Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping

By nana from Atlanta, GA

Archives: Request: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Archived on 12/03/2009 Why does my smoke detector beep after the battery is removed? By zeesil Feedback: RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping They will beep when you remove a battery or when one is removed if it is wired into the house. If it is only a battery operated one and it continues when the battery is out of it, replace it immediately. It is a safety issue reminding you that you need new batteries or a battery in the detector. You should never have one with a low or no battery. Even the smoke detectors that are wired into your electric must have a battery backup and after so many years the detectors (electric) need to be replaced as well. Check on the inside, it will say something like "must be replaced by 20XX". If you have new batteries and the beeping continues, buy a new one. They are not expensive and you have the peace of mind knowing your family is protected. Also, you should have one in every room except the kitchen due to the fact that sometimes stuff smokes in there and causes alot of "false alarms". The one nearest will work for everyday protection. They should be mounted on the ceiling 12 inches away from the wall, or above a doorway 7 inches below the ceiling. (07/15/2009) By Opal1013 RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping The smoke detector is wired to your electrical system. The battery is only for backup. If its still pipping after you remove the battery its most likely you need a new battery. Even though the battery is just a back up, it still gets old. (07/17/2009) By willsmaw RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping We had this problem in our new home as well. The simple solution we came up with is: the air cans that are used for dusting the computers. The problem with these smoke detectors get very dusty and never get cleaned. Once we dusted them all it never happened again. Now, they only beep when they need new battery. The battery usually needs changing (once a year) and that is when we also dust them. Try it; it's cheaper than replacing them and better than the annoying noise day and night. Hope this helps. Good luck. (07/18/2009) By wondering RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Disconnect alarm wire connector completely and remove unit with battery to make it easier to replace battery off the ladder. After removing it, you will notice it will continue to beep until all power is drained from the unit even after battery is removed. Once beeping stops, replace battery and reconnect unit. Beeping stops. (11/27/2009) By jamartinez Report Spam or Abuse Request: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Archived on 07/14/2009 I have an electric smoke detector. The power went out, which happens every now and then. This time when power went back on the smoke alarm went off. I had to disconnect the battery for it to go off. This has never happened before. What's going on? S.W. from Huntington, NY Report Spam or Abuse Request: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Archived on 03/17/2009 My house in Montana has the smoke alarms going off only up stairs and and the heat is off. The temp has been in the negatives for a week or so. I had a friend turn the heat on low to see if that worked but it's been two days and it's still going off. Should I have him turn the heat up more? I live in NC so it's hard for me to know really what's going on. Please help! Tim Answers: RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Thanks guys. I've purchased two pack of batteries and was even considering replacing all alarms since the builder installed alarms that were all connected in some way. Sometimes if one went off so did the others, and when I replaced the battery it continued to beep so I changed rooms. When I read this site I decided to try the air in a can. Initially it didn't work but now I'm beep free! Thanks for the post. (12/26/2008) By T.Smith RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping There are two types of smoke detectors. One type detects smoke and the other type sees fire. Either of these 2 units do not have a long life span, only about 5-7 years. Just because the smoke detectors beep does NOT prove the smoke detectors are in functioning order. The only way to test the smoke detectors is going outside and lighting a fire (log, newspaper etc.) away from any buildings and then slowly bring the smoke detector near the smoke and flame to hear if the smoke detector alarms. If no alarm sounds the smoke detector must be thrown away and a new one purchased, usually less than $10.00. More than 5,000 people die each year in house fires, most could be avoided if the smoke detector worked. PLEASE check all of the detectors in our house. Your life is worth more than a few bucks.