Every home should be equipped with different systems to help keep their residence nice and safe. Some systems are optional while others are mandatory. For example, it is not mandatory to have an alarm system installed on your home but it can certainly help keep your family safe. Smoke alarms however are mandatory. Smoke alarms help you keep your family safe if there is ever a fire in your home. Sometimes these mandatory smoke alarms can cause homeowners stress and anxiety when they do not function as they should. Today Burley Electrical Services has some information about smoke alarms that we hope will help if your smoke alarms are malfunctioning.
Smoke Alarm Keeps Going Off Intermittently?
When your smoke alarms begin going off you will want to check and make sure there is not a fire in your home immediately. If there is not a fire and your alarms are simply going off due to a false alarm there could be a few causes. Common reasons for your smoke alarm to give a false alarm are that your battery is dead; the battery is not installed properly; the sensing chamber on the alarm could be dirty; humidity or steam is causing the false alarm; an electrical condition may be causing power to the unit to be interrupted; or the alarm has simply reached the end of its life.
Changing Back Up Battery in Smoke Detector
If your smoke alarms are going off repeatedly and there is not fire the first thing that we recommend you do is replace the back up batteries to your hard wired smoke alarms in your home. Homeowners have so much on their minds that it is not likely that they will remember what smoke alarm batteries they have recently replaced. For that reason we recommend always changing them all at once. If replacing the batteries does not fix the problem you should take a look at what exactly is happening with your smoke alarms.
Clean Smoke Detectors
Next we recommend cleaning your smoke detectors. Sometimes the sensors on your smoke detectors just need to be cleaned. To clean your smoke alarm blast compressed air into the screen area surrounding the smoke chamber of the device. This process is nice and easy!
Why is Smoke Alarm Constantly Chirping?
Some smoke alarms will chirp very consistently. This constant chirping is enough to make even the most patient of homeowners crazy! Chirping can be a sign that your smoke alarm is malfunctioning. If between the chirps the red light on the smoke alarm goes off it is most likely simply malfunctioning. Your Hush feature may be activated on your smoke alarm. If the Hush feature is activated your smoke alarm will chirp every 30 to 40 seconds for approximately seven minutes while this feature is activated. Chirping can also be a sign that your smoke alarm has reached the end of its life and needs to be replaced.
Smoke Alarms Keeps Beeping
Smoke alarms can also begin beeping. Typically smoke alarms are hardwired on the same circuit and once one smoke alarm begins beeping they will all start beeping. All of the beeping can make it hard to think straight. You will want to stop the beeping as quickly as you can. Normally one smoke alarm is the cause of the beeping. You will want to go to each smoke alarm in your home and press the circle button on it to reset it. If that smoke alarm is the culprit all of the beeping will stop. If it is not that smoke alarm causing the problem they will continue to beep. Go around to all of the smoke alarms and reset them until one of them stops the beeping.
How Long Do Hard Wired Smoke Detectors Last?
So what if you have replaced all of the batteries, found the culprit for the beeping and reset that smoke alarm, and they just keep going off randomly. This is a sign that you will most likely need to replace your some alarms. Smoke alarms have a life span of about 10 years. Sometimes they will go out sooner and other times they will last longer but 10 years is about average. Just like the batteries, if you are replacing one we recommend that you replace them all. It could also be a sign of some electrical issues.
Electrical Repair Services in Imperial Point, Pompano Beach, Plantation, Deerfield Beach, Boca Raton, Davie, Lighthouse Point, Parkland, Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Burley Electrical Services can come out and check your wiring and see if that is the reason that your smoke alarms keep going off. We install hard wired smoke alarms if you are in need of a new one installed in your home. Give us a call today to set up your appointment!
