ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area smoke detector woes

Anyone have any bad luck with a.c/d.c powered interconnected smokies? We currently have 3 new homes (all less then 2 years old) that are coming up with a common problem, none which we have verified personally.

Problem is that the detectors sound off (and because all are interconnected, all sound) for a couple of seconds, then will not sound for a while after that. No buttons being pressed at these times, and, of course, no smoke. This occures in about 1 hour intervals. All had new batteries when installed, and the latest ones are less than 3 months old.

Like I said, we have not done any troubleshooting on them at this time.

I am relative sure they are on AFCIs, but I do not know if they are seperate circuits, or fed off a bedroom circuit. Could this be causing the problem?

Has anyone had similiar problems? Any solutions?

TIA

Rick

Rick,

If I had to guess I'd say that it is one that is setting the others off for some reason. If there is no obvious cause in sight, maybe one blinks when going off or otherwise indicates it is the problem (instructions may help here). If there are many you could disconnect half of them and go away for awhile to see if it stops then narrow it down from there. Or if only a few, it's probably easier/cheaper to replace them all.

Bill

What brand? There was one a couple years ago that had alot of trouble like you describe. I can't seem to remember right now.

I will have to get back to you on this.

Rick