@daft_punk

do you have more info about this? Our alarms just started going of for really short periods (a few seconds) beginning this week. It's hardwired so it can't be the battery. Sure enough there a crane directly in front of us, but it's been there for a while now. So idk what it could be and I'm hoping it's the crane. Do you have more info or articles about this? Thank you.

Been 8 days now, and I have not had a problem so far, knock on wood. I blew the alarms out with compressed air in a can and that's about all I could do. I have a feeling it was a spider rather than dust.

I got one fire alarm two weeks ago and it is battery operated. It sounds off at the same time every couple nights. It does not have CO detector and I do not use fuel in my house. I am wondering if these fire alarms may be going off because of electrical wires getting too hot inside the walls. Is this possible?

Just completed a little remodel project inside the house about 5 mos. ago. Replaced all 6 smokes with the "new & improved" version. Hardwired and connected to each other. Around midnight they all started going off at 90 million decibels. The fire / Co2 detector was shouting "fire, fire, fire."

Hubby jumped out of bed and we began running around in our undies. He grabbed a ladder while I started flipping the smoke detector breakers to silence them. It was like a Keystone Cops film, but so not funny. (My poor dog was totally freaked out. I had to put her in my car in the garage so she'd feel safe, and then run back inside to help hubby.)

We pulled all the SDs down, the last one was probably the culprit. (Of course!)

After reading your comments about bugs and spiders, I remember seeing a big brown beetle on the floor, trying to make a get away. (We are in the middle of the Western Conifer Seed Bug invasion right now.) Rotten little things. Arrrgh!

At least I can cancel the call to the electrician. I think we've got it figured out.

Thank you to everyone for their suggestions and input.

We have ongoing problems with our ten First Alert smoke/CO alarms sounding for 20 seconds for no reason. These are the wirelessly-interconnected type. First Alert replaced the first batch under warranty (mfg June 2014) in February 2016. The second batch (mfg January 2016) has the same problem but not as frequent. False trips sometimes happen twice within a week, then not again for two months. We're currently on a 17-day lucky streak, and have just decided to live with it.

How weird of the recent posts! Fire alarm (we have just the one in the hallway as we are staying at a very small house) went off at 6a.m for probably 10-15 seconds, gave me a heart attack and ran out of bed turning every light on checking everything and causing a break down for our toddler. The alarm then just stopped... I have windows open as well. Called my husband (he is at work- coincidence is a firefighter!) and couldn't give me a reason. So wide awake now, creeped!

To begin this troubleshooting issue smoke detectors have a indicator light that is a solid color when 120 power is supplied from the circuit breaker. When the offending smoke detector trips and causes the chain of interconnected smoke detector to sound their alarms. The one flashing indicator and not a solid indicator color is the guilty party. You said that they were only 6 months old my question then would be has there been any remodeling done where drywall dust got into the smoke detectors? If so replace them you will never get the drywall dust totally out of the smoke detectors. There are many things that will set off smoke detectors like a hot shower or the nanny and the butler smoking something funny. Being a retired master electrician with 43 years experience I have heard a boat load of stories concerning smoke detectors. Being a volunteer firefighter also I can say that they work and save life's, change the batteries at least once a year and replace every 10 years with new ones. www.dbelectric.us

THANK YOU a million times over for this post. I found the offending alarm in the basement. The red light was flashing. After the sixth time the alarms went on and then off (had made a thorough search of the house and nothing) I googled it. Then I read this post. I opened the little hatch to the battery on the alarm and out flew a small bug/gnat??? I had the vacuum with me so went ahead and vacuumed it out. Green light came back on. So far, no alarm. THANKS AGAIN!!!

Glad that it is working for you. Would you please go to my Facebook page and write me a review D B Electric Facebook thanks.

Sure enough, here I am at 4 AM EST writing this. The smoke alarm in our dining room (hard wired/CO2) went off at 3:30 AM. We have lived here 8 years in April.

this has happened before probably 10-15 times in the 8 years.

here are some of the things I've learned:

The Co2 part and smoke detectors need to be changed every 5-10 years. And, even if they are new, check them; they have expiration dates and ours were expired in 2013 even tho we moved in and had the house renovated totally in '09; the hardware store we purchased them at must have had them on the shelves for a while.

the electrician totally replaced all of them.

In the handful of inexplicable times they've gone off, they've all been between midnight and 4 AM. Once at about ten AM for an hour (fire fighters came and everything) and that's when we learned to replace them.

it varies; typically the hottest muggiest night of the year or the most freezing cold winter night.

i have no idea why it went off tonight. It is creepy to see these talks about spirits though!

