I only have battery smoke detectors but a friend had their only elctric one in the house go off at 4:30 a couple days back. Her battery operated one never went off at all. I asked her if it was a dtector capable of detecting carbon monoxide and she thinks it is but ain’t 100% sure. Her house has nothing that would produce carbon monoxide so that wasn’t the cause.
Someone from the fire dept. told her that it was unusual and may have been cause by severe dampness in the basement or airborn drywall dust.
I’ve never heard tell of dampness or drywall dust doing this. Has anybody ever heard of things like this setting off detectors?
Thanks kindly guys
Paul
Replies
Drywall dust will do it. How much drywall dust was there in the area?
I meditate, I burn candles, I drink green tea, and still I want to smack someone.
A little spider took up residence in mine. Kept setting it off.
Yes.
We built new five years ago with the required set of hard wired and wired together detectors. We had problems from the beginning with odd things setting off the detectors. I unhooked and electric baseboard heater because every time we turned it on the blasted things screamed. (it was almost directly under the detector) Then we had them go off in the night when we were running our evaporative cooler and it evidently got to humid. I have a plastic bag over the detector that's right above the cooler now and it seems to keep it from working.
With five detectors, all required, within ten feet of each other I don't worry about one being covered.
I don't know if or why it would matter, but the batteries in the hard wired detectors do need to be replaced every year. Low batteries seem to be associated with more random screaming from the detectors.
I've learned to blow them out with compressed air once a year. Otherwise they can go off at 3am, rudely awakening the entire house, and the tenants in the suite.
....Don't ask me how I've learned this....
Scott.
As one noted there is a spider (mainly in NE, I've been told) tht nests in the things and sets them off.
Nothing in the house to produce CO? CO can get into house from an attached garage, and electric ovens in self-cleaning mode can.
"Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive... then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
Howard Thurman
http://rjw-progressive.blogspot.com/
a lot of people do not realize that smoke alarms typically only last ten years or so. Lots more false alarms (or worse, no alarms) after 10 years.
As a renter and new homeowner, I would love to completely remove every one of the dang things. The hardwired ones never seem to work right and chirp inccesantly when the battery is low anyway. For all the trouble I'll just stick to the stickumup ones and check the batteries once a year...
I can't even WARM a piece of toast without setting it off.