Smoke alarm help !

[PadihamThickNeck]

The smoke alarms in my house are hard wired, the house is roughly a year old and they was installed when we moved in.

They have been going off in the middle of the night for a few weeks now. Sometimes it’s just one, sometimes its all of them. Last night was the tip of the iceberg they went off 3 times so I have turned them off at the mains board.

Don’t have a clue what’s causing it there’s no chirping or beeping to suggest the batteries need replacing ?

Any help would be greatfully appreciated, I don’t feel comfortable with them off. It’s a horrible and scary thing to wake up to with how loud they are, and obviously disrupts sleep, safe to say I’m knackered this morning !

Thanks

[bfcjg]

If your house is a year old you should still have cover on your NHBC warranty,

[Joe14]

If you’re above a certain age the community fire safety team from Lancs fire and rescue can come round, give you advice and maybe fit new alarms.

An electrician maybe able to sort the issue. If it’s not battery then it must be an electrical issue.

B&Q or the like sell the fire angel type smoke alarm with a 10 year battery for around £15 and they are fairly easy to fit if you can get to your ceiling and know roughly where to position them.

If you rent give your landlord some pain and they should sort it.

[tarkys_ears]

Battery's gone.

They go off to alert you even though it's wired to alert you if the leccys off

Try batt , if not try vacuuming them

Edit: and hah. Yeah ring the nhbc about it...

[beddie]

If the House is only a year old (new build) the first point of contact is the house builder where you should ask them to send someone to look at them ( at their expense) with a view to sorting it. I hope they do because I know from experience it’s awful and frightening when they go off in the night.

[Burnley1989]

You can still disconnect easily enough if they’re hard wired. I also had the same thing in a 6 month old house, it looks like you can’t disconnect but you can.

[dushanbe]

Are they going into full alarm, or just chirping?

If they are interlinked, then if one goes into alarm then they should all go off, which makes me think they aren't 'going off' as such, if its sometimes one and sometimes all.

As others have said, its probably a battery issue. Once the voltage starts to get a bit low in a cell, they will drop below the threshold perhaps when the room goes a bit cold - like at night - and start to chirp. Thats probably why its all a bit intermittent.

Go out today and buy some replacement batteries, don't leave them disconnected.

[PadihamThickNeck]

Are they going into full alarm, or just chirping?

If they are interlinked, then if one goes into alarm then they should all go off, which makes me think they aren't 'going off' as such, if its sometimes one and sometimes all.

As others have said, its probably a battery issue. Once the voltage starts to get a bit low in a cell, they will drop below the threshold perhaps when the room goes a bit cold - like at night - and start to chirp. Thats probably why its all a bit intermittent.

Go out today and buy some replacement batteries, don't leave them disconnected.

They are going into full alarm.

It only ever happens in the middle of the night maybe when the temperature drops ?

Why don’t leave them disconnected ? The girlfriend is home all day today there’s someone coming round to look at them today.

Cheers

[timel0veandtendayi]

Already been mentioned above but take the covers off, give them a good dust and vac them. It could just be dust on the sensors. And change the batteries on all of them (mentioned above but they typically have batteries as a back up if the power goes off). I'd do that before chasing anything on a warranty.

Failing that, test them all as normal via the button, if they all have power and work fine then the circuit should be fine which is good news (it's a fairly straight forward electrical circuit) so could just be a faulty alarm. Tenner or so to replace and easy to wire up if needed.

[timel0veandtendayi]

They are going into full alarm.

It only ever happens in the middle of the night maybe when the temperature drops ?

Why don’t leave them disconnected ? The girlfriend is home all day today there’s someone coming round to look at them today.

Cheers

A single beep now and again normally indicates the back-up battery dying. Going into full alarm suggests something in one of the alarms. I wonder if it's just coincidence that it's happening at night and they need a good clean out? It happened to me after having a new kitchen fitted. The one in the kitchen was full of muck and I couldn't get the sensor completely dust free (my fault, I should have covered it) but all fine since I replaced it.

[ClaretMov]

New battery needed

[beddie]

PTN. I’ve given you the solution earlier. Forget changing batteries, covers etc. Contact the Builder. All this messing with them will void any warranty. It’s foolish to even touch them.

[dushanbe]

PTN. I’ve given you the solution earlier. Forget changing batteries, covers etc. Contact the Builder. All this messing with them will void any warranty. It’s foolish to even touch them.

Thats fine and I agree, however depending on how long that takes, the house currently doesn't appear to have working smoke detection. Its my day job so fire detection being disconnected makes me nervous.

[dsr]

Thats fine and I agree, however depending on how long that takes, the house currently doesn't appear to have working smoke detection. Its my day job so fire detection being disconnected makes me nervous.

You can get a battery powered smoke alarm 2 for £10.50 from amazon, delivery Thursday, or no doubt they can be bought locally. That should do for short term cover.

[PadihamThickNeck]

Cheers everyone, managed to get hold of the company that installed them. They come out yesterday, he said it’s more than likely just a fault in one of the alarms. He’s coming back today to change every single smoke alarm free of charge.

[CleggHall]

All’s well that ends well!