Wired smoke detectors

3,436 Views | 23 Replies | Last: 4 yr ago by Dr. Doctor
babyshark
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3am wakeup from hell as all 9 smoke detectors and the house alarm goes off. Smith Thompson couldn't disengage the alarm bc the offending detector was an original and not a monitored one.

No idea what set them off and the neighborhood wakeup continued until I'd pulled the last of Satan's helpers off the ceiling.

They have a date of 2005 on them. What should I replace them with? Cost is no issue to avoid the 3am hell's awakening and then dealing with crying babies until 5.

Also can a Smith Thompson alarm be turned down from 11 to 9.99? My ears are still ringing from that S.
rlb28
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AG
I just can't imagine having 9 smoke detectors.
Rockdoc
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I truly hate wired detectors. They're evil.
03_Aggie
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rlb28 said:

I just can't imagine having 9 smoke detectors.


We have 9 and two are in the attic.

I forget the specific model number but we have kidde smoke/CO2 alarms. While that all blink when the go off, the offending alarm is supposed to blink a red light. They also have a silencing feature that gives you a short period of time to try and find the offending alarm. That said, I'm not sure either feature still works (or I need to brush up on how the silence feature is activated because it failed last round 3am false alarms).
babyshark
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Well hell. Bad day for me to complain about this...this is my aunt's house

https://dfwscanner.net/2019/08/22/firefighters-control-house-fire-in-the-colony-injuries-reported/
bdgol07
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I absolutely HATE our wired system. They ONLY go off in the middle of the night and with our vaulted ceilings, I have to go to the shed and get a ladder to "hush" them and then hope they actually stay in hush mode, of course, it is only the kids' rooms that this happens. Anytime the power goes out, it takes about 1 hr of decoding the proper sequence to get them to stop beeping. Couple that with the fact that they are not connected to our alarm system, it is totally worthless to have wired vs 9v battery powered.

I am about to disconnect the wired ones and install battery powered ones in their place
Rockdoc
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Yep I'm about to do the same thing. Rip down the wired ones and replace with battery ones. Maybe I can find some that will screw into the old faceplates.
JP76
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Smoke detectors have a lifespan of 10 years if you read the label on the back of them. The closer you get to that the higher chance you will have of nuisance tripping. This is usually caused by dust build up over the years in them.
BrazosDog02
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Mine are wired with backups. I did mine and I put them on a dedicated circuit. That way, I can rip out batteries and kill the breaker and worry about it tomorrow. 11 detectors here, 9 are hardwired and y'all to each other. One gets all the other riled up....3:45am screamers.
sleepybeagle
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I wonder how many people have died falling off ladders or having a heart-attack from being so pissed off at 4am trying to fix a beeping smoke detector!
AgResearch
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JP76 said:

Smoke detectors have a lifespan of 10 years if you read the label on the back of them. The closer you get to that the higher chance you will have of nuisance tripping. This is usually caused by dust build up over the years in them.
It's actually caused by the decay of a radioactive isotope used in the detection system when approaching the useful lifespan.

Dust is the cause of random trips when not near the 10 year lifespan. I pull all mine down at 6 months to blow with compressed air and replace batteries at the 12 month mark.
Aggietaco
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AG
Depends on the type of detector, only the ionization alarms function with the isotope. But both types are only good for 10 years and should be vacuumed or dusted every 3-6 months.

Hard wired alarms are required by code in most major areas these days and are especially useful in larger and two-story homes where you may not notice an alarm in a remote part of your house.

If you're willing to fork out some big money every 10 years, the nest alarms can at least be silenced remotely (plus the hard wired units have a handy motion activated night light).
leathal02
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Technically there are two types of residential smoke detectors. Hardwired 120 volt with the back up battery are local only. They are hit and miss as far as longevity. Some will last 4-5 years some barely make it a year. The other type are the hardwired versions that tie into an alarm system. Typically these are of a commercial version and are much more reliable. Like previous they are 10 year then replace .
lazuras_dc
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Had the same thing happen a few years ago during the evening and it was definitely a WTF moment. Can't imagine middle of the night. I flipped the breaker to turn them all off. Had to get them all replaced at about 6 years old.
JSKolache
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I have 8, have replaced 6 since moving in (they were originals, appx 11 yrs old.) Seems like overkill to me.
flown-the-coop
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AG
It seems widely unknown that smoke detectors require maintenance other than battery and become essentially non-functional after 10 years. Believe most all now whether wired with battery backup or battery-only have non-replaceable 10-year batteries.

I went through about 4 years ago on our now 20 year-old house and replaced all the hard-wired ones, using onelink nest types in our bedroom and kid's room, then adding a CO plus smoke to one by garage door. Added a couple of non hardwired to den and dining rooms which were adjacent to kitchen but had no alarms as not required.

Having the smart alarms in at least one room allows you to test the system with an app and make sure all the alarms are talking to each other. Great way to rile the dogs up and piss your wife off early in the morning.

