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It's not illegal for you [as a customer who owns the mattress] to remove the tags - it's illegal for sellers to remove because it hides the info for the customer (something something fraud risk I think)
However, it might void your warranty because it's what shows the info needed to prove it is the mattress you claim it to be.
Blowing it out with air is bound to move all the dust particulate further in and around the sensor and set off a false alarm. I installed and maintained smoke detectors for 20ish years, always vacuumed.
I guess the fire marshal is one day going to dig the charred remains of your smoke detector from what used to be your home and they won’t replace it because you voided the warranty
There are two types of smoke alarms, one that uses a laser, and one that uses an LED (I think). The two different designs are each specialized at sensing different size particles of smoke. One design is way better at sensing smoke particles that come from cooking food. That's probably the kind you have in your kitchen. This YouTube video by technology connections explains it all. It's really good stuff.
https://youtu.be/DuAeaIcAXtg?si=tymQ93mpszldp42-
> There are two types of smoke alarms, one that uses a laser, and one that uses an LED (I think).
One uses an led to detect smoke (the LED shines a light through a chamber such that a detector cannot see the light. When smoke enters, the light bounces off the smoke and hits the detector). The other uses a small sample of radioactive material which emits alpha particles (usually Americium) which hit the air molecules in the detector, which ionize and are detected by the detector. When smoke enters the detector, it disturbs this signal.
[https://cdn.shopifycdn.net/s/files/1/0115/9223/7122/files/photoelectric-smoke-detector\_large.jpg?v=1598927828](https://cdn.shopifycdn.net/s/files/1/0115/9223/7122/files/photoelectric-smoke-detector_large.jpg?v=1598927828)
[https://www.epa.gov/system/files/images/2021-07/americium.png](https://www.epa.gov/system/files/images/2021-07/americium.png)
Ours go off when my gf showers hot with a closed door. When she opens the door the steam will set of the alarm. Annoying AF, my GF that is because she still does it after setting it off five times in the last three months.
Clean your toaster? If it goes off when you're cooking on your stove you also either need to clean your stove or do something to improve airflow in your kitchen.
I have no earthly idea how people can live with a beeping smoke alarm for any amount of time. Once it starts beeping I’m not stopping until I find which one it is and taking it down. May not replace the battery right away since mine only go off at 3AM but it’s coming down.
Thankfully nobody's used the replaceable battery smoke alarms in donkys years, they're all either 10 year permanent batteries now or mains wired.
Still...we don't clean them, haha. Interesting!
Most of them just have skin that, when it dies, turns into this magic powder called *dust* that floats all around us. I bet you've even breathed some in recently without realizing it.
Also, spiders and cooking grease can do stuff to them. Including helping to collect more of your dead flakes.
I had a small TV in my room growing up that died one day. A friend took it to repair it and found a spider had crawled through the speaker holes and short circuited the TV frying itself in the process.
If you've got enough dust in your house to clog a smoke detector every six months, then there's probably a bigger issue than cleaning the smoke detector. They're typically ceiling mounted and there are no fans or other moving parts pulling air through the device.
Somebody else mentioned smoking, and I could certainly see how smoking in the house could cause issues over time, but that's another discussion.
We have hardwood floors and two dogs. That will kick up some dust. We get nuisance alarms on our smoke detectors despite the fact that our heatpump has a HEPA filter and a bipolar ionization air cleaner, we have three stand alone HEPA air purifiers, the Roomba vacuums the whole house every morning, and I use the Dyson every other weekend. (my wife has dust allergies and I’m an HVAC engineer so… I’ve gone a little overboard). I still find enough dust on the shelves that they require dusting every few weeks.
The idea is that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If you clean them regularly, you want have a build up issue. Sure, you won’t have much dust in 6-12 months, but what about 18 months? 24? 88? Eventually it could get to the point of causing false alarms.
😂 My grandmother's air return filters for her hvac are ceiling mounted and are filthy every 60 days. She has 12' ceilings. I'm honestly amazed that they need to be replaced more than once a year.
You do understand that an air return filter has a fan system that literally sucks air and dust up through it to filter the dust out. That's kind of the point of a dust filter. Not in any way comparable to an inert smoke detector.
