I found it amusing that these posts were adjacent.
this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2024
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Call the fire department, they have detectors that they can use to look for gas leaks and other things that can set off a detector.
You can also call your gas provider. One of those two should be able to track it down, it could be a lot of things, but two different smoke detectors going off in the same location is a huge red flag.
Best case, you have something kicking up fine dust, worst case, you have a smouldering electric fire in your wall somewhere.
Don't panic, but also do not ignore this.
The weird thing is, it alarmed three times in its current position, but when I changed the battery, it started alarming in my hands in a completely different room, which I already had two other smoke detectors in it that weren't going off.
and there's no gas. I live outside Miami
This makes it sound like it's probably just a defective detector. Swap it with one that hasn't been going off and see if that one starts going off too. If it doesn't then odds are something just failed in it.
You could also just try blowing some air through it to blow out any dust. But it shouldn't be that dusty after only a year so I'm still leaning towards defective.
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I've set one off while dying my hair.
I need to replace a set of expired smoke detector at my elderly parents' house. They're too old to have alarms going off in the middle of the night just because the wind blows.
Yet, Amazon only seem to sell ones with photo-electric sensors, and many reviews complain about over-sensitivity with dust, and under-sensitivity when the room is clearly full of smoke.
Additionally, the ones with sealed 10 year batteries - many reviews report a battery life of 2 years or so in practice, with increased false positives as battery life runs down. So now, they have to replace whole units rather than just batteries.
What happened to good old ionizing smoke detectors with 9v batteries that needed replacing every 2 years or so?!
Have you tried driving to the store?
Spend a bit more on UL approved brands, those tend to be more resilient to dust.
Photoelectric type is better for home use as your typical fires are smouldering, which photoelectrics are better at catching.
Here's a deep dive if you're interested https://youtu.be/DuAeaIcAXtg
so the other brand I have in my house, I've been very happy with. First Alert combination smoke and carbon monoxide. The only improvement they've made is that it runs on AA instead of 9V (I'm pretty sure my smoke detectors were the only reason I was keeping 9 volt around the house anymore), and you can slide the battery tray out without removing the detector so you can disable the alarm and replace the batteries without even having to take it down
Iβd call the fire department to ask them to come out and make sure that thereβs not anything slow burning thatβs hidden in the walls. Be sure to mention two separate smoke detectors have been going off. Even if thatβs not what it is theyβll be fine with coming out to check.
Anecdotally, when I was a kid, we had an electrical issue wherein a short or something was causing wires to slowly melt through their jacket, inside the wall. It was triggering smoke detectors, but we couldn't see or smell anything. Fire department came out and found it, but if we'd ignored it, it almost definitely would have been a huge house fire eventually. Definitely second this advice. It doesn't cost anything to have them come look.
In my first apartment, I had a smoke detector that was mains powered. The wire metals weren't compatible and eventually the wirenuts burned and cut off power to half the room. The smoke detector's wires were all burnt up. It never alarmed unfortunately so I only learned about it when half the room just went dark. That could absolutely have turned into an electrical fire.
Definitely worth getting it checked.
I don't think this is what you're experiencing, but I had an alarm go off randomly for one beep once. Went and looked at it, and a few seconds later a spider crawled out and away from it.
If it's photoelectric, anything that could scatter light could cause it to go off. Is your house dusty?
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Mine went off in high humidity when I showered and forgot to turn on the fan
I thought of this one too. "Photoelectric" smoke detectors are a thing, and it's good to know if that's the kind you have.
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I have set off smoke detectors with a power washer and with saw dust
I had trouble with them going off in humidity, they were past their expiry date so replacing them fixed the issue.
High humidity can cause them to go off as well. Used to use a cool air humidifier in our kids' room at night and had to stop because it would eventually set the alarm off.
A ghost π»
I wish he'd come over and tickle my balls instead of tickling my smoke detector
Had to scroll way too long to find the right answer.
They are probably both about the same age and need replacing. Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors have a finite lifespan, no matter how often you change the batteries. Fortunately they're not all that expensive, just get new ones. I had the same problem in my apartment last year, and the carbon monoxide detector was over 10 years old. So they just replaced it, problem solved.
so, my alarm company replaced it. installed the new smoke detector yesterday and⦠it just went off again.
Nice theory but it's disproven by OP's initial text
I think he's trying to say that maybe they sent me a new detector that was just as old as the old one, but they didn't
Interestingly enough, smoke detectors get more sensitive as they get older, but eventually they just stop working.
If your smoke detectors go off every time you cook, it's time to replace them.
I've had the first detector for like 5 years and the second had a manufacture date from about a year ago
Dust maybe? Dust can have the same particles as smoke.
omg πππ The new detector went on off in the living room where the old one did. switched it to the kitchen, put the kitchen detector in the living room, and the new one went off in the kitchen. wtffff
Might be worth buying an infrared thermometer to see if there is wiring overheating in your walls. I'm not an electrician but i wonder if it's something then can happen sporadically such as if there is something drawing a lot of power that turns on/off. There are inexpensive ones out there and they can be handy to have around.
Spiderwebs or insects can mess with the sensors, likewise with dust. Try spraying some canned air inside. Or if it's a few years old, you may want to replace it.
now there's an idea. I live in south Florida and my house was built in the 1950s. I wonder if some spider has decided that the inside of this detector is a good place to hide. blowing it out isn't going to help though, because I replaced the entire detector and if there's a spider going in there, they just went back into the new one immediately. I'm going to have to set up a security camera on this thing
I used to live in Miami and I had a detector do that. Maybe it's pollen? There's a shit ton of weird-ass pollen in Miami.
Are they Kidde? I've had 3 photoelectric Kiddes that started failing and going off randomly. I've been slowly replacing all of mine.
The builder installed them. Occasionally walking through our neighbourhood we hear other people's going off too.
I've had a photoelectric alarm set off by steam from a dryer in the next room, through a closed door.
Since it went off in your hands, have you tried googling the make and model to see if there are any similar complaints or even recalls for them?
update - so I've got two more diagnostic steps. I have another detector of the exact same brand in another room, I'm going to switch them and see what happens. if the detector from my kitchen starts going off by the front door, then I'm going to try another brand that I have elsewhere in the house and move forward from there.
UPDATE: so they kept sending me the same model of smoke detectors so I didn't remove the old bracket, I would just mount the new detector in the old one. well, today, I see a moth larvae crawling out from behind it. I take the bracket off, and there we are; two moth nests. I think we've discovered the issue
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