Smoke Detector ?

I recently removed a smoke detector to patch a hole and paint the small area that needed painting. When I reinstalled the detector (120 VAC, battery backup) it started chirping. I opened the battery compartment to find no battery. I have been in this house since March and this detector has never made a sound before this.

I then checked the AC connections (advice from a friend) and found the detector's wires needed more insulation stripped, which I did, and reconnected. Still the chirping. I put a battery in and the chirping stopped.

Question: Why would the detector suddenly start chirping (assuming the cause was no battery) after I removed and replaced it when it didn't do that before, when it had no battery?

Reply to
nr
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I would not mess with it. Toss it out and get a new one.

Reply to
robson

Only the manufacturer can tell you. Since this is a mains SD with battery backup, that feature may have been designed to cope with power outages: so if there was no power outage there was no occasion for it to send the Dead Battery signal.

The manufacturer can also tell you the probable service life of the unit. This is determined by the radioactive elements it uses, which last for 3 to 10 years. In Canadian units, SDs chirp when the radioactive detectors become weak as well as when batteries are about to expire.

Reply to
Don Phillipson

Ditto. It's not working right.

Dave

Reply to
Dave

Hmm. Just a guess:

It needed a new battery (obviously). The AC connections didn't provide power to drive the chirper, but you fixed that.

Further guess: Sometime in the remote past, it began complaining that its food was running low. The then-current resident removed the battery. More plaintive wails from the detector. The resident, thinking "Die, motherfarker" yanked on the ac power enough to quiet the noise.

Reply to
HeyBub

How old is it? Have you lived there as long as it has been there?

My guess would be that it did chirp and you did not own the house, or you were not there at the time and once the battery got low enough the chirping stopped.

If it is more than five years old, I certainly would replace it. They tend to get old and less sensitive and reliable. I would also replace others that are older than about five years.

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

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