What the...Heater making smoke detector go off?!?!

[2angelsinheaven]

I'm so confused! It's freezing here, yes freezing in Florida...in the 20's. We got home from work tonight and put the heater on after about 10 minutes our smoke detector went off! No smoke, no fire, nothing... just stinky as obviously we never use the heat here in Florida. The heater is in the kitchen and the smoke detector is in the living room. There isn't even an air vent near the alarm, I'm so confused. I'm soooooo cold but obviously I can't sleep with it going off and I'm afraid to disable it incase something does happen. Any ideas?

 

[ToasterWaffle]

I feel for you. I just went through this exact scenario. I live in Arizona so I understand the rarely used heat!

Saturday morning our heat going on triggered the smoke detectors. I didn't see or smell anything other than the usual heater stink. I ran to Home Depot and bought new ones, then installed one and it immediately went off. I gave up at that point. So we were chilly for a couple of days then called an electrician and a heating company Monday.

How old is your smoke detector? After the electrician replaced all seven, the heat didn't cause them to go off anymore.

The heating repair guy was out today and couldn't find anything wrong with the heater at all. He said that the problem isn't unheard of with a new or rarely used heater.

Can you run to a twenty-four hour WalMart and get a couple of new smoke detectors and batteries? Then you can take the current one down, run the heat for a while and still be protected so you can sleep?

 

[DisnyMama]

This happens to us every year. We turn on the heat (central electric heat) and the smoke detector in the loft directly in front of the attic door (heating unit is in attic) goes off. The heater is burning off the dust from over the summer. This is only the second year living in this house and it is new construction so the unit is only a couple years old. Last year I just waved a peice of cardboard in front of the smoke detecter till it finally stopped. This year in November I had my DS go up in the attic and vacume all over and around the unit and that seemed to help. I know a lot of people have their heating units professionally cleaned every year around this time to get rid of the dust.

 

[Sandy321]

suburb of Chicago here - its 5 deg F - w/o wind chill - so its a bit nippy!! BUT if I but on a space heater - it blows the fuses! Extra blankets sitting on the couch!!

Take heart, it will warm up in 24 hours!! (not that I'm obsessing or anything!! Half Marathon WDW... )

 

[goofyernmost]

Everything mentioned before is probably correct but just for giggles check to be sure that the alarm is a smoke alarm and not a carbon monoxide alarm.

As I said, it probably isn't but certainly worth a check. If it is a cm alarm then turn off the heater and call someone. You didn't say if it was electric or not. If it is electric then it's not cm. If it is fuel fired then check it out.

You may be burning off dust, cobwebs, spiders and other insects. You might not see smoke but the particles in the air the a smoke alarm senses may be present.

 

[mannasn]

Yeah, I hate that stinky first-heat-of-the-winter smell!

 

[kaw1218]

Our house is newly built and we have hard wired smoke detectors. They are also heat detectors.

So when we turn on our heat..they will go off. It's also because we wait until we are freezing before we turn the heat on. So the room temp changes drastically causing the detectors to go off.

After about 3 or so minutes, the room temp adjusts enough for them to go off.

We called our electrician when this first happened. He asked me if I knew that heat rises.

 

[2angelsinheaven]

LOL...it's working this morning without the detector going off. We switched the ceiling fan to push down and so far so good, fingers crossed. It was 50 something in here last night...brrr!

 

[KatelynnsAuntie]

After I take a shower, the steam makes my smoke detector go off. I have to keep the door to the bathroom closed for around an hour after I'm done. It's crazy!