3:30AM and every smoke alarm goes off...
 

It never fails, if the smoke alarm is gonna go off it will do so in the wee hours...

Well it happened a few hours ago. I went through every room and checked for smoke, even the attics and garage, checked each one and all showed red but no blink - strange. Wife calls FD non-emergency, PD shows in less than 2 minutes - impressive, FD in less than 5. i like this town.

The officer tells me that he has had 4 similar calls in the past night with the same thing. I asked him if it could be sun spot activity or maybe the poles are changing polarity to whit he looks at me as if I had just finished a 1/2 once. I hadn't.

FD enters domicile in full regalia. Dogs are beyound curious but well behaved considering these men stand (in their boots) at least 6'5" and because they are firemen they look the better part of two fidy. No disrespect but its true.

Upon a complete inspection nothing was discovered yet the alarms are all sounding at once. Normally I get an indication of a failed battery by churps spread out. Not the case here.

They took off each and after the third one found that it wasn't the battery but the detector itself had expired. They told me that detectors have a life of about 7 years and that I should look to replace all of them. Makes sense...

Wide awake at 3:30AM and decided i should write an app that would be a homeowners/car owners personal assistant that would have reminders to do everything like check and change smoke detector batteries to get your cholestrol checked!

Looking to source out an Indian programmer...

I had exactly the same thing happen about this time last year (except no police and FD involved). I replaced all the batteries and it continued to happen sporadically. I Googled the make / model of the detectors and also learned that they just wear out and should be replaced every 7 or so years. The alarms were 10 years old so I ordered replacements and problem solved.

Good question though, why does it always happen in the middle of the night ??

I ask myself that on every night call....

Mike if you have a hardwired system, one detector going off will set every other one off.

We recomend new fire and CO detectors every five years.

Sorry, already invented..................MS Outlook calendar

Ok but what about something more specialised? And easier to see further into the future.

"Biological" problems are rarely solved by technology.

It's typically not the lack of knowledge to act, it's the lack of initiative to act.

Think the proverbial horse and water.

That's true.

I've got a couple of the nest ones as the old ones in my new house expired like yours at 2am soon after move in.

The nest ones check the backup battery and sensors every night when they sense the lights go out - no more 3am wake up calls.

Plus it will let me know via smart phone if something is amiss while I'm out.

AM

Exact thing happened to me at my new place. My default now is to replace them all every 5 years. I like the Nest idea.

You are correct in saying they only go off in the middle of the night. I can't understand why either. Mine used to do that & scare the shyte out of us. They're hard wired, and when I turned off the circuit at the main box and just let them run on battery, we didn't have any more problems. They work right now because a few weeks ago my wife created some smoke while cooking, and they all went off. I tried changing out one a couple of years ago I thought might be defective, but it made no difference. I'm thinking when I change them all out for new ones, it's just going to be the battery powered type.

Also to make them less sensitive vacuum the detectors every once in awhile. The little "eye" gets dust in it causing them to go off more often.

I was thinking more of a PM type service reminder for all assets and your self as well...something where you put in some basic data to start out with and it sneds you a reminder of various things to keep you tip top ship shape...

They can go off when they shouldn't, but they can have a high false negative rate, too, which is why you should several throughout the house. Something like 30% of brand new ones might not go off.

Below 40degrees they can have trouble too. The upstairs ones up against the attic could be going off due to that. They get dusty, so some computer keyboard compressed air dust cans should help. There's also two types, ionized and something else- I forget the terms- but one is better for near cooking and hot steam from a shower.
CO detectors expire even quicker. They all have dates stamped on them. Do a little googling and get the same brand so you can just unplug the wires and plug in the new one. It's a lot more of a pain to have to swap pigtails for each one.

Just changed my whole house over for exact same reason. And wife.com and kids were home by themselves while I was traveling on business. Happy times...

I was away on business, and at the time was living in an apartment. 3 story complex, 12 units, I'm on the first floor. The alarms went berserk sometime in the middle of the night and the entire complex was evacuated by the FD.

Came home to unplugged fire alarms laying on the counter and stares from the neighbors.

They were replaced and complex was about 6 years old at the time.

Had two of these calls last night. In both cases, the detectors were old enough to get an AARP card. Most people just have no clue that they need to be replaced.

I don't understand while they would all go off at the same time though....

Hard-wired alarms, when one goes off they all go off.

Just MFing happened to me!!!

3am and the system went nuts. $^&@#$%@#@&%@#$%$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes as mentioned above it is a good idea to vacuum them. Thanks for the reminder to check them all. I have individual battery ones.

Speaking of things going off in the middle of the night I went to the bathroom recently at 2 am and there was no running water. There was a water main break due likely to really warm weather(for here anyway) followed by really cold weather.

Used distilled water for washing(left over from a coolant change) and a couple of bottles of bottled water for drinking. Should have had more bottled water though.
Now have more for the next emergency.:)