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  • Smoke alarm goes off when it's cold (?)

    From katykat@21:1/5 to All on Wed Dec 14 03:14:01 2016
    XPost: alt.building.construction, alt.home.repair

    replying to The Real Tom, katykat wrote:
    I had the fire chief in my town tell me it's because the room is warm and
    above the smoke detector is cold. My detectors are hard wired to the ceiling.
    He told me to unscrew them and let them hang when it's cold outside. I found if I run my ceiling fan on low this also helps.

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  • From Berma@21:1/5 to All on Sun Mar 12 00:44:02 2017
    XPost: alt.building.construction, alt.home.repair

    replying to Bennett Price, Berma wrote:
    I'm an electronics engineer, and have over the past year purchased several Kidde Model i9040 ionization smoke detectors. I was annoyed to find almost
    all of them, at one time or another, with fresh batteries, sound false "Low-Battery" alarms in middle of cold nights. I verified that the batteries are good, even when alarm is sounding, I can consistently measure more than 9 volts in every case - so it's not weak batteries, unless it maintains voltage but not enough current? There is no moisture issue, in fact winter nights
    here are cool. Inside temp that seems to be around 45-55F. What annoys me is this is not unusual for many parts of my home on coldest nights. I've used many brands of ionization detectors and never had this issue. Kidde needs to solve this, as it could result in death or injury when we have to disable one or more of them at night.

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  • From Silvanus@21:1/5 to All on Tue Feb 27 20:14:02 2018
    XPost: alt.building.construction, alt.home.repair

    replying to Berma, Silvanus wrote:
    Thank you! We have an array of Kidde smoke detectors and since the temperature dropped here they are going off at five in the morning for no apparent reason. No moisture - except from two people breathing on the other side of a door. No insects coordinating their activity to that hour. No appliances on in the house. I think it is just one that is misbehaving and setting off the others. I may swop them around to see what happens...

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  • From bmay@21:1/5 to All on Mon Dec 10 23:44:12 2018
    XPost: alt.building.construction, alt.home.repair

    replying to Berma, bmay wrote:
    If they are hardwired to AC why did the batteries even come in the play

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  • From Louis Desmarais@21:1/5 to All on Sat Dec 15 15:44:01 2018
    XPost: alt.building.construction, alt.home.repair

    replying to Berma, Louis Desmarais wrote:
    The solution is to heat your house to at least 60 F. Batteries do not work as well in cold temperatures thus causing the low battery alarm or chirp.

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  • From Arlene@21:1/5 to All on Fri Feb 1 20:44:01 2019
    XPost: alt.building.construction, alt.home.repair

    replying to PipeDown, Arlene wrote:
    Do you think a humidifier could do this, oR a very cold attic?

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  • From DJHueneburg@21:1/5 to All on Fri Nov 19 23:15:02 2021
    XPost: alt.building.construction, alt.home.repair

    I so agree. If my house gets below 73F my alarms do the low battery chirp, and of course it’s in the middle of the night when you’re all snuggled in and sound asleep. The batteries are new so it’s not this. I blow my smoke detectors out cause I
    have furry dogs. I called my local fire depts (2!) and they both said they have never heard of this. But, come to my house around 3am when it gets to 68 degrees and listen to my smoke detectors chirp with fresh batteries in them. Bas___ds!!!

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  • From Ed Pawlowski@21:1/5 to DJHueneburg on Fri Nov 19 19:18:10 2021
    XPost: alt.building.construction, alt.home.repair

    On 11/19/2021 6:15 PM, DJHueneburg wrote:
    I so agree. If my house gets below 73F my alarms do the low battery
    chirp, and of course it’s in the middle of the night when you’re all snuggled in and sound asleep. The batteries are new so it’s not this. I blow my smoke detectors out cause I have furry dogs. I called my local
    fire depts (2!) and they both said they have never heard of this. But,
    come to my house around 3am when it gets to 68 degrees and listen to my
    smoke detectors chirp with fresh batteries in them. Bas___ds!!!


