What do I do about this alarm? (1 Viewer)

[gianmarco]

Last night, in the middle of the night (~3am), a piercing alarm goes off in my house. Now, we have a monitored security system and we also have smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors. This alarm was NOT the security system.

I have not had any recent low battery chirps and this was certainly not one of those. The alarm went off for about 5 seconds and then stopped. About 20 seconds later it did it again, then stopped again after 5 seconds. It didn't do it again.

I don't know if it was the smoke alarm or the CO alarm nor do I know why it went off and why it stopped. Similarly, because they are all tied together, I'm not sure which alarm was actually going off.

Since there has been no other alarms since, I have no idea what to make of it. Faulty alarm? If so, how do I find out which one and why. Possible exposure to either that somehow was only minor?

Of course, my wife wanted to open a window afteward "just in case". I'll hang up and listen.

 

[Officer Pete Malloy]

Was it louder than 68 guns?

 

[shuke]

Can't you test each one?

 

[MattFancy]

We had something similar happen last month with our smoke/CO detectors. Ours started shouting "Fire, Fire" and beeping like crazy. It was a faulty battery. For ours at least, the one that triggers it flashes red so it's easy to see which room it was coming from.

 

[gianmarco]

Can't you test each one?

I guess, but how?

We had something similar happen last month with our smoke/CO detectors. Ours started shouting "Fire, Fire" and beeping like crazy. It was a faulty battery. For ours at least, the one that triggers it flashes red so it's easy to see which room it was coming from.

Yeah, I'll take a look when I get home from work today (had to leave early), but I'm not sure anything will still be showing. It is good to know that it could just be the battery even though there was no prior notice.

 

[MattFancy]

Can't you test each one?

I guess, but how?

We had something similar happen last month with our smoke/CO detectors. Ours started shouting "Fire, Fire" and beeping like crazy. It was a faulty battery. For ours at least, the one that triggers it flashes red so it's easy to see which room it was coming from.

Yeah, I'll take a look when I get home from work today (had to leave early), but I'm not sure anything will still be showing. It is good to know that it could just be the battery even though there was no prior notice.

Same thing with us. Usually you get that chirping noise when the battery is low. We didn't get that before it went off. Changed batteries and haven't had an issue since. It's weird though because we had the same thing happen last year too with a different detector. Both times, it's happened at like 3-4am.

 

[Dan Lambskin]

Emergency Broadcast Test on a TV somewhere?

 

[RUSF18]

I would call your security system people and have them come out and check it. Even if you ruled it out, they might have a better idea.

 

[Mr. Ected]

We had a nearby lightning strike the other day (I assume it was, very loud!!!) and shortly thereafter my smoke detectors started beeping randomly like their batteries were low. We did not lose power, TV and Internet was still running fine, no interruptions.

I went around the house and pressed test buttons for a couple seconds and everything is fine now.

 

[17seconds]

I've had it happen with dust inside an old smoke detector. Hit the test button, if it still keeps happening change the battery, if it still keeps happening blow out the dust.

 

[SWC]

Can't you test each one?

I guess, but how?

start your house on fire bromigo

 

[3C's]

How old are the smoke detectors? Some models have a "feature" that will sound an alarm when they're approaching 10 years old. Happened to me last year, also around 3am.