fire alarms

[daved150]

we got 7-8 fire alarms in the house. about a 1.5 yrs ago, they all went off. (lmao...fukin dog went nuts!!). i figured the battery went out in one of them...it's like, one goes off, they all go off. i pulled them all down. well, boo thinks we should have them back up (go figure) and put new batteries in the ones that took batteries (3 of them are hard wire with no batteries) well, i started putting them back up, and as i was putting them up, they were going off (one unplugged or going off, they all go off) well...i got them all up and they wont quit going off!!! WTF???!! new batery's and everything...anyone got a clue??

[BICEPBULG]

Re: fire alarms

one could be bad, sometimes the wire will pop out of the wired ones. Also the sensors can get dirty. Take a can of compressed air and blow them all out.

[Doink the clown]

Re: fire alarms

Funny you posted this,one of my alarms went off at 0500 this morn...i had to get up and disconnect the stupid thing.

[daved150]

Re: fire alarms

Funny you posted this,one of my alarms went off at 0500 this morn...i had to get up and disconnect the stupid thing.

problem at my house is, one goes off, they all go off! and, if you diconect one, they all go off!! it's fukin killing me!! i cant figure this out.

i'm gonna try beceps idea...i'll let y'all know

[deepsouth]

Re: fire alarms

well sinse it seems they are wired in series- you must have a short somewhere causing them to go off

[cyberlegend1994]

Re: fire alarms

Most likely dirty as BICEPBULG said. A can of compressed air will do the trick very nicely, I had to do that last week for a client of the company I work for. To find out which detector in an interconnected system is causing the alarm, look for either a detector that will have a rapidly flashing red light, or on some older models with a constantly-lit red light, the light will turn off on the detector that caused the alarm.

I give this advice being a licensed electrician who specializes in fire alarm systems.

[cyberlegend1994]

Re: fire alarms

Two other footnotes:

1. As Bicepbulg stated, they will all sound with no alarm indication on any of them if the white (neutral) wire comes loose on one of them. If this is the case, you'll have to do some experimenting to find out which one it is.

2. If the detectors are 10 years old or older, they need to be replaced. This is stated in the National Fire Alarm Code (NFPA 72):
"Smoke detectors shall not remain in service for any period of more than ten years from the date of installation."

[daved150]

Re: fire alarms

Most likely dirty as BICEPBULG said. A can of compressed air will do the trick very nicely, I had to do that last week for a client of the company I work for. To find out which detector in an interconnected system is causing the alarm, look for either a detector that will have a rapidly flashing red light, or on some older models with a constantly-lit red light, the light will turn off on the detector that caused the alarm.

I give this advice being a licensed electrician who specializes in fire alarm systems.

great!!! ok.... we got the compressed air and boo (my wife) is blowing them out today. i dont remember any of them having red lights on them at all. a couple are older and came with the house and a couple a newer (within the last 3 years). thanks for the help bro...

[cyberlegend1994]

Re: fire alarms

Another footnote - with the exception of Kidde and Firex, you CANNOT mix different brands on an interconnected system, the interconnect link (third wire on the detector) works differently with some brands than others, Firex and Kidde models of smoke and/or carbon monoxide detectors with battery backup are compatible with each other and have recently received a UL Listing for interconnection with each other. You could get a continuous alarm or damage the detectors if you try to interconnect incompatible brands with each other, I ran into that situation about 8 years ago.

[daved150]

Re: fire alarms

huh...well, i dont know the brands bro, but i'd find it funny if they were those brands. we baught the houst in 2001. i replaced a couple of the detectors. one in 2002 and one in 2004. none of the original detectors had battery back up. the ones i baught were off the shelf from homedepot. they worked for awhile....the system went off about 18mo's ago or so and i took them all down. i replaced the battery's (which were dead) in the newer ones and put them back up, but they are still going off. no red lights or anything like that

[cyberlegend1994]

Re: fire alarms

Any luck with those tips I PM'd you?

[BICEPBULG]

Re: fire alarms

Are the ones that are going off the old ones or the newer ones? Have you fixed this yet?

[daved150]

Re: fire alarms

ALL ARE GOING OFF...the cleaning things didnt work. we cleaned them all and as we're putting them up theyt were all going off

[BICEPBULG]

Re: fire alarms

one of them has to be bad. Most new ones has a red l.e.d. that will give a code to what is wrong. Unless your neutral wire has come undone somewhere else besides the fire alarms I would say that you havea bad one. And it sounds like they are out dated any way. Wish one of the ideas would have fixed it for you, that crap can be a pain. I do electrical work for a living and enjoy troubleshooting, but at home I had rather not......

[daved150]

Re: fire alarms

i was thinking that one must be bad...but, all of them have a steady green light