In newer homes the smoke detectors are all interwired together so that if one goes off they all go off. I have had problems with this since I moved into my current house in 1997. Sometimes when we cook some smoke hits the one near the kitchen and sets off painful, deafening shrieks of noise throughout the whole house for many minutes before the smoke can be cleared and all of the detectors simmer down.
Then there is the mind-numbing "chirps" that are usually caused by low batteries in one or more of the devices. This usually occurs sometime in the middle of the night and the only way to stop it is to change the battery properly. And when I say properly I mean the 9V battery has to be inserted in the proper direction (nothing on the detector itself tells you whether the big side has to be on the right or left and it's only a contact point connection, not an insert the battery type device. You also have to make sure that the battery is inserted over top of the little plastic arm that comes out of the unit and the cover has to be replaced properly.
I changed all the batteries out in March (and yes I admit I don't change them every time I change the time, mainly because one of them is located in a place that requires a death defying acrobatic act to change because it is high over a staircase, but that's another story for another time.)
After changing them, a couple of the detectors still chirped at random times. I put other batteries in them, eventually getting them all settled in to do their main job which is to protect me and not drive me slowly insane.
Yesterday, I came home after a weekend in the mountains, expecting to unpack and relax a little bit, when I immediately hear a chirp coming from upstairs. Now upstairs, I have 4 smoke detectors in about a 10 square foot area, so diagnosing where it is coming from takes a few chirps to figure out. Usually I stand underneath each one and close the door. So eventually I determine the chirp is coming from the main hallway and not one of the bedrooms.
So being a logical guy, I take down the smoke detector, check the battery, and put it back up. After a couple more chirps, I decide to replace it with one from another nearby detector that isn't chirping. Strangely, the hallway chirps and the one that used to be in the hallway and is now in the bedroom doesn't, so now I start thinking there is something wrong with the wiring. Each detector has a harness that is wired to the ceiling. I check the wiring in the hallway and retighten all the connections, to no avail. So now I decide to change the harnesses out with one from the other room that isn't chirping.
This doesn't go as smoothly as I wanted, because I don't wire the one in the bedroom properly and it starts chirping rapidly (about every 10 seconds.) But I eventually get it right, and change the wiring, but the chirping in the hallway continues. At this point I rip the detector and the harness out of the ceiling just to get rid of the danged noise. I even put it in another room. But the chirping continues in the hallway. I cannot believe it. Seemingly these systems are so wired together that even the wires can chirp if the detectors are removed. This makes no sense to me, so I decide to try to shut down the circuit, but even that doesn't stop the chirping.
At this point I figure I need to call an electrician out which is going to cost me plenty, because I understand basic wiring and this totally no sense to me. I try wiring the harness again, and somehow I now manage to get every single smoke alarm in the house to start chirping. GREAT! This is pretty easy to figure out though because I find the red wire has become detached from the harness (this is the one that connects all the detectors together.
Now earlier I had gone on the internet to see if I could find replacement detectors since these are all 15 years old now. I could find them, but I would have to order them which would take a couple of days to get here and I'd have to listen to the freaking chirping until they got here.
So now I go back to the internet to try to figure out what is screwing up the system. After I find a couple of unhelpful electrical guides to smoke detectors (ok, they were a little bit helpful, but they didn't solve the problem) I found this little blog entry which is a very long but very funny piece on a similar problem.
The blog entry didn't help.
However, I read the replies and the very last one from JackAsteroid pointed me to my problem.
O.K. here is a free laugh, I took apart the the largest, and most ancient hardwired unit above the stairs, yet could still swear that the sound was coming from the empty cavaty left behind.
I know, I told myself many times, with source of sound, those wires are just wires, but my mind was barely able to keep up with the angry things I was already yelling at it.
Mind you the CO unti is directly beneath this one.
So to wrap this up, one hand inspecting the wires only to find out painfully how poorly they were installed later, problem solved.
I thank you, I searched google and this came up and hit home.
I’d shake your hand but my right side is still numb and tingling.
Jack--I'd like to shake your hand too--my problem was the CO unit directly below the hallway smoke detector had somehow gotten knocked out of the outlet and was continually chirping.
To the alarm manufacturers, maybe you can create different chirps to help us discern between the different types of detectors. It would probably keep us a little more sane.
Finally Gruntled Again.
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