(12/27/2008) By Redbeard RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Let me report yet another case of "it was the CO detector all along". Guess it's not that uncommon a mistake :-) Indeed, I've always found it really hard to direction-locate alarm chirps -- some quality of the sound, I guess. I usually find myself running around to all the alarms, unable to tell which one's upset. This time, it wasn't until I was across the room with the smoke detector in my hand, that I could hear that it wasn't the source of the chirps. (12/28/2008) By Eric RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Replacing the 9-volt batteries, $5.50. Replacing the air filters on both levels of my townhouse, $6.47 (each). Can of Compressed air, $8.97 (rip-off). Resetting the fire alarm via disconnecting the wire and plugging it back into the power source, $0.00. Having my sanity back after 5 days of non-stop beeping...PRICELESS! And if that does not work...take a sledge hammer to the unit and buy a new one. :o). (01/05/2009) By G Mobley Detailed help for the mechanically challenged Here is some detailed help for those of us who are "mechanically challenged". First, check your carbon monoxide (CO2) detector (if you have one) to make sure it is not the one beeping (if it is, open windows to air out the house and get some help to fix the problem). Second, make sure the temperature in your home is within the tolerable range for your detector. (Mine has to be above 40 degrees F, and below 100 degrees.) Third, change the battery (some steps below may not apply to your smoke detector, but hopefully this list will help anyway). How to change the battery: Look where the alarm is attached to the wall, and remove the little plastic "stick" that is stopping the alarm from being turned, if present (mine had one in a slot on the right side, it just pulled off). Turn alarm in the direction of the arrows on the front of smoke detector (mine only turned a tiny bit, clockwise, then I had to pull the alarm straight away from the wall). It may be connected still by wires to the wall (or to a hole in the wall actually). Squeeze both sides of the plastic piece where the wires come out of the back of the alarm and pull straight away from the alarm to remove the plastic plug holding the wires. Now, hopefully, you can open the battery door to change the battery. My battery compartment had a piece of plastic (like a stick) on a spring that popped up when battery was removed. I had to push the plastic stick down into the battery compartment, then push the new battery on top of it so the battery door would close. If it still beeps then you may have to buy a can of compressed air to blow the dust out, OR buy a new smoke detector, whichever is cheaper/easier. I hope this helps others to avoid the hassle I had to figure out how to change the stupid battery. Mine is still beeping so I'll try the compressed air or buy a new smoke detector once it is daylight. (01/07/2009) By Karen RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping It's 4:10am. Two days ago the chirping started. I tried changing batteries several times and tried the canned air- still chirping. I went out in the snow and bought new smoke detectors and rewired all 3 of them. Now, two days later the chirping returned (no Co2 detectors). I changed the new batteries on the new detectors and checked the wiring- still chirping. I just cleaned the furnace filters- I hope that was the problem. (01/08/2009) By Kenny RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Obvious Step 1 when you think about it, but clearly several posters didn't: muffle the beeping alarm by putting your hand firmly over the surface of it. Sound doesn't muffle? It's not the alarm, it's the CO detector nearby or another nearby alarm. This sound is notoriously hard to localize. (01/13/2009) By Dido Batteries, Canned Air, Batteries Canned Air Wife complained about intermittent beep during the day but it eventually stopped. She recommended I change the batteries, we only had 2 batteries so we changed 2 of 3 batteries in condo at 8PM when I got home. At 4 AM the one in the bedroom (of course) started beeping every 40 seconds or so. I drove to Walgreen's and bought a 4 pack thinking maybe one of the batteries we changed (the one in the bedroom) was just a bum battery (I never thought to check it). When I had the new batteries I took the bedroom one down and did a lick test and it was weak. But the beep was still there. Found this site, read about compressed air, we're computer geeks so we have that here; hit with air and then the thing went off in full FIRE mode, for about 20 or 30 seconds (who knows where the indoor cat is now?). Finally Stopped. Then I read about the things being wired together so I busted out a THIRD battery and checked the battery in the detector in the other bedroom but it seemed fine so I didn't bother changing it. Still beeping so I thought, I'll change the 3rd battery. And nope still beeps in the bedroom, (so much for being wired together). Finally I apologized to my wife and warned her I was gonna try the compressed air again. Sure enough the alarm went off in full fire drill mode for about 30 seconds (I got to feel like a total moron while I waved my sweatshirt at it) and then...ahh... we've been beep free for about 10 minutes. Cross my fingers. (01/14/2009) By Chris F. RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Hi all, I was up at 1 am last night with beeping fire alarms, that wouldn't turn off, even after changing the batteries. We actually blew one battery, and found another one kind of swollen, so I plan to get rid of the ones I have and buy all new 9 volts. Anyway, by the time I found this site, it had been 45 minutes of stress, and everyone in the household awake, with windows open, and we were freezing trying to get a bacon smell out of the house from the kitchen. We hypothesized that was what set them off, but we really don't know. What finally worked was taking the battery out, then turning off the power to the alarms, then waiting for about a minute, then putting the battery back in, and turning the power back on. We know you have to wait because we didn't wait long enough on one of them, and it kept beeping. Thank goodness the first one worked, or we may not have tried it again. There is something in the reset programming I guess that requires a power down. Good luck everyone. (01/14/2009) By First