This morning about 4:30, I’m quietly sipping coffee working through my morning games when suddenly all the smoke and smoke/CO2 alarms in the house go off. As I’m sprinting through the house looking for the culprit they suddenly stop, and one of them chirps 3 times quickly, then all silent. They all showed a solid green light during and after the few minutes of chaos. They’ve all been silent for almost an hour and all lights are still green.
All alarms were replaced last year, batteries all less than a year old as well.
After 90 some-dd minutes have passed I do think it’s dust on one of them. I found one continuously blinking green and has some dust on the outside built up, so it’s the likely the culprit. When the wife wakes I’ll try pull it down and clean it and try to clear the alarm.
We had this about ten years ago. All four of the alarms in the house at random times would go off. When they go off at 3 am and the little kids are all alarmed and crying it makes for good times. I ended up just replacing them all. Because of liability concerns there are only a few manufacturers of smoke alarms. Or at least there were only a few. No idea what situation is now.
24 hours have passed and nary a single chirp from the smoke detectors. I pull the suspect detector down, vacuumed the dust as best I could and it’s been showing a solid green light ever since.
We have hardwired smoke/CO2 detectors with battery backups. We have to change the batteries every 6 months instead of every year out of fear one will blare at us at 2:30 in the morning. In 5 years we’ve had middle of the night alerts (full blown FIRE and beeping) 4 times. Having been through a legit house fire at midnight once it shakes everyone’s nerves.