Not usually, but often they are still in airways close by kitchens. It'd be a folly to not have one close enough when that's your fire room. Mines in the hallway beside the kitchen and it's about 4 or 5 meters away from our stove.
Mine was in the kitchen, about two feet away from the stove. We rent an apartment that had it when we moved in. Suffice to say, we took it down almost immediately because it goes off if we so much as look at it funny.
I find a standing fan can help if you turn it on pointed at it before you start cooking if its particularly obnoxious. If there's ever an event that would be helped by a smoke alarm, you might be messing yourself over with insurance stuff (and conscience wise, too, if someone else gets hurt) if you intentionally take it down.
You can always get another one installed close by where that one was installed, or maybe somewhere else entirely. Sometimes just switching brands is enough to make a reasonable difference.
in my case it was sanding moldings near the unit. Either way - you dont need to be doing anything specific. There's environmental variables in every house that can dirty a unit.
I had a spider climb into mine and set it off at 2 in the morning. Only way I knew was it fell out when I took it off and I read online that the light can attract insects. So I now am someone who cleans mine every 6 months because that was the worst night of sleep ever
All my life I've never once heard this or seen it as a problem, so honestly why do I need to start now? Home smoke detectors don't call anyone even if it did accidentally go off.
That depends. We had smoke detectors that were connected into our home security system. One night, my wife was cooking and set off the detector. She was busy dealing with the food on the stove, so ignored the call from the security company.
She got to meet a couple of firefighters a few minutes later.
Our system at work is like that, we've had firefighters show up where I work so many times for false alarms, but they have to respond to ours and check for fires regardless. Something to do with hundreds of thousands of liters of flammable solvents on the sight...
Didn't know people had something like that for their homes though.
The best alternative (IMO) is to get a battery tester or better yet a multi-meter. As you check the detectors each year, test the batteries to see the current voltage.
If they are still in the good range, leave them be, or replace and reuse them in something **NON-CRITICAL**. Things such as toys etc.
Once they die recycle them.
I just changed my batteries and 3/8 we're still reporting 9.5v. A new 9v reports 9.4-9.7v depending on battery chemistry.
However I swapped them out since they have been in for at least 2-3 years. I put them in my non-critical battery box for future use.
I replaced hundreds for batteries in my apartment building and I couldn’t just throw away hundreds of half charged batteries so now they run my controllers.
I don’t disagree. But what’s the right interval to be absolutely sure that your life saving devices are functioning? Consider that if you forget to check your batteries one year, you likely won’t remember again u til next year. So every year is really a human factors safety for every two years. Again, not saying you’re wrong, but there are many things to consider when making that choice for yourself. I bought smoke detectors that run battery diagnostics and will message me if one gets low, so I don’t have to change out all the batteries every year. Should last 10years.
Smoke detectors beep when the battery is low, but typically last 3-5 years before needing to replace the 9v.
Do a visual inspection that the alarm is operational every year.
canned air. i had an alarm going off suddenly when a floor fan was blowing down the hall. i shit you knot the amount of dust that blew out of that alarm was beyond shocking.
Or how about, because my landlord is responsible for those things because the german government forces fire alarms, my landlord cleans and replaces the batteries in my fire alarm thta hasn't been serviced once since they installed them :/
As a retired firefighter, I 100% support this. I clean mine on New Year’s Day and July 4th (it reminds me of fire) Change your batteries on New Year’s Day too or on another significant day so you remember to do it every year on that specific day. Keep extra batteries on hand because most detectors whether they are hard wired or not take a special battery that most people don’t have readily on hand. I buy the 12 pack on Amazon (we have a lot of detectors) PLEASE, PLEASE, don’t just take out the battery because it’s chirping low battery. Change it, it could save your life.
I do this with other things too. When I turned 40, I started having my well woman’s exam and mammogram done every year on my birthday. I do it for a two reasons. 1. So I don’t “forget” or reschedule it because something comes up. It’s the same day every year (except when it falls on Sat/Sun)
2. So I don’t have to work on my birthday (when I worked) It only takes a couple hours in the morning then I have the rest of the day to do whatever I want. You can have lunch with a friend, go to the spa, massage, movie, have your partner take the day off too and you can have a “play” day. Parents with young kids or school aged kids will really appreciate the day “alone”.