    Given the price of smoke detectors, I have a simple solution. If one
    goes off, they all go off but if you cannot narrow it down, you know
    what to do.

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  • From Bob F@21:1/5 to DJHueneburg on Fri Nov 19 17:48:22 2021
    XPost: alt.building.construction, alt.home.repair

    On 11/19/2021 3:15 PM, DJHueneburg wrote:
    I so agree. If my house gets below 73F my alarms do the low battery
    chirp, and of course it’s in the middle of the night when you’re all snuggled in and sound asleep. The batteries are new so it’s not this. I blow my smoke detectors out cause I have furry dogs. I called my local
    fire depts (2!) and they both said they have never heard of this. But,
    come to my house around 3am when it gets to 68 degrees and listen to my
    smoke detectors chirp with fresh batteries in them. Bas___ds!!!


    And what did the manufacturer say when you contacted them about it?

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  • From micky@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sat Nov 20 00:02:34 2021
    XPost: alt.building.construction, alt.home.repair

    In alt.home.repair, on Fri, 19 Nov 2021 17:48:22 -0800, Bob F <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 11/19/2021 3:15 PM, DJHueneburg wrote:
    I so agree. If my house gets below 73F my alarms do the low battery
    chirp, and of course it�s in the middle of the night when you�re all
    snuggled in and sound asleep. The batteries are new so it�s not this. I
    blow my smoke detectors out cause I have furry dogs. I called my local
    fire depts (2!) and they both said they have never heard of this. But,
    come to my house around 3am when it gets to 68 degrees and listen to my
    smoke detectors chirp with fresh batteries in them. Bas___ds!!!


    And what did the manufacturer say when you contacted them about it?

    Good point. I just told, further down, a story about one neighbor. but
    25 years ago there was another neibhgor, whose smoke alarm kept beeping.
    He said that he took it to be repaired (although I don't know who
    repaired them, then or now.) and while it was out, he had a fire.

    It turned out something was smouldering**, maybe a cigarette in a sofa?,
    and finally caught fire.

    Beeping and chirping are not the same, but maybe the OP should get a
    totally separtate smoke alarm and see what it has to say. While he
    still has the chirping one.

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  • From Dj Hueneburg@21:1/5 to All on Sun Dec 5 15:01:39 2021
    XPost: alt.building.construction, alt.home.repair

    Yup, i bought all new ones, these are going in the trash. We had a temp change and the one with a brand new 10 year date alkaline is the one that’s doing the low battery chirp. The bedroom is the other with a 2 mo old brand new, name brand alkaline. Im
    done.

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  • From Wade Garrett@21:1/5 to Dj Hueneburg on Sun Dec 5 12:36:50 2021
    XPost: alt.building.construction, alt.home.repair

    On 12/5/21 10:01 AM, Dj Hueneburg wrote:
    Yup, i bought all new ones, these are going in the trash. We had a temp change and the one with a brand new 10 year date alkaline is the one
    that’s doing the low battery chirp. The bedroom is the other with a 2 mo old brand new, name brand alkaline. Im done.

    I've been especially disappointed with the Kidde 10 year smoke
    detectors. Best one I had lasted about 6 years, worst was 9 months. They
    start going off for no reason.

    Before Carrier acquired Kidde, a call or email to customer service got
    you a new one via FedEx in short order. Way, way back, they asked you to
    put their return label on the old one so their Quality Control could see
    what the problem was.

    Last few years, they no longer ask for return of the old one. My theory
    on that is that they know the alarms are crap.

    Since Carrier bought Kidde, it takes multiple requests until they get
    around to sending a new one- usually months later while you are without
    a smoke alarm on that level of your house.

    I've started replacing the Kidde ones with First Alert brand. Hopefully, they're better...

    --
    The left knows the answer is gun control; they just don't know what the question is. - Newt Gingrich

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