Now I had a separate issue last night, but somewhat related. We had an ADT system upgrade about 3-4 years ago and they "had" to put in one smoke alarm to talk to their system. Its not wired to the others and is battery-only... 3 AAA batteries. Those went low last night and started chirping and also made the alarm system chime an alert. No big deal.

But somehow, it managed to turn off the ecobee thermostat for the main AC. I do not recall ever telling ADT and ecobee to communicate. Anyone else had this happen? When we replaced battery ADT system had a fit again when new batteries were put in, and again it turned off the thermostat. I can only postulate that since both are connected to Alexa that there is something in that app that caused it.
Kenneth_2003
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Btw... when shopping for detectors look for convo units that are BOTH ionizing and photovoltaic. They detect different types of fires. An ionizing detects flickering flames long before it'll detect a slow smokey smouldering fire, and vice versa for a photovoltaic unit.
MaroonBloodedAg2010
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If money is no issue, I'd recommend Nest Protect. They pick up smoke/fire/CO2 and have different levels of alarms based on the level of emergency. They also have a cool path light feature, meaning when it's dark with all the lights off, they will glow when they sense motion, giving you just enough light to make it to the bathroom or light switch without running into stuff or blinding yourself. They sync with each other as well as your phone, so as long as your WiFi is still running, you'll get alerts on your phone. If WiFi gets taken out, they still communicate with each other so set all alarms off if needed. It also runs self checks every 200 seconds to check its power supply, backup battery, and sensors, along with monthly alarm tests.They make a wired version with backup batteries, or a wireless battery only version.

You can also set it to notify up to 19 other people to alert if there is an alarm. So it will automatically alert family/friends/neighbors or whoever you want to notify that may be able to get pets out or check it out.

Downside is they are expensive. You'd have to drop about $1k to replace 9 smoke detectors, so it's a pretty significant investment.
DannyDuberstein
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Yes, the only thing better than being woken up by a false alarm is ensuring 19 of your closest relatives and friends are awoken too.
MaroonBloodedAg2010
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Haven't had any false alarms in over a year with 6 of them in my house. If you're paranoid about false alarm notifications, you don't have to add other people to get notified. Or just add a select couple people. Me personally, I like having my neighbor, a good friend who happens to work an opposite schedule than me, get a notification if there is a fire at my house. I'd rather have a false alarm go to him, if one ever happens, than my dogs burn up if there happens to be a fire.
OldArmyBrent
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If one were to replace the load center in the garage, and that person had just put battery powered non-interconnected smoke detectors in all bedrooms and common areas and the kitchen, would the electrician pulling the permit and doing the work have to run new 120 volt smoke detectors everywhere?

City won't let you do that work yourself and I was told by one electrician that if he didn't see smoke detectors in all the right places, he'd have to add the 120 volt ones to get it up to code when he replaced the panel. Now I'm wondering if all my extra battery powered detectors were a waste.
MaroonBloodedAg2010
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Not sure if the electrician would be required to do it, but the Nest Protect detectors that I mentioned also have a battery only unit. If you are using Nest Protects throughout your home, you can use a combination of battery powered and wired units that all sync together and will meet code requirements.
Aust Ag
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Was going to post a new Post, but this looks like the "smoke alarm" thread.

Mine was doing a once-off beep at 3:30 in the morning for a couple of nights last week, sometimes it would beep every 2 minutes,,then after about 15 minutes it would stop alltogether. But that in that time, my terrier was up in our bed trembling from these beeps, high pitch sound freaks him out apparently.

So yesterday I replaced the battery..with an existing 9V I found in a drawer. Well, guess what happens at 3:30 this morning? Same damn thing, and dog jumps in bed. It did the "single-beep" a few more times in the middle of the night, then that was it.

Any ideas? Other than going to the store and buying a brand new battery? Just think it's weird that it goes off at the same time in the middle of the night.
DannyDuberstein
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Smoke detector battery alerts beep in the night because that is when your house is the coldest. As a battery gets weaker and to the borderline of setting off the alert, that dip in temp sends it below the line because the colder temps slow the chemical reaction that batteries use to create the electricity. So maybe your replacement battery was weak too so it's just coincidence, but if the 3rd time isn't the charm, then I'd replace the detector.
Dr. Doctor
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DannyDuberstein said:

Smoke detector battery alerts beep in the night because that is when your house is the coldest. As a battery gets weaker and to the borderline of setting off the alert, that dip in temp sends it below the line because the colder temps slow the chemical reaction that batteries use to create the electricity. So maybe your replacement battery was weak too so it's just coincidence, but if the 3rd time isn't the charm, then I'd replace the detector.
Also, try cleaning the detector. Canned air/vacuum combo.

I had issues at my first house with that after a couple of years (wired detectors, batteries 'original' and beeping at 2-3am).

Bought a box of industrial Energizer batteries of Amazon, replaced all batteries at the same time and blew out then vacuumed each detector. Didn't have an issue for the next 3 years (moved out, so can't give a timeframe for the turn-around time).

~egon
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