what would cause my smoke alarms to go off for no reason?

Question

my home is 5 yrs old with wired in smoke alarms that have battery back up. They go off for about 2-3 beeps and then quit, usually in the middle of the night.

Answer 1

Had the same trouble. If your smoke alarms are in the ceiling and the opening in the back of the alarm is open to the attic then the temperature difference between the house and attic will cause them to go off at short intervals for no reason. On a hot day it can be 120 degrees in an attic and 70 degrees in the air conditioned house. Thats a 50 degree temperature difference. And that will set of some smoke/heat detectors. Plus remember that any cool 70 degree air that leaks into the attic around the smoke detector will cause some condensation and this too can set of your alarm.

I made sure the hole into the attic was covered good with insulation and my trouble stopped. And change the battery at least twice a year.

mike

Answer 2

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RE:
what would cause my smoke alarms to go off for no reason?
my home is 5 yrs old with wired in smoke alarms that have battery back up. They go off for about 2-3 beeps and then quit, usually in the middle of the night.

Answer 3

There are several things that could be the problem.

First the smoke detector may also be checking the quality of the air for dangerous fumes. You might want to have the furnace or outside source (if air conditioner) checked.

If you leave your windows open you could be getting car smog coming in and giving the false alarm.

Low battery may be doing it, but if that is the case, it should be doing it during the daytime too.

If you have the windows closed, then there may be fumes coming in from the registers.

Look on the Internet for that brand of smoke alarm and model. They may have a guide book on-line to answer your question. If not, they may have an email address you can write to and ask them for a User Guide. Which will very likely have something in it for you.

Answer 4

If they are wired with each other any one of them will set all of them off. Replace the batteries in all for starters. It may simply be a low battery warning. If that doesnt cure the problem then you need to find the one that trips them all. This can be a task! I would start with the one that would most logically be causing the problem. I.E. unit which is closest to a heat source. As someone above stated, carbon minoxide will set them off so look towards it being one closest to a water heater, furnace, etc. Invest in a carbon minoxide detector.

Answer 5

are you sure there isn't a carbon monoxide or other alarm in the house that might be going off too? Once I had an alarm and mistook it for the smoke detector and it was a CO2 detector going off, not the smoke detector.

Answer 6

relpace the batteries. check to see that there are no critters in the smoke alarm. if all else fails, get the entire fixture replaced. noone likes being disturbed in the middle of the night by a false alarm.

Answer 7

Mine used to do the same thing! I changed the batteries. Certain smoke detectors will beep in acknowledgment that they are working properly.

Answer 8

Dust or spiders or just little critters can make them go off! Clean them off once in awhile. Remove cover and dust! Also battery's that are about to expire will set them off!

Answer 9

Actually I have had this problem. It is dust, you need an compressed air to blow othem out or clean them. They need to be cleaned at least one time a month to preven this from happenning.

Answer 10

Usually they start doing that when the batteries need replaced. Try doing that and see if it helps.