Squawking smoke alarm

[Jimbo]

I have a smoke alarm on the landing, it's about two years old. In the last couple of weeks it's started giving an odd high-pitched squawking noise. This noise lasts about half a second, and always happens in the middle of the night, it's not a regular periodic bleep like when the alarms run out of battery. I replaced the battery yesterday evening just in case, but it still squawked at about 4am this morning. Everything works fine if I push the test button.

Does anybody know what's happening? And why does it only happen in the middle of the night?

 

[IanDB]

Try cleaning it out using the hoover or blowing it. I've known things like insects get behind the circuit board and cause intermittent alarms.

 

[masona]

In my alarm handbook does say you should hoover the smoke alarm or blow the dusts out at least once a month.

 

[Dirk]

Bin it and buy a new one. Don't take the risk of having a faulty alarm

 

[Thermo]

go for a new one, not worth the bother or chance

 

[breezer]

agree with others, @ less than £5 not worth the hassle

 

[Thermo]

thinking about it are you sure the new battery is any good? The temperature at night usually falls lower than during the day and that will drain the battery down past the point of no return if its low, hence why its squawking at night. Id still get a new one though or try another battery

 

[breezer]

id still buy a new one, they come with battery, new duracell (other brands are avialable) cost almost as much

 

[Thermo]

didnt i just say that twice!

 

[Jimbo]

Yep, will probably replace. The cost is minimal, I was just curious as to why it squawks exactly once, each night, and at no other time during the evening.

Maybe it's ectoplasm.

 

[felix]

If it really does happen just once a night and always at the same time, I'd suspect electrical interference. Smoke alarms contain a measurement circuit with a very high input impedance, just right for picking up a burst of RF if it's not adequately screened.

1) Get a new one.

2) To satisfy your curiosity, put the old one somewhere else in the house - like beside your bed.

3) If it still squarks beside the bed, put it inside a metal box for the night.

Incidentally, did you know that you can use old smoke alarms to make gold? I'm not making this up. With the addition of a simple component available from your local electronics store you really can make gold in the comfort of your own home. Oh, I nearly forgot, you'll also need some platinum ---

 

[Thermo]

felix, do you wear a pointy hat and have a long white beard you alchemist!

(have to be a bit sad to want to put it beside the bed in a metal box to find out whats going on! )

 

[felix]

No pointy hat or beard required. This is 100% pure muggle magic. Anybody can do it. If I wasn't so honest I think I could make a small fortune out of this one, selling the extra device with full instructions on its use for, let me think, a tenner perhaps? (Platinum not supplied).

 

[confidentincompetent]

Does anybody know what's happening? And why does it only happen in the middle of the night?

I had this same prob in my last old house (1930s) Swopped alarms round still same result. couldnt understand it till one early morning it reeely went off got up to find smoke coming from airing cupboard and imersion switch melting, turned out to be a loose connection (incoming) so even tho it was never switched on it was still quietly sparking away. seems only enough smoke to set alarm off when all doors shut and had chance to accumalate. Same alarm gave no more probs after this fault was rectified.

 

[Jimbo]

After replacing both hall and landing smoke alarms, I realised that the noise is actually coming from the phone in the bedroom My excuse is that at 3am I wasn't ever really awake enough to determine the source of a 1 second squawk!!

Anyway, it strikes me that as this happens only once a night (and in fact not every night as I previously posted), I believe it to be my Sky+ box 'phoning home' to tell James Murdoch what I've been watching. I keep meaning to disconnect my Sky+ from the phone line to verify this theory, but I keep forgetting...

Has anybody else experienced this 'phenomenon'?