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slovatt

Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping

slovatt
17 years ago

I have a smoke detector that has been intermittently beeping for months and is driving me crazy. I've changed the battery numerous times to no avail. It was wired into the house so I had it removed out of pure frustration but the wires where it had been connected to continued to beep. I noticed a small round disc still attached to the wires so I assumed it to be a sensor of some kind and thought that must be where the noise was coming from, so I had that removed from the wires and little plastic ends covers put over the wires and those wires shoved up into the metal box. I then put up a new smoke detector (only battery operated) over the wires (not connected).

The beeping continued. Tonight I became frustrated again and took down the new smoke detector and locked it away in a closet. I am now staring at a hole in my ceiling and it's beeping. I realize that this is impossible but there you have it. There are other smoke detectors in the house, on different floors. None of them are making any noise, only the one outside my bedroom that just won't stop..Does anyone

have any idea what can be done. I would love a good night's uninterrupted sleep.

Comments (16)

  • bus_driver
    17 years ago

    I would suspect every detector on the premises as the culprit. Your detectors are interconnected and what affects one, affects all. Dust and insects can trigger detectors, small spiders especially. First, I would blow out every detector to hopefully remove dust and insects. I have never damaged a detector using even as much as 50 PSI on the air hose from a portable compressor.

  • hendricus
    17 years ago

    Is there an attic above the ceiling? Maybe an extra smoke detector in there or something approximately above the smoke detector that is making the beeping. If this is in a hallway, you still have smoke detectors in the bedrooms and they are still interconnected.
    Hank

  • peterbog
    17 years ago

    I had a similar problem. The problem detector was a wired/battery backup unit. Initially we thought the batteries were dead, but after replacing batteries we continued to get an intermittant beep.

    I blew on the detector thinking some dust had gotten on the sensor and that didn't help. When I removed just the detector, I did still get "sympathy" beeps from other interwired detectors. But when I removed the entire unit leaving just the wires the "sympathy" beeping stopped.

    We figured it was a bad unit and replaced it with another wired detector and have had no problems.

    (I still have the one we removed and did try blowing on it to clean it out, but if that is the problem, I'm evidently not a big enought blowhard. We still have it and will try blowing it out with the air compressor despite the instructions not to do that. If that works, it seems I have an extra everything else, might as well add this to the pile.)

  • pjb999
    17 years ago

    So it could well be the other detectors, or one in the attic if you have one.

    I meant to mention, when detectors do pass their 'use by' date, their failure mode is low-battery beeping, which will continue even if you change the battery. The life seems to be five years as far as I know....some battery units are now being supplied with a 'lifetime' battery - battery goes, time to change the unit.

  • palatinehill
    17 years ago

    Slovat:

    We had the same problem and after cutting an opening in the drywall, we found a battery operated unit between the studs, beeping away with a low battery. Totally missed it when doing the drywalling.

  • kb106127
    15 years ago

    It could be your carbon monoxide detector! After spending all morning on a ladder changing batteries in smoke detectors I realized it was the monoxide detector plugged into the wall right below one of the alarms. It was not the steady "get to fresh air" beep but rather the chirping (which sounds exactly like a smoke alarm) that signals the unit is going bad.

  • kariann1964_yahoo_com
    12 years ago

    I have read all the details written here, but nothing works. I was told the batteries are good for 10 years; it's been four. Come to find out the batteries are good but the chirping still goes on. It is in the bedroom and hallway alarms. Once in awhile the beeping goes away for a few hours only to return. I cannot afford the cost of an electrician. Any other ideas? Thank you.

  • bciccare
    12 years ago

    I FOUND IT ANNOYING WHEN EVERYONE WOULD TELL ME TO CHANGE THE BATTERY, WHEN I HAD THIS PROBLEM (AS IF I HADN'T THOUGHT OF IT). AS IT TURNS OUT, SINCE MY ALARM WAS HARD-WIRED AND BATTERY OPERATED, I HAD TO FLIP THE POWER SWITCH ON THE CIRCUIT BREAKER TO GET THE BEEPING TO STOP - IT DID THE TRICK!!!

  • wright602
    10 years ago

    Slovatt, did you ever resolve this issue? I am having the SAME exact issue and have tried cleaning the unit, replacing ALL with new batteries, I even went as far as taking a working unit from another property and switching them out only to have the problem pick up where it left off. Will call manufacturer on Monday to see what they recommend.

  • garymunson
    10 years ago

    Wright602, EVERY house we have bought and lived in eventually had detector issues. As was mentioned above, look on the backside of the detector for expiration date. I've gotten to where I just replace them all if the date is close. Something that people do to make wiring easier is pull off the foam insulation on the back of their detectors. BAD idea. Without the insulation sealing it off, moisture, dust and bugs from the attic make their way into the detector as air WILL flow through any hole in the ceiling envelope. This will eventually make the detector false trigger. Everyone should make sure their detectors are functioning properly as they save lives. They will always go off when a fire is still small enough to give everyone time to get out and to call the fire department. Just read the paper for the stories about fire tragedies and notice how many say 'house did not have working smoke detectors'.

  • Charles77
    10 years ago

    Did you ever find out what was beeping in the ceiling? Was there another smoke alarm up there? I found this page while looking for how to change the battery in my smoke alarm. I found a link that shows pictures of the battery removal process that may help the next person looking for the answer.

    Here is a link that might be useful: How to remove a smoke alarm battery

  • Ron Natalie
    10 years ago

    I have wired smokes and CO alarms. They beep when the batteries died. I changed them and a couple of weeks later they were beeping again. Damn Lowe's Utilitech batteries. Half the brick of 9V's were dead in the box. NEVER FREAKING AGAIN.

  • brtova
    10 years ago

    hi ronnatalie,

    I will never buy anything made by Utilitech again.
    Total junk.

  • toxicavenger
    8 years ago

    I have a modular home. It has one wired/battery backup smoke detector and two battery-only detectors. The wired one started chirping, so I replaced the battery and it continued to chirp. I removed it entirely from the wall, and something behind the box continues to chirp. This is crazy -- I don't want to have to tear out drywall to see if there is anything behind there but what else could it be? This isn't the first time a battery has been replaced but it didn't continue chirping with no detector connected before either.

  • toxcrusadr
    8 years ago

    Based on my primitive knowledge of electrical code, there should not be anything electrical sealed inside a wall in such a way that it's inaccessible, except for the wiring itself. No devices or junction boxes. That's not much help but whatever is in there probably should not be.