I have 7 smoke detectors hard wired together, and I put in new batteries a few months ago. Just today I started to get a "chirp" about once a minute.
I have a question..... if one battery is dead, do they all chirp? Or only the one that is dead? I hate to run out and buy 7 batteries.
I swear they are ALL chirping, but they are throughout the whole house, so it's hard to tell.
Most likely a dead battery. If they're all the same brand, they'll probably all go soon.
It's very hard for me to tell which one is chirping, but really only one is going off.
Ken
snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (KenKM) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mb-m15.aol.com:
I wonder if using 9V *lithium* batteries would be better? Costs more,but considering it's your safety....
Curious what you mean by "hard wired together" for battery operated smoke detectors, and whether it was per instructions for those units, or something you did on your own?
Normally just the one(s) with bad battery would chirp, but without knowing what you wired together, it is possible that one bad battery dragged them all down.
It probably _is_ a battery. I have 4 "hard wired" units in my home, all have a 9V battery in case of an AC failure.
When a battery gets low, I get a low volume chirp at approximately one minute intervals. If I don't change the battery in a reasonable amount of time, the chirps get louder. When one goes bad, I break down and change all four, as the others usually aren't far behind.
I would not call an electrician or alarm tech until I had changed all
7 batteries.Barry
[snip]
The same thing happened to us in our vacation rental. Each level had a set of interconnected smoke alarms.
The lower level circuit was beeping. I changed out all the batteries, no sale.
While waiting for the service guy I simply disconnected all the interconnects. One head was bad.
Change out all the batteries first, but I think you'll find "Detector" is right. If you can find one, buy a new alarm of the same make/model and and swap it out with each of the existing alarms to find out which one is bad.
Marc When they're wire
Try BJs or Sam's Club. They have good Duracell or Energizer batteries. Well worth the safety. Put a sticker on each of the batts, and write on the install date.
Even myself, used to be a volunteer fireman, I'm amazed how seldom I change my smoke detector batteries.
It could be just one battery (some are already down when you buy them). Unless you have had lots of power outages, your back up batteries should last a long time. Duracell or Energizer batteries will last for 2-3 years depending on the detector even in straight battery operated smoke detectors. If you have a voltmeter check each battery and if the voltage is significantly down, replace it (the last 9 volt battery I changed when it started to beep read 7 volts). If you don't have a voltmeter, buy 1 new battery and replace it sequentially in each detector and monitor for 4-5 minutes for a beep before moving on to the next detector. You might get lucky and find the bad battery on the first dectector.
As other's have suggested, it may actually be a detector, but check the batteries first.
Bill wrote:
wrote
We have several smoke detectors, and when one of them started beeping due to low battery it was difficult to figure out which one it was, in part because of my poor hearing. I finally made up a long tube from stiff paper, held it up to my ear and pointed it at each alarm. It was easy to tell which one it was.
I too would like to know more about how these smoke detectors are all wired up together.
I sure hope the OP will follow up our two questions with some info!
David
They are wired to the house current, (in series(?)), as they have been required for many years, in the US. Each one also has a battery back-up. What's the difficulty in figuring that out? No sarcasim intended.
If it's BEEBING, then change the pattery.
My house came with two smoke detectors installed. They each had a wire that had not been used that was tagged as for use in connecting all detectors together. It seems that if installed during initial construction it is possible to have all detectors sound the alarm if any one goes off. This would be a good thing in a large or multistory house where some detectors are far away from, for instance, sleeping quarters. In my situation, a single story structure, I can see where that feature is less likely to be needed.
Charlie
Remember the ashes that hit the floor might be YOU !!!!!!
When was that code effective? The house was built about six years ago
Charlie
Don't know. NFPA 72, which details fire alarm systems, is updated every three years. My house was built in '99, most likely under the '96 code, and not only are the detectors interconnected, but, as required, they are also in each bedroom.
I may have been a little quick on the gun when I said the inspector blew it, because these codes, along with other building codes, have to be adopted by the governing agency (town, city, state, whatever).
They need to operate within parameters laid down in alarm manual regards the RH [Relative Humidity] & min/max temperatures.
Look at the manuals on this site; they are UK 230 Volts, but RH/temperature limits are same as for US models to UL 217 Standard. Temperatures are in celcius & farenheit you'll be glad to hear!!
Go to Manuals. They are in pdf format.
If moisture is the problem you may need to consider Heat Alarm which is designed for such environments eg Kitchens/Boiler Rooms/Drying Rooms etc Goes off when temp reaches 132deg F[57 c]
Good luck
I'll tell the in-laws & we'll look for those. Thanks for the help.
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