Morning,
I encountered a problem while rewiring that has me scratching my head. When I powered up a new smoke detector circuit all of the detectors started sounding (as though there was a fire). The detectors do not trip when there is no AC power. There are 12 detectors in the circuit wired together with 14/3. There is less than 1000′ of wire in the circuit – actually a bit less than 250′. In addition to the smoke detectors there is are three overhead lights wired through the same circuit. The circuit is protected by a 15A AFCI breaker. Any thoughts on what might be causing this problem? Could is be dead backup batteries in one or more of the detectors? Any help would be appreciated. The smoke detectors are Kiddie 1275s/
Thanks,
John
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I belive that they are supposed to be on a circuit by themselves. Try it without the lights in the circuit. I've never put anything else between them in a circuit.
They are all supposed to sound at the same time BUT the one that set them all off should be telling you that by a blinking or steady LED. You may just have one that is causing the problem.
I can't answer your question but if it was a low battery, the alarm would chirp occassionally not the constant urgent tone that you get with actual smoke.
We have our Kidde 1275's on the bedroom AFCI lighting circuit, so that alone doesn't cause the units to trip.
As alread stated, check for a flashing LED on one unit - this will be the one that set all the alarms off. Also, check 'Section 2' in the Kidde instructons to see if you mistakenly placed one alarm in one of the 'wrong' locations listed.
Disconnect the third wire on all of them and try again. One detector may be defective, and it will sound alone. Also, while they're all disconnected, check the third wire for shorts.
Genious. Pure genious.SamT
brilyant also