? Hard Wired Smoke Detectors

[kellydizfan]

Hi, We have hard wired smoke detectors in our house that is 11 years old. Well just before midnight they went off about 6 times over 15 minutes. No fire. Now they just went off at 3:45 and then again at 3:52. It is now 4:03 and they haven't done it again unlike the just before midnight episode. I would love to go back to sleep until a decent hour today but I can't because I don't want to be startled awake again. I need my sleep as this is my only day off as I do normally work 7 days a week. I am so tired but scared at the same time. Anyone have any ideas why they are going off. I know this is going to cause a fight with my husband when he gets up that I want to call an Electrician to come out to look at it. He doesn't want to pay the bill to do so. Any help appreciated.

 

[parrothead365]

The low voltage transformer may be on the way out. Or they could just be dirty. Open them up and blow out with canned air or contact cleaner. If that doesn't work then disconnect one wire(clip it off so no conductor is showing) and put up the battery type. Be sure to change the battery twice a year (I do it on the time change day).

 

[tvguy]

You're supposed to replace smoke detectors every 10 years, so you're overdue. Just go to the home improvement store, buy a new one, shut off the power, and wire the new one in. No need for an electrician.
I never heard of the 10 year rule until a few months ago, and in the case of the battery powered smoke detectors I had, they actually had a replacement date on them........in my case.....a date that passed YEARS ago. Two of mine were 30 years old.

 

[golfgal]

It could be that the battery in one is low or out of juice and they all go off since they are hard wired. Ours did that a few months ago, we replaced the batteries, all is good.

 

[Tammi67]

I agree with tvguy. I had one that would go off occasionally, always in the middle of the night. I replaced the battery, vacuumed it out with an attachment, and it would still go off. Finally, decided to replace it and it hasn't gone off since.

 

[locodemickey]

We have 9 or 10 in our house and they did the same thing in the middle of the night We just changed all the batteries and that seemed to do the trick.

 

[Malibustyle23]

You are not alone with this problem. Ours keep going off too. DH finally got fed up and took them all off the wall with just a simple wire disconnection. Thanks to the pp that stated about expiration. I had no idea and the house dates back to 1999. Anyways when DH dismounted them one still continued to chirp without a battery or wall connection so I believe that was making them all do it in unison being hard wired. Replacing the batteries only has only worked off and on here and there for the past year or so. Guess I need to plan a trip to the store now that I now the real issue. Thanks again pp!

 

[Tina]

I've had the worst time with my smoke detectors in my home. They are not too old, about 5 years. I've found that once one starts chirping, I've been unable to resolve the issue with a battery change. Of the 6 detectors in my home, I've removed 2 completely in the past 6 months. I dread the next battery change needed as I know I'll have the same problem. They just don't seem to like the new batteries. I did try to replace one with a new unit, but gave up after being unable to mount it properly (I'm single). I hate to admit it, but I think I'll eventually have to hire a handyman to take care of it for me. Seems so dumb for something that looks so simple!

 

[phred52]

Ours went off once, no fire anywhere we coud tell ..... called the non emergency # for the fire department. They sent someone over to check it out. (no charge) they found a spider web in the smoke detector and blamed it on that....

 

[kellydizfan]

Thank you for all the information. I guess we will be going out at some point and purchasing new ones. This isn't the first time they have done this but it was the longest episode by far. It is scary waking up to that and I am just so thankful it wasn't a fire to wake up too. It is just as bad when the dogs start barking in the middle of the night to be startled awake like that not knowing what is going on. It is always in the middle of the night - never during the day when these things happen.

 

[kellydizfan]

We have a friend whos husband is an electrician/plumber and he is coming over to look at them. They were all going off so I am guessing a short somewhere and that they need to be replaced.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

I would definitely get them looked at. Our house was hit by lightning while we were at Disney last summer, the lightning shorted out the detectors, blew up a floodlight and blew a hole in our bathroom wall when it surged through the plumbing.
It's better to be safe than sorry.

 

[quentina]

Change the batteries in all of them....it will stop. If one battery is low, they will all beep.

 

[kellydizfan]

Batteries were replaced and now we will be replacing all the smoke detectors this week as per an Electrician friend who came over to look at them.

 

[telephoneman66]

this happens ALL the time. Many of the detectors will "expire" and the internal circuitry will cause them to go off or chirp constantly when that happens. Changing the battery doesn't solve the problem, then that's exactly what's happened.

You can go to your local BIG BOX home center and buy a detector that has a univeral adapter plug kit, so no electrician necessary and replace them yourself. You don't even have to find and trip the circuit breaker to change it out.

Take it down by twisting it counter clockwise and unplug it from the wire behind it. Then put the matching plug from the box on the new detector, plug it back in and good to go. You may need a screw driver and have to take down and put up the mounting bracket if the slots on the new detector don't match the old one, but often that isn't even necessary.

I get 1 or 2 of these calls every few months.

 

[Monte Cristo]

I dealt with this exact problem last year...house was built in 2004. I called the manufacturer and they told me to blow them clean. I did that...didn't help. The detectors only went off in the middle of the night....numerous times. Finally I got so fed up with it, I told our handy man friend to just come in and replace them all. No need for an electrician (in my humble opinion, we were away on vacation when I asked him to do it). Since we replaced them, they haven't woken us up again.

Edited to add: We changed the batteries a couple times to rule this out...in our case it clearly wasn't the batteries.

 

[Monte Cristo]

this happens ALL the time. Many of the detectors will "expire" and the internal circuitry will cause them to go off or chirp constantly when that happens. Changing the battery doesn't solve the problem, then that's exactly what's happened.

You can go to your local BIG BOX home center and buy a detector that has a univeral adapter plug kit, so no electrician necessary and replace them yourself. You don't even have to find and trip the circuit breaker to change it out.

Take it down by twisting it counter clockwise and unplug it from the wire behind it. Then put the matching plug from the box on the new detector, plug it back in and good to go. You may need a screw driver and have to take down and put up the mounting bracket if the slots on the new detector don't match the old one, but often that isn't even necessary.

I get 1 or 2 of these calls every few months.

Bingo, ignore my previous post and just read this.

 

[Geoff_M]

We had the same problem a few years ago. I disconnected the power cables to them and let the run on batteries. This prevented them from setting each other off and I'd be able to isolate the culprit when it went off. It turned out two of them went bad several years before their expiration date... So we just replaced them and they've been fine ever since.