far away is the CF light from the detector? From what I’m reading on the internet, the electrical fields generated by CF lights can set off near by smoke detectors.
Comment 2/22/2008
I’d say about 8 feet away, but again, this happens when the lights are off. I’ve considered moving the detector, however. Instead of one in the hallway, I’m thinking about putting one in each bedroom.
Comment 2/22/2008
There are two main types of smokes, photoelectric and ionization and the latter is more sensitive that the other. It tends to pick up smoke from the kitchen and water vapor from bathrooms. I suggest you make sure you have a photoelectric unit and have a good battery. If this does not work, try moving the detector to a different location.
If you have a multi-level house, at a minimum you need a unit at the top of each set of stairs. You should also have one if the utility room if you have gas or oil equipment (in which case you should also install a CO detector).
Smokes are not something to mess with. If you can’t solve this, hire someone who can. Especially if you have kids.
Comment 2/22/2008
Another possibility: have you ever had your home’s radon levels checked? Radon gas can set off ionization detectors.
Comment 2/22/2008
My understanding (possibly flawed) was that ionization detectors are better at detecting certain types of fires, while photoelectric detectors are better at detecting other types. But I’ll try to get another new one and try it out.
And yes, I need to replace my CO detector, which is flaky. I’ve got gas heat and water. They’re both in the attic, though; I’m not sure if that makes a difference.
Never checked the radon levels, that might not be a bad idea.
Comment 2/22/2008
We have battery detectors, work fine. We bought the house 16 years ago, but my understanding is the code now requires hard-wired detectors. Which means, we go to sell the house, that must be upgraded. I know that’s not helpful, but I am asking my eggspert friend.
Comment 2/22/2008
A friend’s brother had his house burn down while he was at a wedding. When the fire inspectors investigated the source of the fire, they found that there was an electrical short that started it. Where was the short? In the hard-wired smoke detection system.
That’s the very definition of irony.
As for having to have hard-wired detectors, those codes usually apply only to new construction or major remodels. Pre-existing homes should be grandfathered in.
Comment 2/22/2008
I bought another new detector (an ionization model — the Home Depot didn’t carry any photoelectric models), and had the same problem. After reading through the documentation, it occurred to me that the detector may be located too close to the pull-down attic stairs. I moved it about three feet further away (as far as possible while still being in the same hallway), same problem. But the old detector (so far, at least) seems to be performing just fine there. We’ll see.
Comment 2/22/2008
Do you have spiders wandering around your ceiling? I had that problem, they would get into the detector and set it off. Imagine any small bug would do the same.
Comment 2/24/2008
[…] Last week, I asked for help concerning frequent false alarms on my smoke detector. I believe I have the problem solved, and though nobody guessed exactly right, there was a theme in several of the suggestions that ultimately helped a great deal: location, location, location. […]
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