I am 16 when I was sleeping it would go off about 10 times then when ever I wake up it would stop or if I moved it was bing trigger some how. I fall back asleep and It cept going off when I was asleep I was 3:am 2 day from trump elected it's a little weird to that all the ones arnt going off but my room one goes off.

My Co2 detector was new, supposed to last 10 years, It kept going off every night for 10 min?? Finally just took the battery out! Now my smoke detector has been going off for no reason that I can find? What should I do? I am getting a new smoke detector! I had a gas leak and nothing went off but I could smell it! The gas company said I was just low on propane but I insisted and they found the leak in the wall!?!

What should I do?

Get a new carbon monoxide detector and a new smoke detector. If they also go off, then get the place checked out.

I had a gas leak and nothing went off

Most houses don't have a detector that detects propane or natural gas. I guess that's what your nose is for. :) I'm pretty sure you can buy one of those if it would give you peace of mind though.

Apart from bad backup batteries, when smoke detectors are past their use-by date, they will often go off, and refuse to stay off. Most have dates on them now.

We had all the alarms go off last night at 4:00 a.m. for about 10 seconds. About 30 minutes later only 1 went off but I don't know which. They are probably over 10 years old and are battery/hardwired.

I live in a condo on the beach in Fl., lot of humidity. Our smoke detectors are all wired interconnected but most of the detectors are on the 20ft. ceiling. That's the real problem. Yesterday, I had the windows open and the downstairs connector in the hallway went off. I got that one down and it continued to wail for almost an hour. I put it under some clothes in the laundry and closed the door and the noise was much better and eventually stopped. About 2 hrs. later, it started again, so I just left it in the laundry and closed the door again. I never had this problem until we redid the condo after a hurricane and the detectors were wired in. The detector that went off is the only one that is working because the others are on 20 ft. ceilings and there is no way we can get them down. We have to call the condo management company to get them down for us. Do we need to replace the smoke detectors again or put them lower on the wall or what so that we can maintain them better. Suggestions?

perdidokid,

Our smoke detectors are all wired interconnected

The detector that went off is the only one that is working

Those two statements seem to contradict each other.

I got that one down and it continued to wail for almost an hour

It's wired in but continued to wail after you disconnected it? Does it also have a battery? Is it a removable battery?

the others are on 20 ft. ceilings and there is no way we can get them down

Get a ladder! (Not you personally, but a pro hired by the condo board) If you don't have the proper working detectors in your building, then that is a potential disaster both in terms of safety AND potential lawsuits.

We have to call the condo management company to get them down for us. Do we need to replace the smoke detectors again or put them lower on the wall or what so that we can maintain them better.

Definitely call the condo management company and get them to fix it properly! You should not be able to disconnect the fire detectors and throw them in your laundry room. You should not have to maintain them. This is the condo board's problem.

First Alert detectors are no good after 6 years. No matter how new the batteries are each detector went one at a time. The annoying beep, beep, beep. Waking up kids and severly making dogs go bananas. Not a fan of first alert.

Our entire fire alarm system went off at exactly 5 am and we finally found the circuit breaker that shut them off and the one in the living room beeped several times and then stopped. Problem is that I don't have electricity in several areas of the house now and can't turn back on the switch because they will start screaming again. It was so loud it was deafening, my Cavalier King Charles snored right through it without a care in the world, lol and my Pit didn't freak out, thank God but, we nearly had a heart attack. I have 5 sugar gliders and I immediately ran to their room and they were fine. We have the ac running at all times and I looked for bugs as suggested by the previous comments, my question is, who do I call to service this type of issue? An electrician? Suggestions? Thanks!

Humidity. High humidity in the air can set off smoke alarms. The density of the moisture particles in the air trigger the alarm. The device has no way of distinguishing between light smoke particles and heavy moisture content.

Maria if you turned the breaker off that operates the 120 volt battery backup smoke detectors and also lost power to other lights and outlets something is not adding up because the smoke detectors should be on a dedicated breaker not mixed with other things like lights and outlets. Aleah is right humidity can trigger a smoke detector false alarm as well as taking a hot steamy shower. Usually there is a indicator light that is a solid color on most smoke detectors that means normal operation. When they are hardwired together the smoke detector that triggers the alarm will be a flashing color this should help you locate the offending smoke detector

Maria's system is powered in the preferred way for detection. If it is on a dedicated circuit it is easy to isolate and be ignorant of a fire (or CO if it's a combined system)problem. When it's silenced, people forget about it. If it is on the same circuit as the TV or stair light, that circuit won't be de-energized for long and the smoke detector problem will be fixed. She should call an electrician or alarm guy and she has probably already done so.

