Smoke Alarms, help!

[cirquelover]

So my smoke alarms started ringing about midnight last night. I called my husband and he said remove the batteries and all would be well until he comes home. He was wrong!! It started again at 8AM. They have been going off whenever they seem to feel like it! Should this even be possible with no batteries?!?

I will be an insane, nervous wreck by the time he comes home this weekend if I can't firgure it out! If I was taller I think I'd be ripping them off the ceiling right now!

You wanna know the really sad part about this whole mess, the kid never even budged last night! Every smoke alarm in the house was ringing, even the one in his room. He never moved an inch! As a mother that scares the crap out of me!!

You should see the poor cats. They're even worse off than I am! I haven't seen the little one since breakfast and I doubt if she'll come out the rest of the day!

Thanks for letting me vent. Any advice would be welcome and I do mean any at this point!!

[BarTopDancer]

Sounds like they are also electrically wired.

Might want to check the circuit that they are connected to.

[Gemini Cricket]

Is it one of those fire alarms that's really electric and the batteries are only used as back up?

[cirquelover]

Sadly, I don't know the answer to either of those questions but I am looking for the owners manual now. They are the original smoke alarms that were installed when the house was built but it's only 7-8 years old. I wouldn't think they's be going this crazy!

[DreadPirateRoberts]

The last set of smoke alarms I bought had a "feature" where they would set themselves off after 7 or 8 years. The idea being that after that amount of time, they needed to be replaced anyway.

[swanie]

YES it is possible! Our hallway smoke detector started chirping in the middle of the night back in December. After replacing the batteries and having it still go off, we pulled it out of the ceiling. Well, that didn't slow it down either! What we discovered was that smoke detectors have roughly a 10 year life expectancy...and once they start to fail they'll go off randomly. After weeks of intermittent alarms, Mr. Swanie finally replaced all 6 detectors in our house and it solved the problem!

Can you post the make and model of your detectors? There was one manufacturer that seemed to have more problems than the others.

swanie

[cirquelover]

well, I got up on a step stool to check manufacturer and as soon as I touched it, it started screaming in my ears!! Aarghh

I guess I buy alarms and see if anyone I know can help me install them. Otherwise it will be a very loud and nerve frazzling week!

[Prudence]

There was a story about smoke alarms on the news this morning. There are apparently two types of alarms (http://www.komoradio.com/news/herb/13720097.html), and each is better at detecting a different type of fire - flaming or smoldering. I obviously haven't done any independent research, but this might be something to consider if you're going to be replacing them anyhow.

[swanie]

I can tell you that changing them out isn't hard at all. Mr. Swanie did it in about an hour.

The older, more "problematic" brand that we had was called "Lifesaver." They also go by the the brand name "Kidde." If you want a good laugh, read the product reviews for our old smoke detectors... http://www.amazon.com/Kidde-1275-Battery-Electric-Smoke/dp/B00002ND66/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=sporting-goods&qid=1201030266&sr=8-4

swanie

[Morrigoon]

Kidde makes fire extinguishers too.

I would check and make sure your alarms are not also carbon monoxide alarms. If they are, you might have something to worry about. But that's not *too* common yet, so they probably aren't. If you're replacing them though, you might want to get ones that do the carbon monoxide thing as well.

[Kevy Baby]

Here's a question no one has asked: are you sure your house isn't burning down?

[Morrigoon]

Here's a question no one has asked: are you sure your house isn't burning down?
I roll a spot check.... 14

[cirquelover]

Here's a question no one has asked: are you sure your house isn't burning down?

Well, then it's been burning very slowly for the last 12 hours. We'd have had plenty of time to evacuate!
I'm now researching fire alarms. The only thing I'm sure of is that I will go out of town to buy them. Walmart only sells the Kidde ones and they aren't getting goood reviews!

[Cadaverous Pallor]

I'd shut off your circuit breakers. I'd rather use candles and flashlights than stand that racket for more than 5 seconds.

[swanie]

We ended up getting USI Electric USI-5204 smoke detectors. I believe Mr. Swanie got a 6-pack of them at Home Depot. We haven't had a single problem with them since he changed them out on Christmas Eve.

The USI model that we have has a few nice features like a side slidding drawer for the battery so you don't have to pull the smoke detector off of the ceiling to change the battery. It also has a silencer button too.

swanie

[cirquelover]

Just shoot me now, PLEASE!

So I go out to the garage to get Z's lunch out of the freezer and it's not working either! So I go to the breaker box and start flipping all the switches(someone here had asked about them) since none have popped, nope that has no effect. Well I shouldn't say no effect Z freaks out and grabs a flashlight( Um, it's daytime), the computers all start buzzing( I know I should've turned them off), and all the clocks are flashing.

