I’m sure it’s happened to you too... You burn some toast and you just know that your smoke alarm is going to go off. You try to open some windows but it’s too little, too late.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
The good news is that your smoke detector is working! Don’t disable it. It did what it was supposed to do. But what about those times when it goes off for no apparent reason? There is nothing worse than a false alarm. For one thing it might happen in the middle of the night and result in a few scary, heart-pumping minutes while you rush around trying to figure out what’s going on. But more importantly, false alarms condition us to ignore all alarms, which may put us in danger when a real alarm is sounding.
This is something you need to take care of. What’s really going on when it seems there is no reason for your smoke detector to go off?
First, let’s clarify what we’re talking about. Some smoke alarms make a soft, short sound like a ‘chirp’ or ‘beep’ once every minute or so. This is not a false alarm. That is your smoke detector telling you the battery is low.
The solution? Change the battery. Do it today. This is not the kind of thing that should be put off. But after changing it today, you should really make it a habit to change the batteries in all of the smoke detectors in your house once a year. And a good time to do it is when daylight savings time ends in the fall. You’re already walking around changing your clocks, so change the batteries too. This year it will be on November 2nd. So put on your calendar for November 1st that you need to change the smoke alarm batteries, and do it!
But let’s get back to the false alarm. There are two common causes of this annoying problem:
Dust on the sensors
Ionization smoke detectors can mistake dust for smoke. So if your smoke alarm is covered in dust, that’s why the alarm goes off even if there’s no smoke. What could trigger the false alarm? Well, if it is near a window or door then a breeze could move the dust around setting it off.
How do you know if your smoke detector is an ionization style? Look on the back of the detector for the model number. If there is a letter “I” in the model, or if there is any mention of radioactive material, like Americium-241, then it is an ionization smoke detector.
The solution? Use an air spray can or a vacuum cleaner with a wand extension to clean the dust off of the detector. But please be careful while you’re doing this. It is possible you will set off the alarm while cleaning the detector, and you don’t want to fall off the ladder from fright when that piercing beeping starts.
Malfunctioning detector
The second cause of false alarms is that your smoke detector may just be getting old. Smoke detectors have a life-span of five to ten years, and most of them have a date on the back to indicate when it should be replaced. But don’t bother trying to fix it. Smoke detectors are cheap, so throw it out and buy yourself a new one.
The solution? Go to any hardware or home improvement store and buy a new one. We recommend getting an alarm that is a combination heat detector and photoelectric smoke detector.
The heat detector feature detects flames quickly, like an ionization detector does, but the advantage is it doesn’t get false alarms from dust particles.
The photoelectric feature detects smoldering fires that give off lots of smoke before the flames get going strong.
However, heat detector style smoke alarms are not as common as ionization detectors. So if you can’t find one, then buy a combination ionization and photoelectric detector. Just be sure to keep it free of dust to avoid false alarms in the future.
The bottom line is a smoke alarm will save your life in case of a fire. Don’t you want to know that everyone in your family is safe? Then please make sure all the smoke detectors in your house are working.
Have a question? Visit our “Ask an Expert” page and let us know how GAMA Air can help you.