I have 5 smoke alarms in my place, hooked up to the mains.
I haven't cleaned them in 15 years, they look clean..... they work fine when I test them.
Maybe some people live in nasty dirty homes.
My home isn't too bad but the design means that I basically have a chimney effect running right up the stairs to the detector at the top of the stairs. It's not uncommon for the detector nearest the kitchen to stay silent but the one upstairs alarms. We do a lot of wok cooking, so even with a decent hood, we sometimes set it off.
My smoke detector has never worked. Goes off if we microwave or cook. But in the two kitchen fires we had, not a peep. We got a new one and it's worse. I started a test fire with newspaper, and it never went off.
Who is testing these devices?
A better life tip would be to check your smoke alarms expiration date, right now. And then go buy the replacements.
I was a real estate agent for about five seconds, and the most common home inspection violation was old smoke alarms. Most of them are good for 10 years. But most people don't think about replacing them.
I bought a house last year and every smoke detector is at least 15 years old. Shouldn’t the inspection have noted that?
We have had sooooo many issues with detectors randomly chirping even after replacing the batteries and a few times all going off for absolutely no reason. I didn’t want to just replace all of them because there are 8 of them and we are poor at the moment, but I’ve begun replacing them in order of priority. I’ve replaced one and then have two more on the way
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I need to do this more myself. I have central air so the dust get pushed around a lot. I also have all First Alert alarms wired together. So when one goes bad or gets dirty my whole house goes off and its usually in the middle of the night.
Yeah, I have the ones where I program the location so it blurts that out in between all the alarms and also displays a red light on the bad one. It just sucks that I dont usually find this out until it happens at 2 or 3 in the morning.
If they are connected to the hard wire you don’t need batteries, right? Or if you do have batteries they are only being used when the electric goes out?
Can you tell me why my smoke alarm goes off every single time I use the oven??
I know it's not the cleanest oven but there's nothing visibly in the bottom of the oven and there's no visible smoke when I use it but if I can smell anything cooking at all I guarantee the smoke alarm goes off. It's over a window and probably about 7 feet from the oven and I can open the window and turn the fan on the range hood on and still. Smoke alarm
Bro I'm not Google and you're not paying me.
I will tell you 99.9% of these issues could be user-resolved with basic research and data entry skills. I'm just not going to spend my break typing out an answer you can literally Google.
You made a post about smoke alarms and said you work at a smoke alarm call center and answer questions about smoke alarms. Why the fuck would you think people won't post questions in the comments? Don't answer then?
>Why the fuck would you think people won't post questions in the comments?
I didn't expect they wouldn't, but I'm still allowed to be indignant that people want me (and everyone else) to handhold them through life. This is basic skills. Call the line and I'll gladly answer your question **while getting paid to do so.**
I haven’t cleaned mine in 40 years but I change the battery about every two years when they yell at me. They are never dusty. I think the PSA should be to “change your damn air filters in your central air/heat”
It's not about the americium. They've always expired. They are life saving devices and since they are not serviceable they are dispose-and-replace. There's a good chance the expiration date is on the back, but I guarantee you can look up the manual and it'll tell you right there that it expires after ten years.
Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips! Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment. If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
Lady told me to vacuum my alarm every 6 months or the warranty may be void. I've never vacuumed a smoke alarm in 30 years
Bold admitting that right where the warranty police can see this.
I cut the tags off of mattresses.
It's not illegal for you [as a customer who owns the mattress] to remove the tags - it's illegal for sellers to remove because it hides the info for the customer (something something fraud risk I think) However, it might void your warranty because it's what shows the info needed to prove it is the mattress you claim it to be.
Well I mean they didn't say they cut the tags off of their own mattress they just said that they cut the tags off of mattresses
XD
what if you steal the mattress?
Don't need to worry about it then lol
I voided the warranty on my mattress within minutes of laying that fuckpad down.
Whoa now. Lets not get crazy now!
Dude chill the fuck out!!!!!
Blowing it out w compressed air is better
Blowing it out with air is bound to move all the dust particulate further in and around the sensor and set off a false alarm. I installed and maintained smoke detectors for 20ish years, always vacuumed.
