Came home today to discover that my First Alert model FCD4 was acting strangely. Single chirp every minute or so. Looking closely at the display was the "err" message.
I'm guessing it is one of two factors. #1 being they are cheaply made and simply don't last more than a couple years. #2 being the sensor is dirty causing the error message. If so how does one clean it? Would compressed do?
AC operated? Therefore not low battery, like smoke alarm. Or is there a battery backup? Knowing nothing about them except we have one plugged in near the bedrooms for last few years would one have to careful about damaging something by too much of blast of say air?
That's usually a low battery condition.
Popped in fresh battery, same problem. Unit has a low batt message if the battery runs low. Unit itself is AC powered, battery backup.
Did you contact First Alert support? Did you RTFM? Always keep the manual. They know more about their product than I do.
Howdy,
I will add something to the other comments you have seen...
We had a similar problem (not with a CO, but with a smoke) and could not find the cause of the chirp.
As it turns out, when these things are hard wired, they talk to each other, and the unit chirping was not the unit with the failed battery.
It took us quite a while to sort out, but you might want to consider that possibility.
All the best,
It might have drifted out of calibration. I wouldn't try air, just replace it.
According to the paperwork included in every smoke detector and CO detector sold in the US, there is a disclaimer that states there is a high failure rate among these products. In some cases up to 50%, but the jurisdiction involved dictates if they have to state the actual failure rate or merely say a "number" of these products can be expected to fail.
There are countless stories of these products going off after the FD has responded and the fire is out.
They're a crap shoot.
In the event of an actual fire, if there is any warning, a good plan saves more people than anything else. If harmful gases overcome people before they respond, the story turns the other way. There are different kinds of smoke and CO alerts out there, and their reliability is all over the map.
Good luck.
Steve
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