Smoke Alarms

[Brdofpray]

DW and I were awakened this morning with all 8 of our smoke alarms blaring! (Did I say we have 8 of them!)

Upon checking the entire house, inside and out, nothing is amiss. Each detector had the green light flashing, no red light. I know that with interconnected alarms, when one goes off, they all go off. I thought that the initial sensor, that was having an issue, would blink red. Not the case here.

All 8 alarms had their batterys replaced this spring, and are all just over ten years old. I suspect they have reached the end of their life span, and are just letting me know.

Other thoughts from those with more smoke alarm experience than I.

 

[CardsFan]

Every smoke detector I have bought has stated a 10 year life, not that I would expect them to shoot craps at 10 years and one month.

One is likely dirty or faulty. I would probably just replace them all.

 

[Jerry1]

Every smoke detector I have bought has stated a 10 year life, not that I would expect them to shoot craps at 10 years and one month.

One is likely dirty or faulty. I would probably just replace them all.

As stated, they are more than 10 years old. I wouldn’t think they would tell you this by going off but it is time to replace them.

Are you sure they’re not also carbon monoxide detectors as well? If you have the furnace on, maybe that needs checked too?

 

[Brdofpray]

Our monoxide detectors are stand alone units. Thanks for the thought.

 

[jazz4cash]

We went through this a month or so ago. Our 3 interconnected units started beeping individually within 24 hrs of each other. They did not blare. They beeped a specific code that indicates end of life (10 yrs). I think it was a short beep every 60 seconds with green lite flashing. This is the 2nd time we'ved replaced them and we've been in the home 20 years. I can't recall if they beeped at the 10 yr mark or maybe I just knew to replace them.

These are hard wired combo alarms (smoke and CO) and they have a verbal warning in addition to the siren (FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!).

I was not aware of any way to know which the detector sensed the threat, but that would be a great feature, especially for CO detection. I'll check my installation book which is a zillion pages long with tiny print in 4 languages. We paid about $45 per unit from Home Depot and they did not have them in stock at any of the local stores so waited 2 weeks for delivery.

I have not figured out how to dispose of the old units responsibly. The Mfr website says regular trash but everywhere else it say to treat as hazardous waste.

 

[Jerry1]

I have not figured out how to dispose of the old units responsibly. The Mfr website says regular trash but everywhere else it say to treat as hazardous waste.

I don't know how hazardous they actually are, but when our county has hazardous waste collection days, smoke detectors are always listed as one of the items they accept. Does your county/locality have hazardous waste collection days?

 

[N02L84ER]

We once had ours go off because a tiny spider built a tiny web in just the wrong location. We blew it out with an air hose and all was fine again.

 

[zinger1457]

Agree with the others that it's time to replace them if 10 years old. The First Alert smoke detectors I have are tied together and will all go off but the detector that triggered the alarm will show a latching light indicator so you know which one caused it. I've had my smoke detectors accidentally triggered by insects crawling inside and setting one off, not a bad idea to remove the covers once in awhile and vacuum them out.

 

[Z3Dreamer]

About six months ago, I had one go off letting me know it was end of life. Mine were 10 plus years old. I decided to replace all at once, and CO detectors, too. It was pretty easy as they were same exact replacements (same size and manufacturer). I think I replaced all units in about an hour or two.