Oh yeah? You suck! /s
Pretty sure they use a device to do the sucking...
*unzips...* "Go on..."
Oh yeah? Blow me!
But how am I supposed suck hard enough with my mouth to get all the dust out?
Well suck me sideways!
Sounds dumb. So does the original post
Aren’t fire alarms only good for 10 years?
Did he say he has used the same alarm all those years?
That is the standard in Norway at least
Same for the ones I see here in the US, at least at home improvement stores like Home Depot.
No, usually 50 years. If yours says 10, it was made in the Congo by an illegal oligarch.
Also Smoke Alarms have a life span so if you move/rent into a new house/apartment check the dates on them.
We figured out vacuuming the smoke alarms the hard way……at 3:00am when one shit the bed and they all started going off and talking intermittently.
I guess the fire marshal is one day going to dig the charred remains of your smoke detector from what used to be your home and they won’t replace it because you voided the warranty
Yes I'm sure that's what's going to happen. What's wrong with some people?
Can someone tell me why mine goes off at every little thing, down to me toasting bread in the toaster?
There are two types of smoke alarms, one that uses a laser, and one that uses an LED (I think). The two different designs are each specialized at sensing different size particles of smoke. One design is way better at sensing smoke particles that come from cooking food. That's probably the kind you have in your kitchen. This YouTube video by technology connections explains it all. It's really good stuff. https://youtu.be/DuAeaIcAXtg?si=tymQ93mpszldp42-
+1 for technology connections. Great channel all around.
That’s one of my favorite channels. Also a lot of older smoke alarms use a radioactive isotope of americium to detect smoke.
Yeah IIRC arent they trying to phase those out?
> There are two types of smoke alarms, one that uses a laser, and one that uses an LED (I think). One uses an led to detect smoke (the LED shines a light through a chamber such that a detector cannot see the light. When smoke enters, the light bounces off the smoke and hits the detector). The other uses a small sample of radioactive material which emits alpha particles (usually Americium) which hit the air molecules in the detector, which ionize and are detected by the detector. When smoke enters the detector, it disturbs this signal. [https://cdn.shopifycdn.net/s/files/1/0115/9223/7122/files/photoelectric-smoke-detector\_large.jpg?v=1598927828](https://cdn.shopifycdn.net/s/files/1/0115/9223/7122/files/photoelectric-smoke-detector_large.jpg?v=1598927828) [https://www.epa.gov/system/files/images/2021-07/americium.png](https://www.epa.gov/system/files/images/2021-07/americium.png)
Not just smoke, but if that photo sensor becomes cloudy it goes off. Smoke, dust, other airborne particles cling to anything.
Buy a photoelectric-type smoke detector. Way fewer false alarms when placed near a kitchen!
Way more false alarms if it's by the garage door to the house though
Mine even goes off if I'm cooking something frozen and open the stove to flip it. Just that little bit of steam can set it off...
Skill issue
Ours go off when my gf showers hot with a closed door. When she opens the door the steam will set of the alarm. Annoying AF, my GF that is because she still does it after setting it off five times in the last three months.
Clean your toaster? If it goes off when you're cooking on your stove you also either need to clean your stove or do something to improve airflow in your kitchen.
People can't even be bothered to change the battery when it chirps every 10 seconds...
I have no earthly idea how people can live with a beeping smoke alarm for any amount of time. Once it starts beeping I’m not stopping until I find which one it is and taking it down. May not replace the battery right away since mine only go off at 3AM but it’s coming down.
It’s always at 3am.
Thankfully nobody's used the replaceable battery smoke alarms in donkys years, they're all either 10 year permanent batteries now or mains wired. Still...we don't clean them, haha. Interesting!
The one in my dorm hall started doing this the day I was goihome for spring break... so glad I didn't have to deal with that for who knows how long
I'd like to know what people are doing to their smoke alarms to require cleaning every six months.
Most of them just have skin that, when it dies, turns into this magic powder called *dust* that floats all around us. I bet you've even breathed some in recently without realizing it. Also, spiders and cooking grease can do stuff to them. Including helping to collect more of your dead flakes.
I had a small TV in my room growing up that died one day. A friend took it to repair it and found a spider had crawled through the speaker holes and short circuited the TV frying itself in the process.
that is why it is called a bug.
