Smoke alarm goes off when it's cold (?)

[Roger]

Hi all, I like to heat only the rooms we spend time in during the winter with space heaters. Now that it's getting colder I have the problem of the household smoke detecters going off at night. It only happens in the colder months. Anyone know why this is?

Thanks, Rog

[The Real Tom]

This what I was TOLD to prevent such a problem you are having.

If you have ionizing types:

1. Check batteries. Voltage drops with temperature.
2. Check age on smoke detectors(as they get older they ionize less and less, so the sensing chamber drops faster with any type of dust/smoke/humidity). NFPA recommends replace every 10 years, but I was told replace at end of warranty period(some 5 years) under harsh conditions, since the company only guarantees it's function in the warranty period.
3. Check for improper installation, if they are in colder rooms the air gets denser than the smoke detectors were 'designed' for. Meaning air at normal room temperature(68-75F) is less dense than air at 40F. Dense air can appear like less-dense air with smoke in it. So this creates for a false alarms.

Solutions I was given.....change over to photo-electric if I want to use a POC (Products of Combustion) detector, or change over to a heat based detector(fixed/rate of rise, depending on your installation needs).

VERY IMPORTANT: Do not disable your current detectors, till you are ready to install replacements. Better to have an over sensitive detector than none.

I highly recommend you contact your fire company, they usually do a free fire safety audit, and might have someone on staff(or could recommend one) that is qualified to help you plan out your home's fire alarms.

hth,

tom @

[katykat]

replying to The Real Tom, katykat wrote: I had the fire chief in my town tell me it's because the room is warm and above the smoke detector is cold. My detectors are hard wired to the ceiling. He told me to unscrew them and let them hang when it's cold outside. I found if I run my ceiling fan on low this also helps.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Given the price of smoke detectors, I have a simple solution. If one goes off, they all go off but if you cannot narrow it down, you know what to do.

[micky]

Good point. I just told, further down, a story about one neighbor. but

25 years ago there was another neibhgor, whose smoke alarm kept beeping. He said that he took it to be repaired (although I don't know who repaired them, then or now.) and while it was out, he had a fire.

It turned out something was smouldering**, maybe a cigarette in a sofa?, and finally caught fire.

Beeping and chirping are not the same, but maybe the OP should get a totally separtate smoke alarm and see what it has to say. While he still has the chirping one.

[Wade Garrett]

I've been especially disappointed with the Kidde 10 year smoke detectors. Best one I had lasted about 6 years, worst was 9 months. They start going off for no reason.

Before Carrier acquired Kidde, a call or email to customer service got you a new one via FedEx in short order. Way, way back, they asked you to put their return label on the old one so their Quality Control could see what the problem was.

Last few years, they no longer ask for return of the old one. My theory on that is that they know the alarms are crap.

Since Carrier bought Kidde, it takes multiple requests until they get around to sending a new one- usually months later while you are without a smoke alarm on that level of your house.

I've started replacing the Kidde ones with First Alert brand. Hopefully, they're better...