Debugging smoke detector

[supton]

Bought some new lithium CO/smoke detectors a few months ago, and the upstairs one will indicate "smoke" every couple of weeks, by beeping three times. It then quits. I swapped units in the house, and the upstairs one still does it. I do not know why. The other day it was at 2am. I do not think we have been cooking at any time it has gone off.

Maybe air quality? Being upstairs on the ceiling I would not think particulates in the air would trip it. OTOH my neighbor does run a seemingly smoky woodstove. But our windows are kept closed for the most part.

I have one upstairs, two downstairs and one in the basement. None of those other locations trip. All are the same units. The prior upstairs detector would only trip if we made pizza. This new one will not trip making pizza.

 

[Rand]

what kind of heating, how old is the furnace?

 

[abycat]

Originally Posted By: Rand
what kind of heating, how old is the furnace?


+1 yeah and if you don't do at least yearly checks of everything that is connected to the furnace you need to now and if you can't you should get a tech look at it. I always assume the worst when a detector goes off. I have never seen a fault in one except one I used or at least tried that got wet.

a bit more of an answer for you is a bathroom can set certain ones off.

 

[supton]

Oil furnace. Been a couple years since servicing. Was planning on that this summer. But the basement has the same co/smoke detector.

 

[andyd]

If you are moving detectors around and they only fault in one spot. I would suspect the chimney or the furnace. Are the smokes hardwired or are they just battery operated? Down here in Taxachusetts, any building built in 1975 or later has to have hardwired smoke detectors. Dunno what NH specs or enforces for smokes and COs. Every winter people die from CO poisoning caused from failed heating systems.

 

[Warstud]

If it's near a light fixture with a CFL bulb. Swap it out with an incandescent to see if thats the cause.

 

[spackard]

I've read detectors that use a bit of radioactive material are less sensitive to falsing than those that use an IR emitter/detector.

Maybe it's a place that calls for the radioactive type.

 

[Quest]

For CO detection, get a CO alarm with digital reading;

For smoke, such as slow burning/smothering smoke, get a photoelectric one; for fast burning smoke type, get either an ionic or photoelectric type.

Use the CO detector with digital reading to detect any anomalies in your house.

I'm using a kidde nighthawk CO detector with digital reading currently, and it's been very effective.

Q.

 

[supton]

Not near a CFL. Flue for furnace is nowhere this; flue btw is a horizontal power type.

I went back to battery only. Old upstairs would trip when baking pizza, so Imwanted the ability to move without having to rip apart the ceiling. And for some reason the basement was never wired in.

 

[Wolf359]

Not a fan of the lithium detectors. You can buy 10 year lithium 9 volt battery for around $6 and they usually charge an extra $10 over one without it. Plus with CO, the detectors only last about 7 years so if you get it as a combo, you have it throw it out after 7 years whereas a regular smoke detector will last 10 years or more.

As for the OP's issue, may just be the location. Read the directions and see if it's optimally installed, you might want to move it to a different location. Other possibilities would be insects or dust getting into the detectors.

 

[tom slick]

I would try blowing any dust out of it. I had a problematic smoke detector at work that an occasional blast of canned air fixed. Before we figured that out it would trigger, set off the alarm, and evacuate 120 people out of the building about every 6 months.

 

[nthach]

Check to see if you have a ionization or photoelectric sensor smoke alarm - you're right on the money with air quality but be gentle with the canned air.

I've replaced my parent's smoke detectors with the Nest Protect, and they recommend periodic vacuuming. But it does go off with steam - instead of full-on blaring the alarm it will announce "heads up, there's smoke upstairs".

 

[supton]

Detector is maybe three months old. Considering we do not dust in general I doubt it is dust. I could be wrong I guess, there is a natural airflow which could carry everything up to there. Will pull down and look.

I think it is photoelectric but have to find the doc, misplaced that at the moment.

 

[Wolf359]

It should actually say somewhere on the detector exactly what it is, typically somewhere on the back of the detector. Might just be in a bad spot for airflow and maybe you should move it to a different spot.

 

[supton]

Forgot about this issue, until this weekend, when a third unit gave up. Was watching tv and started wondering what the beeping was--after a few minutes I realized the basement smoke/CO was going off (can barely hear it through the floor). Just like the prior two units mentioned above, it met its death by going into continous smoke alarm--and not being able to be silenced. Would not reset/silence, so the only option was the nuclear one. Will proactively remove the remaining unit, get a couple of cheapie smokes and figure out what to do next. CO readout and wired; might see if I can get the FD to give recommendations where to locate as we usually have a false alarm once/week when making pizza.