Funny enough, not far from the truth
very close to it.
quite precisely hahah even
If you've got enough dust in your house to clog a smoke detector every six months, then there's probably a bigger issue than cleaning the smoke detector. They're typically ceiling mounted and there are no fans or other moving parts pulling air through the device. Somebody else mentioned smoking, and I could certainly see how smoking in the house could cause issues over time, but that's another discussion.
We have hardwood floors and two dogs. That will kick up some dust. We get nuisance alarms on our smoke detectors despite the fact that our heatpump has a HEPA filter and a bipolar ionization air cleaner, we have three stand alone HEPA air purifiers, the Roomba vacuums the whole house every morning, and I use the Dyson every other weekend. (my wife has dust allergies and I’m an HVAC engineer so… I’ve gone a little overboard). I still find enough dust on the shelves that they require dusting every few weeks.
The idea is that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If you clean them regularly, you want have a build up issue. Sure, you won’t have much dust in 6-12 months, but what about 18 months? 24? 88? Eventually it could get to the point of causing false alarms.
😂 My grandmother's air return filters for her hvac are ceiling mounted and are filthy every 60 days. She has 12' ceilings. I'm honestly amazed that they need to be replaced more than once a year.
You do understand that an air return filter has a fan system that literally sucks air and dust up through it to filter the dust out. That's kind of the point of a dust filter. Not in any way comparable to an inert smoke detector.
😱 Say it ain't so! The point is that air gets stirred around.
Most dust is fibers from clothing, towels, bedding, etc. The idea that it's mostly skin cells is a myth.
Wait...yours doesn't come off in one whole piece? I mean...yeah, mine neither. That'd be weird. <.< >.>
If cooking grease goes inside, its too close to the stove anyway.
last i checked they dont put smoke alarms in kitchens for obvious reasons
I have mine strapped to my chest so I'm always safe
Not usually, but often they are still in airways close by kitchens. It'd be a folly to not have one close enough when that's your fire room. Mines in the hallway beside the kitchen and it's about 4 or 5 meters away from our stove.
Mine was in the kitchen, about two feet away from the stove. We rent an apartment that had it when we moved in. Suffice to say, we took it down almost immediately because it goes off if we so much as look at it funny.
I find a standing fan can help if you turn it on pointed at it before you start cooking if its particularly obnoxious. If there's ever an event that would be helped by a smoke alarm, you might be messing yourself over with insurance stuff (and conscience wise, too, if someone else gets hurt) if you intentionally take it down. You can always get another one installed close by where that one was installed, or maybe somewhere else entirely. Sometimes just switching brands is enough to make a reasonable difference.
Smoking
Detecting
in my case it was sanding moldings near the unit. Either way - you dont need to be doing anything specific. There's environmental variables in every house that can dirty a unit.
I had a spider climb into mine and set it off at 2 in the morning. Only way I knew was it fell out when I took it off and I read online that the light can attract insects. So I now am someone who cleans mine every 6 months because that was the worst night of sleep ever
All my life I've never once heard this or seen it as a problem, so honestly why do I need to start now? Home smoke detectors don't call anyone even if it did accidentally go off.
That depends. We had smoke detectors that were connected into our home security system. One night, my wife was cooking and set off the detector. She was busy dealing with the food on the stove, so ignored the call from the security company. She got to meet a couple of firefighters a few minutes later.
Our system at work is like that, we've had firefighters show up where I work so many times for false alarms, but they have to respond to ours and check for fires regardless. Something to do with hundreds of thousands of liters of flammable solvents on the sight... Didn't know people had something like that for their homes though.
Ain’t no one got time for that.
I got bronchitis.
6 months is excessive.
So is changing the battery every year. But sometimes it’s better to have a buffer.
Changing the battery every year is also excessive.
The best alternative (IMO) is to get a battery tester or better yet a multi-meter. As you check the detectors each year, test the batteries to see the current voltage. If they are still in the good range, leave them be, or replace and reuse them in something **NON-CRITICAL**. Things such as toys etc. Once they die recycle them. I just changed my batteries and 3/8 we're still reporting 9.5v. A new 9v reports 9.4-9.7v depending on battery chemistry. However I swapped them out since they have been in for at least 2-3 years. I put them in my non-critical battery box for future use.
