Smoke alarm scare this AM...

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nola mike

Minister of Fire
Sep 13, 2010
928
Richmond/Montross, Virginia
So we're spending a few days at the river. I was pleased that I was able to get the house up from 40'-->68' within 5 or so hours with outside temps of 17' when I got there (that's pretty darn cold for VA). This morning, awoke at 06:30 to the sound of the smoke detector in my 15 month old's room. I ran into the room, and was confused as to what exactly was going off. Didn't smell smoke, so initially assumed it was the CO detector. It was registering 0. Weird thing was, there's another smoke detector probably 6 feet from the alarming one in the hallway. His door was open and that one wasn't going off. I hadn't loaded the insert since about 6p the night before; it was cold enough that the blower had shut off. Anyway, I was still freaked out, and nobody was going back to sleep at that point. Later on, I put the battery back in and a few minutes later it started alarming again. The battery is a bit weak (didn't have a replacement 9v handy), but usually they just chirp when weak. Has anyone had an alarm malfunction like that? The manufacture date on the alarm is 2008, FWIW...
 
Test the alarm that was not going off. If it tests good, place that in your sons room and see if it alarms. You could have a faulty detector.
 
I have had similar issues even after replacing the battery.
How I solved my issue was to clean the smoke alarm.
Inside there was dust buildup that was causing it to malfunction.
 
Could be several things . . . if there was actual smoke I would have guessed that the reason the one detector did not activate was due to its location, lack of power, age, malfunction, two different types of detectors (photo electric vs. ionization), etc. . . .

But in this case the issue seems to not be with the detector that did not activate (since you report no smoke or any other detectors going off) . . . I suspect this could be a time when you might want to do as MM said and clean the smoke detector with a vacuum (especially if it is a photo-electric style detector) and/or replace it.

Incidentally, the only true way to test the entire smoke detector is with a can of "canned smoke" that you can sometimes purchase at the big box hardware stores . . . simply pressing the test button on most smoke detectors only tests that there is a power source to the unit and the audible/visual alarm (if present) works . . . it doesn't test the sensor unit.
 
Surprised no one else has said this, but if you bring a room from 40F - 70F in a few hours, there will be condensation on a lot of things. If there is any condensations on the sensor in the smoke detector, it will go off. I've had this happen before when I was in an apartment that had a detector in an unheated hall area - pain in the butt.
 
MishMouse said:
I have had similar issues even after replacing the battery.
How I solved my issue was to clean the smoke alarm.
Inside there was dust buildup that was causing it to malfunction.

+1 Plus moisture condensation can cause this or a disgruntled and now deaf spider can do this..

Ray
 
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