Last RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping You can use vacuum cleaner as well as compressed air. (01/31/2009) By dan RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping I kept hearing the same chirping sound after I disconnected the smoke detector only to find out that it has no battery. I realized the sound was coming from the water detector that sits on the floor near my water heater. This device lets you know if water is leaking from your heater. Thank God I had a 9-volt battery on-hand! (02/15/2009) By Giants Fan RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping We tried changing the batteries and the compressed air, didn't work. On our smoke detector we noticed a small hole that said "insert plastic pin to lock battery case". We stuck a paper clip in the hole and the beeping stopped! (02/15/2009) By RMS RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping I had a problem with a couple of my smoke detectors beeping - changed batteries several times. Turned out that I needed to reset the breaker. They are all working fine now! (02/21/2009) By Vivien RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping This worked for me: The smoke detector often has a residual charge from the battery. As as result, it continues to beep after the battery is replaced. To keep this from happening remove the detector and the battery and press the test button. The residual charge will be discharged with a low squealing noise. Once there is no noise, replace the battery and the smoke detector will once again be chirpless. This has worked for me on many occasions. (03/06/2009) By hombrenuev Report Spam or Abuse Request: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Archived on 12/24/2008 Electric smoke alarm goes off regardless if it is plugged in or not. How strange. I have tried it both ways. It beeps sometimes in the early p.m. and 4 or 5 a.m. Very annoying! Mary Answers: RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping I had this problem when I moved into my new rental house. After unsuccessfully replacing the batteries, I got a new smoke alarm and it works great without beeping. Check with your local fire department because they sometimes give out alarms for free. (09/15/2008) By crazyliblady RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Most electric smoke detectors have a back up battery for when the power goes out. The beeping is probably caused by one of two things. Either the back up battery needs to be changed or the detector is dirty and needs to be cleaned with a can of compressed air (aka dust remover). Hope this helps. (09/15/2008) By NICHOLE RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping This did not work for me. I just had to disconnect the thing. Now I'm also out $9 for a can of air. Yea. (09/17/2008) By KC RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping We just dealt with a hurricane that passed through and lost power for a few days. Once the power came back on, the house alarm and smoke detectors will not stop going off. Help? (09/18/2008) By Jolene RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Here's what I learned after my smoke alarm refused to stop its intermittent beeping: After trying the various solutions I read here which didn't work, I figured it had to be dust in the air. The alarm is designed to go off when smoke crosses an electric eye, closing the switch it makes with a reflector... therefore, since there was no fire and no cooking going on, it had to be dust. I changed the air filter in my air conditioner, turned it on, and in a matter of minutes, the beeping stopped. Apparently, the old filter had stopped filtering dust out of the air and needed to be changed. (10/04/2008) By ROQLIN RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping You guys rock! I just earned major cool points with the wife, because the darn smoke detector kept beeping and the baby was crying. So I read your info, drove down to Walmart for some canned air and 9 volts and we're all quiet now! (10/05/2008) By J from Colorado RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping The "chirping" has stopped! Thanks to all of you who suggested cleaning the detector with canned air. It worked immediately! I have several smoke detectors but it always seems to be the same two that this happens to. Even though I knew it couldn't be the batteries (I'd recently changed them) I changed them anyway, then recharged them, then turned them around, just in case I'd put them in backward, but the chirping wouldn't stop. The "hush" button didn't hush anything, even closing the bedroom door didn't make any difference, (which is probably a good thing) but my kids and I were going nuts! You guys gave me an answer that I couldn't find on any detector website, and I checked a lot of them, so again, thank you! (10/06/2008) By silence is bliss! RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping My wife has had the flu and in order not to get us sick, she has been staying out on the couch. She got on my case for not taking care of the beeping sound of two smoke detectors (it's been about two weeks:)). I decided to take care of the problem no matter what. I started by replacing all the batteries and when that didn't seem to work I read the suggestions on this site. I pressed the test buttons and nothing. I sprayed them with air..and nothing. I decided to replace the two detectors which where beeping. When I disconnected the first smoke detector it was still beeping because of the battery (even though the battery was still new). I took out the battery and noticed it had some residual power and then it died off. After a few