Smoke Detector?

Question

I have a 'Lifesaver' smoke detector and I live in an apartment building of about 30 apartments. The model number is 1275. It is hard wired as well as battery operated. Earlier, I set the alarm off from cooking and quickly took the battery out of it. When I did so, I had to take the detector out of the celing to get the battery out. But now, it's hanging by the wires from the ceiling. there are 3 wires, a Red one, Black, and White. The red wire seems to have come out of the ceiling and is attached at one end to the smoke detector, but is just sticking strait up in the air. The black and white are connected to the ceiling as well as the detector, and are in good shape. I put the battery back in my detector and it';s now chirping every minute or so..I know it's because of this red wire hanging out of the wall when it's supposed to be in the ceiling.

Do I need an electrician to fix this? Or can I do it myself? I want to know how to fix the red wire without getting electricuted.

Answer 1

If I were you, I would politely ask the apartment manager to fix it for you, and promise them you'll never do that again. If this isn't possible, contact a Licensed Electrician. You have multiple smoke detectors in your apartment, and the red wire tells the other detectors to go into alarm. Next time subdue the smoke, and "fan" the detector in alarm until it resets.

Answer 2

So as for getting "electrocuted" not very likely from the red wire. The black wire is the hot and it supplies all detectors in the circuit with 120 volts. The white wire is the NEUTRAL wire.....not the ground. Actually since the smoke detector is plastic, there probably isn't a ground. The neutral wire is necessary to complete the circuit. Either way, the red wire i kind of a communication wire that goes along with the black adn the white to say "hey, you other detectors should start making noise since I am......just in case they can't hear me way out here in the kitchen and they are in their room doing whatever it is that they are doing" It's just a communication wire like I said.
Take the two screws out about a quarter to a half of an inch. Twist the main plate and then it will probably just drop off, you'll be able to see what I mean. What probably happen is that the red wire may have been in a wire nut and it just needs to be put back in with the other red wires. To clarify, if you're worried about getting shocked, turn off the breaker that feeds them. You will know whick one this is because they will all chrip. The reason that they chirp is either because the battery is low or the battery is making them chirp because they lost line voltage.....like if your breaker is off. Also, if that red wire is not hooked, it's detecting an issue and its just letting you know about it.
Also, when you say ceiling....you mean that after you twisted the detector off, there was still a round mounting bracket with a small hole with the wires coming through right???? Probably, that's the bracket that you want to take off and then you'll find a box, inside that box you probably just had a wire come out of the wire nut......hope that I helped and let me know if I can be of any further assistance!

Answer 3

you can do it yourself but will you ever be certain you did it correctly?

get the landlord to do it.

report it inoperative if you too scared to say you broke it.

your insurance will be invalid until you fixit and you have removed the safety factor it provided.

chirping indicates a low battery use that as the excuse to report to landlord - just put back in place first

Answer 4

okay i can tell you this: the red and black wires are know as "hot wires" which mean they are the ones that do most of the stuff and the white wire is a ground wire which helps out the other wires but i dont hink thats helps but yea..sorry and good luck