SD in brand new home went off at 3am. Hardwired w backup. Manual confirms most of what’s speculated on In this thread. See pic of page labeled nuisance alarms...

I just had a similar situation happen. But glad I read these. I just moved into this house less than 5 months and tonight really freaked me out. It went off 2x. 3 beeps stopped, then about 30seconds later 3 beeps then stops. It also said fire fire fire. So it's been 45mins of me laying here sniffing and earlier walking around sniffing.

Hoping it doesn't happen again... Only one of the alarms have a green light but not flashing. At one point the one in the living room was red but now it's off. Everything seems normal. I even heard from heater kick on and nothing yet. I wonder if this is typical of these things.

If it happens again you might want to check how it smells near the CEILING. Smoke or hot fumes can rise or they can come out of something like a light fixture to begin with and stay around near the ceiling.

In general it always pays to be highly curious and keep looking until you find out why it's happening. Not to freak you out, but many fires could have been prevented if the warning signs were heeded.

Or, you might just have wonky detectors! That's the problem - you just don't know.

My Transmitter is chirping every minute. I changed all the smoke alarms a year ago and just put all new batteries in them but my transmitter is still chirping. Any advise?

Probably some other fault. Find a manual for it and find out why it's doing that. If you didn't file it away in your House files when you bought it (shame on you), get the make and model and use Google to find the instructions.

Is there any chance you missed one, like one in the attic or garage or two in the basement?

A chirping smoke detector is usually low battery -- my parents once called an exterminator for this. For full throated 3 second blasts several times during the night, I like the idea of spraying it with compressed air to remove dust and spiders.

Last night mine went off at 3:15 and then 30 minutes later and then again at 4:40. Scared the crap out of me ! No fire but the alarm just kept going off . Gonna replace it today and hopefully that fixes the problem.

This just happened to me!!! While it wasn't right at 5am, it was close - 4:56! This house and system are less than 3 years old, so surely they don't need to be replaced. I'll get some compressed air and go to town on these thing. Not a fun way to wake up! Thanks everyone on this thread. I feel better now!

Also check your attic hvac! My alarms were going off at 3 am cuz the pan in hvac was overflowing and water was leaking into the bedroom ceiling smoke alarm! So there is a reason for it going off! And I can relate to the insanity of the loud pitched noice for hours! I used muffs that you use when you learnto shoot guns! Not fun! But worth looking around for hidden problems!

Mine is also attached to other things in room like tv and lights so I didn’t want to shut it off by breaker! Is this standard code?

Surprisingly, you can Google something like "do residential smoke detectors have to be on their own circuit?" and actually get some forum posts and other links on this. It appears - to this non-expert - that they're not required to be on a separate circuit by national codes, but local codes may vary. Some think putting them on a circuit with other items makes it more likely that you will know if the breaker tripped, since the lights won't work, so you are safer. Battery backup is required anyway but the combined circuit affords extra protection. Also discourages people shutting off only their smoke alarms for whatever reason and then dying in a fire.

D B ELECTRIC ... this is not entirely accurate information as building codes can vary and from state to state or city to city ...Most states have common baseline code requirements but there are areas even with in the same state where certain conditions create slight different code requirements... In many areas smoke detectors are NOT coded to be on dedicated circuits ... this is done to make it easier for homeowner to recognize that there is no power going to a hardwired smoke detector by way of having it on a common circuit with something such as a bedroom light switch or an outlet ...... let’s say hat a homeowner has been away for an extended amount of time ..the battery back ups are not meant to power the smoke detector for any real amount of time... only for a brief outages so that the coverage of the device doesn’t lapse...upon returning home,if a dedicated circuit is not energized AND the battey is fully dead,there will be no warning chirp and the danger might go unnoticed....but is they return and a bedroom light isn’t working or the outlet the family television is using isn’t being powered AND smoke detectors are also on the same circuit,the homeowner would then be aware that not only does this mean they can’t watch their DVR episodes of their favorite show ,but they also have no fire protection...I am no electrician but am a life long construction pro and have seen this many times... in northern states where there is heavy snowfall, more stringent structural load requirements exist within the codes..in Florida there are hurricane wind load requirements....California, earthquake requirements ...and this will invariably (as all roads lead back to whether or not the structure will still be standing) lead to a differential in other code requirements..electrical,plumbing etc....so while I am not questioning your credentials and you are undoubtedly more qualified than I in the ways of electricity,care should be taken when posting advice on issues that literally could mean life or death

Now riddle me this... Early this morning for one reason or another I awoke @ 3:58. At exactly 4:00 my smoke alarms went off LOUD AS H*LL for 5 seconds or so. I walked around my house and nothing. I have never had my smoke alarms go off for any reason EVER

I can't tell you why it did that, but I had a battery operated First Alert combination ionizing and photo smoke detector that did that a few years ago -- going off for a few seconds and then shutting up, kind of like "oops, sorry, I goofed."

