Why is my first alert smoke detector beeping
Stop A Smoke Alarm Chirping With 3 Quick Fixes
0:00 / 0:00
Timecodes:
might be just getting back from work or
possibly late at night and hear
super annoying now this is common if
it's a battery power smoke detector
or a wired unit like this one which is
also a smoke detector and carbon
monoxide detector
in one same thing one chirp every about
one minute usually means that your
battery is
low or dead let me show you how to fix
that but also a few other
tips if just swapping the battery
doesn't work out for you
so the unit i have here is a combination
smoke detector and carbon monoxide
detector in one it is hardwired and it's
chirping that often confuses people
because they don't understand why would
it be chirping if it's hardwired it's
getting power
well there is a battery backup a nine
volt battery backup that you can access
often this door on the side by just
opening that up
and that's for if the power goes off
you'll still have the capability to
detect a fire or
carbon monoxide to change the battery on
this one it's simple
just open that door remove the nine volt
now it will only go back in one way
if you have it reversed with the
positive and negative on the wrong side
the door will not close properly so just
pay attention to that
if you have just a battery powered you
might have three double a batteries to
replace
once you replace the batteries wait 60
seconds
if you hear that chirp like mine you
still have some troubleshooting to do so
we'll move on to step two
now in step two this one is hardwired so
what i'm going to do is i will go out to
the circuit
breaker and i'll turn power off
to the smoke detector so
i can remove the connector safely so
i'll just
rotate the unit
and you'll see there's a small connector
in the back with three wires
i'll unplug that and then i can take the
smoke detector down
i can remove the battery this is the new
battery
and i can press and hold this test or
reset
button for 30 seconds now for some
models that what this does is it helps
to
take the energy out of the capacitors or
helps to reset the unit
so now we can just put that new battery
back
in and then close the door
you might hear a small chirp
and now i'm going to reinstall the smoke
alarm
and then i'll turn on the breaker
so waiting after the breaker's on then
i'll wait 60 seconds to see
if i'm getting the chirp on this one
i still am so i'll move on to step three
now step three i remove the unit again
making sure to turn off the breaker and
i'm taking the battery out
so i'll do two things here first i'm
going to use a compressed air can
and blow out any dust or debris
inside the unit itself
now this could help clean things up and
solve your
issue and on most of these units if you
actually want to get a deeper clean
what you can do is just with the
standard screwdriver
on this one there's three tabs you just
need to
press in lightly that's the second one
and then when i do the third everything
pops off and i can see inside
and i can already see there's definitely
some type of lint or dust buildup
inside this smoke and carbon monoxide
detector
so now with the housing out you have
much better access and can blow
all the components off getting as clean
as possible
the only other thing i do in this last
step is i make sure that the contacts
for the positive and negative on the
nine volt
are not pushed in and deformed so i make
sure they're pulled out
and would make solid contact to the
battery so that's not causing the issue
once i've done that then i'll put the
housing back into place
i can re-insert the battery
and then i will re-install the smoke
detector and carbon monoxide detector
and see if that solves my issue so for
me that last step
of blowing out the internals and
adjusting the contacts fix my
chirping issue let me know down in the
comments if
you were able to fix it and what step
was it just a battery did you have to
reset it or did you have to blow out the
internals or adjust those contacts to
make contact with
the battery a little bit better let me
know i'm always curious or
there is a manufactured date on your
back of your smoke alarm or the
combination like i have here
this one is april 10th of 2014. if you
have a combination smoke alarm
carbon monoxide detector usually only
five to seven years is the useful life
and then you need to change them out
so i have reached the end of this useful
life so
even though i got the issue corrected
i'm gonna swap
all mine out because i am actually past
the seven year mark for these
combination units
now if you have just a smoke alarm it's
a ten year useful life and now you will
notice they are making ones that have
integrated batteries and are supposed to
last that
that whole life cycle so it's supposed
to last 10 years
once it's done then you do need to
change out the unit
let me know if you guys have any
comments i will be happy to jump in
there and help any way i can
and then also if you haven't subscribed
to the channel don't forget to do that
as we have multiple videos coming out
per week to help you around the house
with your repairs and improvements and
we'll catch you on the next one take
care