I finally got ahold of my brother and he sends me to all the electrical outlets that have these little red/black buttons and tells me to push them. Can you tell I'm really good with this stuff, not!

At least the freezer is working now and the fire alarms don't seem to have the little red light flashing every 90 seconds for the moment! So I can hope that my houses little hissy fit is over for now and my husband can deal with this when he gets home, lucky him!

Thanks for all the replies, at least it gave me somewhere to start!

I'm still researching to buy new ones though!

[DreadPirateRoberts]

So it sounds like you did have a partial power outage if the freezer wasn't working, and they were on the same circuit as the smoke detectors. The red/black buttons would be the test and reset buttons for the gfci (ground fault circuit interrupt) circuits. It's quite possible one of them tripped, and your pushing one of the red reset buttons fixed it. (all conjecture on my part of course).

[cirquelover]

Dammit! It's going off again!! My head hurts from all this noise!

[DreadPirateRoberts]

Is your freezer still working?

[cirquelover]

Yep! If I had any wits left I'd be nearing their end!

[cirquelover]

So the little red light on the smoke alarm in the bedroom is flashing again, about every 90 seconds. It seems to be the trouble maker, I just don't know why. I even tried wiping it off but to no avail. I thought about using the air in a can my husband has but I'm afraid the coldness would somehow trigger som adverse reaction!

[Prudence]

Somewhere in the reviews that were linked in this thread was a helpful hint on dealing with this - something about pressing and holding a particular button causing it to reset and stop making noise.

[katiesue]

If you have the model/make or users manual. Swanie found out from her debacle that the frequency of the flashing has different meanings.

[swanie]

There is a whole code to the lights flashing. If you have the manufacturer and model number, I'm sure you can find it online.

We had one smoke detector that seemed to cause all of our trouble too. What we discovered is that it was the primary smoke detector for all of the hard-wired smoke detectors in the house. It would sound because all of the other wires came into it.

We made ourselves crazy for a few weeks trying to eliminate all of the possible reasons why they kept going off. Ours would sound off long enough to wake us up between 2AM-4AM and then again around 8AM. There were some nights that they were quiet other nights they'd go off more than once.

I'd give the reset a try, but I wouldn't waste a lot of time on it. If it continues, I would just replace them.

swanie

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Dude, I'm telling you. Turn off all your power using the circuit breakers (turn off your computers first!!!). Eat your melting ice cream by flashlight. Get your husband to replace the alarms before you turn the power back on.

Just reading about your predicament is driving me bonkers.

[cirquelover]

I would but I can't live in the dark when it's going to be 14 degrees tonight and most of the week! Especially since he won't be home until Friday night at the earliest.

The sucky thing is it started again at 9PM, as soon as the boy was in bed. He wanted to know why it was doing that? I told him if I knew I'd certainly make it stop. I then apologized for being in a bad mood today.

If I can get some sleep, tomorrow I can start again with a clear head. I've left messages with everyone I know, so far no replies. I'm seriously contemplating letting the crazy Army special forces guy next door in to help. Except for the fact he scares the crap out of me and everything he touches seems to break or be jimmy rigged in some god awful fashion.

I think I'll have a drink and try to relax.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Oh, sorry, didn't realize your man wouldn't be back for so long.

Instead - cut the power (make SURE it's cut), pry at the smoke alarms until you see the thin wires, then cut said wires. Wrap the ends seperately in black electrical tape to avoid sparks. Turn your power back on. That should do it, right DPR?

[DreadPirateRoberts]

Oh, sorry, didn't realize your man wouldn't be back for so long.

Instead - cut the power (make SURE it's cut), pry at the smoke alarms until you see the thin wires, then cut said wires. Wrap the ends seperately in black electrical tape to avoid sparks. Turn your power back on. That should do it, right DPR?

Yep. Even cutting one wire would be enough. (unless there's some backup battery that's still in there that we don't know about, but that could be verified by turning off the power and verifying that the smoke alarms quit doing annoying things).

[cirquelover]

Well it's quiet so far this morning,crosses fingers. It was nice to get some sleep last night, so I can start with a clear head. For now I have unplugged anything new that has been added to any outlets. I have vacummed the alarms and tops of everything. Cleaned fans, heaters, vents and just about anything else I can think of.
The good news is when Gary called this morning, he said if it kept up he would declare a family emergency and come home to save me. He says it's not like burst pipes but keeping your wife sane was important too!

[Tref]

... They are the original smoke alarms that were installed when the house was built but it's only 7-8 years old.

You have second hand smoke alarms?