Smoke alarms going off without smoke

[BaymaxFan78]

Ok really weird question but does anybody out there know if a piece of spray foam insulation falling on a smoke detector cause it to go off? We have AC/ battery powered alarms and all are connected together. About 20 minutes ago they all went off. I managed to find out the first alarm to go off was the one in the attic (we have a pretty big attic and there are 2 up there) and silenced it. After I stopped it the initial one would beep once every few seconds and now it stopped. We checked the entire house, entire attic, everything. But there is no smoke anywhere. I did see a piece of insulation was laying next to it and it looks like it fell off from above the alarm. I'm praying this was the cause. We had a house fire 8 years ago and this really shook me up.

 

[low-key]

this is why you should always remove the batteries

 

[BaymaxFan78]

this is why you should always remove the batteries

they wont shut up If you take the battery out.

 

[low-key]

they wont shut up If you take the battery out.

they got ya coming and going

 

[kdonnel]

Smoke detectors have a useful life and should be replaced when expired. There will be an expiration date printed on the smoke detector. Check to see if yours are due for replacement. Many are good for 10 years since date of manufacture.

Mine started chirping. I had to replace them to get them to stop randomly chirping.

 

[disneychrista]

The one we are supposed to have in the kitchen would off whenever the oven door is opened. We tried moving it but the kitchen is pretty small.

 

[stsomewhere]

Most smoke detectors are good for 10 years. One of our friends is a fire fighter and he recommends changing them every 5 years

 

[Sjm9911]

Check the dates . 10 years is now max on any smoke detector, co is 8. They also go bad. But first , as you did ,find the one that went off and check to see if any thing is wrong. If insulation fell it could have caused dust to activate the detector. But now you have to find out why the insulation fell. As long as you checked for smoke , heat, water and checked back a while later for the same you should be good. Always change the battery 2x a year. The 9 volt detectors are being phased out for the 10 year ones, this doesn't effect the hardwire batter back up stuff.

 

[Sjm9911]

The one we are supposed to have in the kitchen would off whenever the oven door is opened. We tried moving it but the kitchen is pretty small.

You can put it on a wall, so the air flow will not activate it ( away from the door window), or get a diffent kind. Or better yet put it outside the kitchen! Just follow the manufacturers directions.

 

[DisLiss]

Is it very humid in your attic these days? Very high humidity can sometimes set off alarms.

 

[disneychrista]

You can put it on a wall, so the air flow will not activate it ( away from the door window), or get a diffent kind. Or better yet put it outside the kitchen! Just follow the manufacturers directions.

We have moved it around and it has happened with two different ones. It is now around the corner .

 

[BaymaxFan78]

Thank you all. My house is built on the site of the old house. The house itself is only 7 years old, but our contractor (who really messed up everything, long story) gave us these contractor grade first alert alarms and they started "malfunctioning" giving us no choice but to replace them. The malfunctioning started about 2 years ago and eventually we decided to replace all of the alarms with first alert branded ones, around the beginning of this year. They are supposed to last 10 years without a battery change, let's see. Anyways, I dont think battery is the issue. They did the 3 chirp repeat thing, not the one chirp every 45 seconds.

 

[Sjm9911]

On the bottem of the alarm it will say what the code means. They do malfuntion.

 

[Sjm9911]

Truthfully, the old ones work well, its tried and true technology. New ones have more problems. Disclamer , i sort of do this for a living. If its not working , replace it or try to figure out why it dosent work. Especially if your getting multiple false alarms .

 

[nkereina]

Agree with PPs that it could be a malfunction. Our house is new construction and we had to replace all of our smoke detectors around year 7. They all started to die/malfunction within about 6 months of each other, ironically. I had the booklets that came with them, but I was also able to google the chirping noise with the name of the manufacturer which helped me determine it was a malfunction rather than an emergency or low battery.

About 3 months ago, we had the smoke detector go off in the middle of the night. It was the real alarm, not a weird chirping. Scared the heck out of us! In the middle of us trying to gather our thoughts realizing what was happening, it shut off. We never did figure out what set it off, but the next morning, we found a crane fly (long skinny thing) hanging around our ceiling lights. We think it may have been drawn to the light flashing on the smoke detector during the night and set it off. I read several instances online where a bug getting inside one can do that. So, if its not a malfunction, perhaps the insulation or even a bug got inside it somehow.

 

[Kennywood]

When I was a kid and the smoke alarm would go off in the kitchen, we'd all yell, "Supper's ready!!" Lol

 

[tvguy]

Dust can set them off.

Mine went off once and I watched a spider crawl out of the ionization chamber. Likely a deaf spider.

 

[Party.Of.4-NY>>>FL]

Ok really weird question but does anybody out there know if a piece of spray foam insulation falling on a smoke detector cause it to go off? We have AC/ battery powered alarms and all are connected together. About 20 minutes ago they all went off. I managed to find out the first alarm to go off was the one in the attic (we have a pretty big attic and there are 2 up there) and silenced it. After I stopped it the initial one would beep once every few seconds and now it stopped. We checked the entire house, entire attic, everything. But there is no smoke anywhere. I did see a piece of insulation was laying next to it and it looks like it fell off from above the alarm. I'm praying this was the cause. We had a house fire 8 years ago and this really shook me up.

Are they combo smoke/carbon monoxide alarms? You’ve probably already ruled this out, but maybe it’s a carbon monoxide issue?

 

[BaymaxFan78]

Dust can set them off.

Mine went off once and I watched a spider crawl out of the ionization chamber. Likely a deaf spider.

We surprisingly don't have bugs in the attic. But I have noticed very small cobwebs that seem like a spider tried to live but he died without food. Maybe one got in the alarm.

Are they combo smoke/carbon monoxide alarms? You’ve probably already ruled this out, but maybe it’s a carbon monoxide issue?

There was one in the attic, but we bought the wrong replacement so its just a smoke. There are 3 CO alarms in the actual house. But none of them were the origin alarm.

 

[Pooh2]

Last weekend, our smoke detector kept going off randomly.
We changed the batteries, it still was going off.
We bought a new one. All is good.
But this is just a $40 one from HD, not a system.