fire alarms

[dragon]

:thumpdown: Ok so it never fails 2AM and the dam fire alarm goes chirp chirp . I wake up and then don’t hear anything still awake I hear nothing so back to sleep:sleep: . From what I think is 5 or so minuets later chirp chirp ok now I know it’s the fire alarm and it has woke me and my wife up, the dogs are barking and I bet the whole dam neighborhood knows that my fire alarm is chirping it so dam loud. Ok so I am pissed by this point and go get the ladder get the 9volt battery climb up the ladder still half asleep and change the dam 9volt battery. Then go back to bed every thing is great. Then at 3AM chirp chirp WHAT THE F%$#. I just changed that battery. O it’s a different fire alarm that is chirping. You know the sad thing about this whole deal is IF THESE FIRE ALARMS ARE WIRED TO MY HOUSE WHY DO THE BATTERIES GO BAD!:stupido2::idea: Now im not a engineer by any means but if my house looses power then the battery should take over. Meaning I should never have to change my batteries in the F'N fire alare at 2AM ever.

The jacked up thing about all of this is I have been through this 3 time. Never during the day, always at night when we are sleeping :sleep: and its always more then 1 that I have to change the batteries in. I have 10 of these POS fire alarms in my house and every time I hear one chirp I will change that battery then I will change the batteries in all of them the next day.

Again these dam things are wired into the house what the hell am I doing changing batteries at 2AM.

Thanks for listening to my gripe.

 

[FATJACK]

Who knows??? Trying to watch Porn now, go to sleep!!

 

[ntw0rk]

Might be time to think about buying some different ones. :dontknow:

 

[GriffsSRT]

Wired or not for some reason those damn things just chirp. I took two down and had to break them with a hammer........I KNOW YOUR PAIN

 

[NBT]

The batteries should be swapped every time the daylight saving's time change is done to ensure they will not give you BS like that through out the year... it's what we advise anyhow.

 

[Ram From Hell]

I'm in the fire alarm business, and routinely have people calling up asking why the detector that we installed in their house is beeping. I try to tell them that they don't have the means to make noise, and that it's one of their 120VAC detectors. Some of those calls come in the middle of the night, so I get to share their frustration.

That aside, make sure that the detector is actually getting power from the house circuit. I've gone into some nice homes that the electricians have inadvertantly forgotten to tie in portions of the house to the circuit dedicated to the smoke detectors. The detectors are then only powered by the battery, so they'll go through them pretty fast. If there is voltage at the detector, just replace the $15.00 POS.

FWIW, the last time that happened to me was in a bed and breakfast in Colorado Springs, on Christmas eve, late at night after having flown in that day. It was about 0 degrees out and snowing, and I had to trudge over to the caretaker's house to get someone to deal with it. I'd have done it myself, but it was about 20' high (just out of my reach ).

 

[azpyroguy]

I have about 7 in my house that are wired to 120VAC, but also have 9v battery backups, but regardless of needing it or not I replace the batteries every 2 years with 9v Litium batteries.

I then also have 2 more (1 in garage, and 1 in main living area) that are tied to my central security system) that are wireless and have 3v lithium cells, those I replace the batteries every year regardless.

I figure spending $20-25 every two years is cheap insurance...

 

[TNVIPER]

I have one large battery in my alarm box..not in each detector...this battery is supposed to be changed every 3 yrs but I let the last one go 7 years.....

 

[BurntRubber]

one of those things you do on January 1st...NBT we don't have daylight savings here in AZ...were special!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Ram From Hell]

I have one large battery in my alarm box..not in each detector...this battery is supposed to be changed every 3 yrs but I let the last one go 7 years.....

Detectors like those (connected to a burlar alarm system) meet the dual power requirements by the panel being powered by AC, with a battery for a reserve. If it's a recently installed system, the detectors should also have built in sounders.

Actually, on commercial fire alarms (we use the same batteries on burg and fire systems) the code requires replacement at 5 years. Those will typically last between 5 and 7 years, but if you have more frequent outages it can be as few as 4.