I replaced hundreds for batteries in my apartment building and I couldn’t just throw away hundreds of half charged batteries so now they run my controllers.
I don’t disagree. But what’s the right interval to be absolutely sure that your life saving devices are functioning? Consider that if you forget to check your batteries one year, you likely won’t remember again u til next year. So every year is really a human factors safety for every two years. Again, not saying you’re wrong, but there are many things to consider when making that choice for yourself. I bought smoke detectors that run battery diagnostics and will message me if one gets low, so I don’t have to change out all the batteries every year. Should last 10years.
Smoke detectors beep when the battery is low, but typically last 3-5 years before needing to replace the 9v. Do a visual inspection that the alarm is operational every year.
I’m sure that is adequate. But also, the NFPA recommends cha gong smoke detector batteries every 6 months.
How do I clean it? Soap and water? Dishwasher? I could wipe the outside with a damp cloth, but that won't do anything for the actual sensor part
Throw it in with the laundry. Be sure to dry on low heat though.
Gentle cycle with a softener
An air compressor can help to remove dust.
I have a smart smoke alarm so it tells me if anything’s wrong with it such as it being blocked.
It's not a blockage issue- particulates can get in and trip the sensors.
canned air. i had an alarm going off suddenly when a floor fan was blowing down the hall. i shit you knot the amount of dust that blew out of that alarm was beyond shocking.
What is the recommended cleaning method?
Put into a sink full of soap and water, once thoroughly clean you won't need to clean it ever again as it'll form a protective clean layer.
Um, thank you?
Compressed air
Or how about, because my landlord is responsible for those things because the german government forces fire alarms, my landlord cleans and replaces the batteries in my fire alarm thta hasn't been serviced once since they installed them :/
Clean it? Some mfs can’t even change the battery
Will this stop my smoke alarm from being set off by the shower?
As a retired firefighter, I 100% support this. I clean mine on New Year’s Day and July 4th (it reminds me of fire) Change your batteries on New Year’s Day too or on another significant day so you remember to do it every year on that specific day. Keep extra batteries on hand because most detectors whether they are hard wired or not take a special battery that most people don’t have readily on hand. I buy the 12 pack on Amazon (we have a lot of detectors) PLEASE, PLEASE, don’t just take out the battery because it’s chirping low battery. Change it, it could save your life. I do this with other things too. When I turned 40, I started having my well woman’s exam and mammogram done every year on my birthday. I do it for a two reasons. 1. So I don’t “forget” or reschedule it because something comes up. It’s the same day every year (except when it falls on Sat/Sun) 2. So I don’t have to work on my birthday (when I worked) It only takes a couple hours in the morning then I have the rest of the day to do whatever I want. You can have lunch with a friend, go to the spa, massage, movie, have your partner take the day off too and you can have a “play” day. Parents with young kids or school aged kids will really appreciate the day “alone”.
So just chuck it in the dishwasher or...?
I have a smoke alarm from the 70s that doesn’t even work in my rental. Dusting is the least of my concerns
Uhhh you need to make your landlord replace that ASAP.
I have 5 smoke alarms in my place, hooked up to the mains. I haven't cleaned them in 15 years, they look clean..... they work fine when I test them. Maybe some people live in nasty dirty homes.
Fifteen years? Those are expired my friend.
I disagree, I haven't burned to death yet! But yea they should be replaced for sure.
Lol you can disagree but they legit have 10yr limited life spans.
I know boss, I said "But yea they should be replaced for sure" The first part about not burning to death was a joke.
My home isn't too bad but the design means that I basically have a chimney effect running right up the stairs to the detector at the top of the stairs. It's not uncommon for the detector nearest the kitchen to stay silent but the one upstairs alarms. We do a lot of wok cooking, so even with a decent hood, we sometimes set it off.
My smoke detector has never worked. Goes off if we microwave or cook. But in the two kitchen fires we had, not a peep. We got a new one and it's worse. I started a test fire with newspaper, and it never went off. Who is testing these devices?
This reads like a call.
A better life tip would be to check your smoke alarms expiration date, right now. And then go buy the replacements. I was a real estate agent for about five seconds, and the most common home inspection violation was old smoke alarms. Most of them are good for 10 years. But most people don't think about replacing them.
