According to ads on telly, smoke alarm batteries should be changed annually. We've got three wired-in alarms installed as part of a loft conversion a year ago and I think I've changed the batteries on each of them 2 or three times. Is this usual?
Also, one of them recently started going off for no reason that I could tell. Are they particularly susceptible to dust? It is fairly dusty in that part of the house as there's still a lot of bare plaster around.
Yes, they are indeed susceptible to dust. The smoke alarms in our house often start beeping ominously if I am doing any DIY that raises any sort of dust, even in quite modest amounts. However, I have had the odd faulty alarm that would go off for no reason.
The advice to change batteries annually is, in my opinion, based on a 'standard' 9v battery. The best alkalines will last far far longer than the cheapest, and as I only use the best I find that they are still fine after two years in all the smoke alarms I have used here and in my previous house, at which point I do change them. I also check them at least every 6 months, for voltage on-load while carrying out the alarm's self-test.
However, as I am sure people will point out, it is better to 'risk' throwing away a perfectly good battery, than to risk being burned alive!
HTH
Rick
Doesn't hurt to give them a hoover out every couple of months.
Good idea - I just found a mummified fly in one of mine!
Rick
Don't all (battery) smoke alarms have a "low battery" warning beep? Thought it was part of the approvals.
All the ones I've ever had do, and the beep tends to be linked to the sun, meaning it goes off at night, just when you've been asleep for a couple of hours and waking up will be most detrimental to your continued good rest.
Thanks for all the advice.
Paddy (off to dyson the alarms...)
In fact linked to the battery voltage that falls with temperature.
Well, it's actually linked to temperature. As the temperature falls in the night, so does the battery output, since it is a chemical process, and at some point the battery output falls below the setpoint & trips the irritating pipping noise. Of course, in the daytime, when it's warmer and you're inclined to replace the battery, it stops.
Hi,
A lithium battery in a smoke alarm should be good for 5 to 10 years. Are they powered from the mains too or just connected together?
cheers, Pete.
Trigger voltage for low batty beep = 7.4v, and temperatures drop in small hours as posted elsewhere.
The alarms should be vacuumed regularly to prevent dust build up which will make over sensitive.
If youve lost the manuals d/load from
under d/loads. Though specific to Kidde advice is sound for most.
You found 'a' mummified fly? If I looked in all the light fittings and similar things in our house I'd find thousands of dead flies, surely people don't really worry about the odd one in a smoke alarm.
On 24 May 2004 08:35:54 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@isbd.co.uk strung together this:
No they don't, that's why they get burned alive.
You mean the smoke alarm won't work when there's a dead fly in it? If so I may as well give up before I start where smoke alarms are concerned. Strangely enough there tend to be quite a few flying beasties (of the six legged variety) in our part of the country and since we often have the doors open for quite considerable periods (i.e. last week-end) lots of them get into the house.
Should do 10, which is also about the time you should change the whole alarm. Some smoke alarms with lithium batteries are not intended to be able to replace the battery for this reason. My oldest smoke alarms are just at 10 years now...
On 24 May 2004 13:51:55 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@isbd.co.uk strung together this:
Yes, if it's in the right place. I was more meaning that if there's one in it then it's probably not being serviced\maintained adequately, but from your response it could be the fact that there are lots of them. Either way, they are more likely to work better without flies in them!
SEE
If they don't get exposed to tobacco smoke or cooking fumes then blowing any dust out might be OK, I can't see any other way the sensors might get degraded.
cheers, Pete.
Whats the half life of Americium 241? 432 years ah...
So very little change in radiation level over 10 years. Is it just "we don't know how long these things will last so replace it every 10 years to be safe"?
Maybe the makers give an MTBF of 10 years, so some well intentioned interprets that they need replacing after then!
Anyone had a smoke alarm fail other than through dust buildup?
cheers, Pete.
On Wed, 26 May 2004 22:17:11 +0100, Pete C strung together this:
Yep, I had a job where one had failed because someone battered the crap out of it with a broom handle because it was bleepiing. The reason it was bleeping was because the lighting fuse, with which the circuit was shared, had blown!
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