Community Chat

[chrystaltree]

We're in a condo and they upgraded the smoke detectors a couple of years ago. They are electronic and don't require batteries.  So, that's one thing we don't have concern ourselves with anymore.

[SeaMaiden]

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@chrystaltree wrote:

We're in a condo and they upgraded the smoke detectors a couple of years ago. They are electronic and don't require batteries.  So, that's one thing we don't have concern ourselves with anymore.

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@chrystaltree  What would happen if your power was out for an extended length of time?  That is where batteries come in useful.

[sunshine45]

the fire department will come out and check your smoke detectors? i have never heard of that before!

[itiswhatitis]

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@Krimpette wrote:

I'm sure most of you are already aware (though I didn't seem to be) that smoke detectors need to be cleaned periodically.  Mine went off over the weekend at 6:00AM on Saturday.  I pressed the reset button and it stopped for a bit.  But then went off again.  To be safe, I then called the fire department.  They came, checked things out, and said that it was probably due to dust or steam from the shower.  The next day, it went off again (this time at 4:30AM).  When I took it down (ready to premanently disarm it, the directions on the UNDERSIDE said the unit should be cleaned periodically ( I believe it said annually).  Got out my container of canned air and hopefully cleaned it thoroughly, as it did not go off this morning.  (My unit is one of those combo smoke/CO detectors, with a 10-year sealed battery).  

Anyway, if your detectors goes off periodically, maybe all it needs is to be freed of dust particles.  I do wish that the manufacturers would place a sticker or something on the OUTSIDE of the unit reminding that they need to be cleaned periodically.

As indicated, most of you are probably, but maybe this info will help someone who isn't.  (The fire department didn't even suggest that I clean it.) 

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Good advice.  Mine typically need a new battery when it starts to "beep."  Mine doesn't go off unless there is too much smoke in a confined area.

[JustJazzmom]

I put on the bottom of the detectors smoke and CO a piece of masking tape with the date I put the device into use and another piece of masking tape over the battery chamber with the date I changed out the battery. Yes, they truly last about 10 years.

[Yardlie]

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@SeaMaiden wrote:

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@chrystaltree wrote:

We're in a condo and they upgraded the smoke detectors a couple of years ago. They are electronic and don't require batteries.  So, that's one thing we don't have concern ourselves with anymore.

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@chrystaltree  What would happen if your power was out for an extended length of time?  That is where batteries come in useful.

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We have a similar type of smoke detectors, but ours also have battery backup in case of a power outage. We change those, along with our CO2 detectors, twice a year.

[Shorty2U]

What a great reminder. DH cleans and switches batteries in our smoke and carbon monoxide detectors when we change clocks whether the batteries are still good or not.

We used to have electric smoke detectors (put in when DH had this house built in 1995, before i met him) but they malfunctioned. So they have long been replaced with batttery smoke and carbon monixide detectors.

[ChynnaBlue]

It might help to think of smoke detectors as particulate detectors.

They beep when particulates get in there, whether that be smoke, dust, or steam. (That's why they don't put smoke detectors in the bathroom where the shower is.) They don't do a chemical analysis of the particulate and only beep if it's smoke.  If you don't dust them (or they get really dusty and then you agitate that dust with a duster), they will sense the particulates and go off.

I grew up with an engineer, so he was always explaining how things work to me.