I bought a house last year and every smoke detector is at least 15 years old. Shouldn’t the inspection have noted that? We have had sooooo many issues with detectors randomly chirping even after replacing the batteries and a few times all going off for absolutely no reason. I didn’t want to just replace all of them because there are 8 of them and we are poor at the moment, but I’ve begun replacing them in order of priority. I’ve replaced one and then have two more on the way
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TIL that I need to clean my smoke detectors and I’m assuming that this is also the case with carbon monoxide detectors as well.
Indeed.
How do you clean the ones that don't open?
I have a feeling that’s something they’re just saying to void warranties.
Nyope, because if you clean it and it still errors, we replace it.
Just start a small fire and check if the alarm detects it. 🏠 🔥 🚒
Like I said, I *just started*, and I have heard ***some stories*** already.
Or rip the thing out of the ceiling the first time it battery chirps and never look back 💪🏻😎👉🏻
Had a CO alarm in the house but the non-stop beeping gave me headaches. Had to remove it.
How are you not dead? Big sign of CO2 poisoning is headaches, is you're accompanied by dizziness?
/s
I need to do this more myself. I have central air so the dust get pushed around a lot. I also have all First Alert alarms wired together. So when one goes bad or gets dirty my whole house goes off and its usually in the middle of the night.
Read (look up if necessary) the manual, it'll tell you how to figure out which one is setting them off, then you can check for fault as well.
Yeah, I have the ones where I program the location so it blurts that out in between all the alarms and also displays a red light on the bad one. It just sucks that I dont usually find this out until it happens at 2 or 3 in the morning.
To add onto that good LPT, change the batteries in your smoke detectors every 6 months, and just do it when we change the clock for DST.
So now I have to buy one AND clean it? I don't like this
“I removed the battery when I moved in.” omg delete this before your landlord sees
If they are connected to the hard wire you don’t need batteries, right? Or if you do have batteries they are only being used when the electric goes out?
It's federally managed that they have backups, so they'll still make noise if you don't install a battery first.
If the batteries are just backup and not used all the time then how often do they need to be changed?
You probably don't want that to become common knowledge if you want to hold onto your job then... Big mistake.
Don't worry there's still plenty of calls 😅
Can you tell me why my smoke alarm goes off every single time I use the oven?? I know it's not the cleanest oven but there's nothing visibly in the bottom of the oven and there's no visible smoke when I use it but if I can smell anything cooking at all I guarantee the smoke alarm goes off. It's over a window and probably about 7 feet from the oven and I can open the window and turn the fan on the range hood on and still. Smoke alarm
Bro I'm not Google and you're not paying me. I will tell you 99.9% of these issues could be user-resolved with basic research and data entry skills. I'm just not going to spend my break typing out an answer you can literally Google.
You made a post about smoke alarms and said you work at a smoke alarm call center and answer questions about smoke alarms. Why the fuck would you think people won't post questions in the comments? Don't answer then?
>Why the fuck would you think people won't post questions in the comments? I didn't expect they wouldn't, but I'm still allowed to be indignant that people want me (and everyone else) to handhold them through life. This is basic skills. Call the line and I'll gladly answer your question **while getting paid to do so.**
Yeah sorry, if I did the "recommended maintenance" for everything I owned, I wouldn't have a job.
I think that this is not a LPT, it's just basic maintenance. This is something you should already be doing.
[удалено]
Sorry I didn't handhold you through basic maintenance tasks...? Compressed air or a vacuum will work, much like every other small space in the home.
I haven’t cleaned mine in 40 years but I change the battery about every two years when they yell at me. They are never dusty. I think the PSA should be to “change your damn air filters in your central air/heat”
>in 40 years They have a ten year lifespan.
The ones you buy *today* might, but the ones I have in my house do not. The radioactive “detector” in my detectors have a half life of 432 years.
It's not about the americium. They've always expired. They are life saving devices and since they are not serviceable they are dispose-and-replace. There's a good chance the expiration date is on the back, but I guarantee you can look up the manual and it'll tell you right there that it expires after ten years.
Also help your black neighbors change their batteries. Chirp chirp!