3AM awakened by alarm, but no smoke. Hit silence button – all 8 stop ringing. 317 AM all 8 again start ringing – best distance for smoke alarm toss with 4 kids crying to improve throw is now 80′.
-House wired by long time licensed electrical contractor
-House free of dust, spyders, ants, smoke, etc.
-Manufacturer BRK electronics, date made Feb 9, 01
-House occupied for 7 months with no false alarms
-No power outage or thunderstorms
Any suggestions for false alarm, different (better detectors, surge protection on circuit. I belive alarm toss seems to be working ok.
Thanks
Kelly
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A bad detector could cause this behavior. If this happened regularly you could disconnect the signal lead from each detector. The defective one would be the one going off without just cause. Replace it.
NOTE: when replacing smoke detectors replace the old connector with the one included with the new detector. Even if the old connector will fit the new detector replace it anyway. Some are wired slightly differently. The difference can destroy all the detectors in the house.
If after the signal lead was disconnected there are no false alarms I would suspect that the signal wire is getting voltage that is triggering the alarms. Damaged insulation on both a live and the signal wire would cause this behavior. The two most likely causes are damage caused when the jacket on the romex was stripped or possibly a staple has been hammered in a bit too far. Both of these can happen to anyone but usually show up immediately when the power is applied.
I think that the reason this is happening at odd intervals is that as the temperature changes the wire moves just enough to make the contact. A quick check that sometimes works is to whack the ceiling next to each detector. A crutch tip on a broom handle makes this easy. If the fault is in the boxes a careful visual inspection should find it. If this failed I would disconnect all the detectors and the circuit from both the panel and any surrounding branches. A megger would quickly identify any faults remaining.