Electronic Alarms and Home Security Devices - false alarm (smoke)

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cyras21
09-28-06, 07:52 PM
How would you like to wake up at 2am to your smoke alarms going off? That's what happened to me. No smoke but lots of alarms. They went off about 4 times that night and then again twice today. They are not part of any system and I don't think they are heat detectors either. They are hard wired with battery backup. any ideas of what's tripping them?

MrRonFL
09-28-06, 08:03 PM
Changes in temperature and humidity can cause moisture to condense in the sensing chamber on smoke detectors, especially ones that have accumulated dust. It sounds like your devices are interlinked like they should be. The only way to narrow it down is to disable them one by one. The most likely are the ones closest to bathrooms and exterior doors. Often giving all of the smokes a good dusting with a can of the compressed air sold for cleaning electronics will often solve the problem.

If your smoke detectors are more than 5-10 years old, you may be due for replacements (the sensing element breaks down with age).