My fire alarm is peeping sometimes. What does this mean?

I have wired and maintained a number of systems, the first thing you need to confirm is if the unit is hard-wired to a system or is on its own

If it’s on its own, I would look to replace the battery (as a 1st step) however if its part of a system then I would look to confirm a fault of some kind whether that be wiring, power supply or the device itself

Popping the cover by a partial turn counterclockwise with an upward moderate pressure may release the cover for inspection.

Depressing the side at the detent may release the cover for inspection.

Pulling at the edge may release the cover for inspection.

The brand, model number, type and age would be very useful to narrow the consideration going forward.

Hmmm...I may just ask the strata people, or the fire people.

I am a bit wrried about messing with it, as it would cost me about $800 if I accidentallt tripped the alarm, and two fire engines came for a false alarm!!!

Doesn't your apartment manager respond to such maintenance requests?

the greenhouse were i worked had a bunkhouse for offshore workers, the smoke alarms were hard wired, but they still had batteries as backups

Well

a. It's Sunday


b. If you think there is an apartment manager onsite, you are wrong.


c. Not sure (as this is IN my apartment) whether this is a me responsible/me pay or them responsible/them pay thing.

Did the batteries go flat?

yeah, that's how i found out they were there, the guys were complaining of a chirping noise

Reminds me of my stay at the Y in NYC.. except that was a blasting noise.

I'm no electrician, so this is just a kind of chatter - but our smoke alarms back in Venice, CA were hardwired and our ceilings were high. They used to go off once in a while at two in the morning full blast. Aside from the panic on waking up, we had to struggle to reach them to shut them off.

My bro in law did teach me that you could shut off a shrieker, given you knew the cause like a burning pan of food, by waving a broom under it.

Anyway, our electrician explained that our alarm stuff had happened from spiders.. do I believe him, I don't know. But they weren't little beep beep episodes.

Ah, dj may have nabbed it.

The off-site manager might have experienced a similar beeping in other apartments there and be able to tell you immediately what the problem is.

Re: worries about setting off the alarm while inspecting it, is it possible to shut off the power to the alarm while you do so? Is there a circuit breaker box with labels as to which controls the alarm's power? Can you make a call to the fire department to tell them you are doing maintenance on the alarm and ask them not to respond if they receive an alert? Then call to tell them back to tell them when you are done so they know to respond if anything occurs after that.

Here in my apartment building I just need to call the office and they send a maintenance guy over with a ladder and new battery. The lease says the tenant is responsible for it but they do it for us since the alarms are located high up on vaulted ceilings and we don't have ladders.

Have you checked to see if your house is on fire?

I have personal experience with this. (That peeping will drive you crazy.)

Even fire alarms that are wired have batteries that need to be changed. I think the idea is that the battery is a backup for when you lose power-- and a backup battery is more important than your sanity.

At least in my case, changing the battery shuts the damn thing up.

Understand smoke detector is a vague and generic term that actually may refer to a number of different types of sensors / functions some of them thermal-rise based, some of them ionization-based, some of them photon-based.

If the sensors contain the larger 9VDC batteries and are also hard-wired they are crap!

Yes, I thought it might be a low battery warning, too, Deb. Apart from that, I'm absolutely of no use to you for advice, sorry.

Interesting: First Phoenix reporteded cheeping hamster noises from her computer, now you've got a peeping fire alarm system. I'm guessing there'll be another report of strange noises coming from unlikely places, any time now!

well, i did have beans for supper

Is it possible there's a carbon monoxide leak somewhere in the house? If tht's the case then the item is working perfectly

My house alarm system had back-up batteries to the hard-wired system. Chirpers.

Yep. Replace the battery. System has battery backup!

The hammer doesn't work so well. Those stupid plastic things are surprisingly tough. I think they design the things so that the annoying beep is the last thing to fail.