Chirping Hardwired Smoke Detector
Yes, this is happening and it is driving me a little
crazy. When I first heard it I investigated every room in the house and the
garage for any scent of smoke, even the smallest whiff, but I found none. Then
I checked the electrical panels and no popped circuits. There is one outlet in
the kitchen that pops off regularly (when I release steam from the pressure
cooker it seems the worst) but that wasn't the problem. To give you some
background info, the house with the chirping hardwired smoke detector is the
same house that was rebuilt after a substantial fire in 2009. All the more reason
for my thorough sniffing investigation, and finding no evidence of smoke or
fire, I finally realized that the detector is only chirping and not actually
going off in an indication of smoke. Next I went straight to Google and found a
YouTube video on chirping hardwired smoke detectors. The nice fireman on the
video explained the backup battery system (in case the power goes off) that
every hardwired smoke detector has. Then they showed how to change it etc. The
part that got to me was the suggestion for changing the batteries twice each
year when you turn the clocks forward and back.
Since I didn’t know the hardwired smoke detectors had batteries I’d never
changed the batteries in the ones in my house. They are 5 years old now. Guess
I’ll be picking up a few 9 volt batteries today! 
We just bought 4 new smoke detectors because we also had a chirping smoke detector and couldn't find the battery. So we decided to just replace it and the other wired in detector. Since we were doing that we looked around our new home and realized that they were the only ones in the house, so we bought 2 more to put outside out other two bedrooms. Kind of weird that it happened at the same time as yours.
ReplyDeleteIt's been easy to take the detectors for granted, wise that you were alerted to the need for more. They save lives!
ReplyDelete