I blew it out with canned air. A few weeks later, it did it again. Enough! I had an identical spare, so I replaced the apparently bewitched one with that.

Well, several months ago, the spare started doing the exact same thing. So I sent both of the First Alerts to their Last Resting Place, the local electronics recycling depot.

That's it for First Alert. Sorry, guys. I'm trying a Kidde brand smoke detector now. We'll see how that one does.

One of smoke detectors, in bedroom keeps going off. It started 30 min ago, 3:30. No smoke, found, and humidity is low tonight. After reading a few comments, I wanted to know if there could be any other reason the alarm would go off. The are all new, replaced 6 months ago.

Not that I know of, either defective or something is setting it off. I assume you got up near the ceiling and didn't smell anything either. Fumes from, say, overheating electrical stuff are not necessarily smoky at first.

What brand is it? About 5 years ago, I bought a batch of battery powered First Alert combination photo and ionization smoke detectors. Every single one has since started giving me false alarms, usually in the middle of the night, despite being blown out periodically with canned air.

So, I've switched to Kidde brand. We'll see how that goes.

Mine went off at 3:00am last night for about 15 seconds then again at 3:15am. The test button was flashing red on one detector. I pressed it and the red light turned off. 3:00am exactly. Coincidence? I guess. Scared me and I could not sleep anymore.

All my alarms sounded simultaneously from each other. Stopped, then every 5 minutes or so would go off for a few second and stop again? Weird huh? Not to mention my husband was pulling up outside and heard our next door neighbors going off inside their home as well. Asked them next day and they had know clue why theirs went off. Neither do I. At exactly 1:00. Am. Someone said in earlier post about transmitters and frequency? No radio station near us, but a military base. Or is someone listening in? Creepy!! Anyone have input on this situation?

Are they battery powered or wired into the AC? Wondering if a voltage spike or dip could cause that, but only if they're wired in.

No way for anyone to listen in through a smoke detector...plenty of much more accessible ways, like Alexa, which people happily put in their houses voluntarily and even pay for the privilege!

Someone said in earlier post about transmitters and frequency?

I wouldn't entirely discount something of the sort. I've had battery powered smoke detectors that complained about their brand-new batteries being low until I moved them further away from the center of the ceiling and a light with compact fluorescent bulbs. CFs can generate all kinds of RF noise.

The military has weapons and gadgets that they don't advertise to the public, and a long history of not worrying as much as maybe they should about their neighbors. Who knows what kind of RF hash that base might emit. But at 1am? Seems odd.

Good luck trying to find out.

I am adding an experience because I just went thru an all day nightmare where the AC alarms wired in sequence were going off randomly every 10-15 minutes for several minutes then stopping. My son and I replaced all 8 alarm batteries with new 9 volts - we also used a meter to determine that all removed batteries with one exception all had more than 9 volts remaining. Still no relief. Around midnight, out of sheer frustration, I took a can of pressurized air I used for cleaning my computer keyboard and went to the alarms and blew the air in the little vent hole. Problem solved on second alarm as soon as the burst of air hit it. It was the alarm closest to the kitchen in an adjoining hallway. Hopefully this will help others - I was really at the point of removing the alarms and replacing them. If it beeps once its battery, but the random long bursts is a whole different problem.

I have to throw in one amusing story with regard to this. One of my smokes started chirping so I figure, now is the time to go around and replace all the batteries. My parrot was on my shoulder during this operation and suddenly I heard a low battery chirp. It took me a minute of hunting around until I realized that the parrot was making the noise. Bacca actually makes more sound effects than she does talk: shoes squeaking on the floor, smoke detector beeps, airplanes taxiing by (we live on an airport), and her absolute favorite, a zipper being zipped She'll make the zipper noise if she sees you putting on pants even if they don't have zippers.

Similar story, more than once always at some ungodly hour. Cardiac arrest, brain aneurism, asthma attack... it’s terrible. Had our electrician install a household surge protector with no change. These hardwired units were installed as a requirement of city code during a renovation but I’m more interested in removing them for battery operated units that seem more reliable and predictable. What are the recommendations on battery operated units these days.

Many, if not all jurisdictions, now require 10 year non-replaceable batteries if they allow batteries at all.

Battery operated units need to be recharged. You have to recharge those for keep on working though. False alarms during night are horrible. If changing is the only solution then you should change to get rid of this situation.

for ppl who had issues with the first alert alarms (combo ones) that switched to kiddie - did the problems get better?