minutes I replaced the battery and it stayed quiet. I just figured out how to reset them - disconnect the power & take out the battery! I then went to the second one and took out the battery, turned off the main power for the house, reconnected the first one, and replaced the battery on the second one. I turned on the power for the house and it's been about 30 minutes. So far so good! Hope this helps. (10/26/08) By Reset Option RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping If after you reviewed the batteries and everything looks fine, some fire detectors also beep when the concentration of CO2 increase. So in winter time if beeps like that, every 30 to 60 sec, just open the windows for a while or turn on your central heating-cooling system at home. It will recirculate the air inside the house and the alarm detector will stop. At least that is what happened with mine. (10/29/2008) RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping My electric smoke detector is beeping. However, it seems to only beep in the mornings when it is cold. After it warms up a bit around here, the thing doesn't beep. I climbed up on a ladder to change the battery and can't seem to find/see a backup battery on the device. Is it possible that the builder used smoke detectors without backup batteries? If so, should I change them out and get detectors with backup batteries? If not, what do I do about the beeping in the morning/cold? Thank You!(10/30/2008) By B Larsen RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Thanks guys, the tips work! I had to increase the temp from 76 to 78 to make the detector stop beeping. (11/15/2008) By P.Valapala RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping I could not get my smoke alarm to stop beeping tonight and it was the alarm on my 13' ceiling. I changed the battery, the beeping continued. I changed the battery again and it still didn't stop. I took the unit off the ceiling and switched the unit with another smoke alarm. The beeping continued. I assumed that the 10 year old alarm needed to be replaced, but the stores are now closed. I won't be able to sleep tonight as the alarm is just outside my bedroom. The odd thing was, why is it still alarming when the unit is disconnected from the wiring and the battery was taken out? The reason is that it was my carbon monoxide alarm. I unplugged CO alarm and now there is silence. The funny thing is that this has happened to me before, when I changed the smoke alarm batteries and the beeping wouldn't stop. I was thinking about it while I was trying to figure out what to do, but I really didn't think it was the CO alarm, so I didn't check it out until hours after it started beeping. At least I changed the batteries in two smoke alarms. For obvious reasons, I will not leave my name. (11/18/2008) By Slow to learn- check the CO alarm RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Thanks to all that suggested changing the air filter, my basement one has been going off for the past little while and my husband is over seas. I figured that if changing the air filter on my furnace didn't work I would go out and buy a can of air tomorrow, at first I didn't think it worked because it kept chirping but after 10 to 15 minutes it seems to have stopped. So thanks. (11/28/2008) By militarywife RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping After trying other things that did not work for a week or so. I saw a message on here about canned air, and I read somewhere that dirt particles effect it. I brought my small portable air compressor to it and blew out a bunch of dust, small spiders, etc. So far looks good. Got my fingers crossed. (12/01/2008) By Doug O RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping My detector upstairs was chirping and would not stop (after a battery change). We usually keep the heat turned down low upstairs. I used the can of air and turned up the heat. So far, no more chirping. Thank the lord! (12/01/2008) By Finally Some Peace RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Removing the carbon monoxide detector seemed to do the trick. Strange that the two safety items conflict with each other. I am curious how you can have both working in the home. (12/15/2008) By Woman of the House RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Hey, how cold does your house have to get to cause the smoke alarm to go off? I live in Phoenix and was gone for the weekend. When I came home, the house was 61 degrees inside and the WSI-Electric-brand smoke alarm was chirping once every 20-30 seconds. I took the thing apart, and replaced the battery. It was difficult to get the battery in, as I didn't see how it came out, since it fell out when I opened it. When I closed the lid, all the alarms in the house decided to get real ugly on me, WAY worse than the measly single chirp every 20 or so seconds. WAY WORSE. Well, I twisted the lid the other way and, it may be a coincidence, but it shut off. I say coincidence, as the house was slowly warming up at the same time I was doing this. What are all of your thoughts? Temperature? Battery? Please give me your advice. Thanks! (12/15/2008) By AZ cheapskate Report Spam or Abuse Request: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Archived on 09/12/2008 Did you get a response about how to get into your smoke alarm to change battery and silence the beeping? It's driving me mad and I can't slide the cover off at all. If it wasn't pitch dark and stormy outside here in Western Australia, I'd find a gardening implement and smash the alarm to pieces. There are 4 other alarms in the house, I can do without this one for a bit. Any info would be gratefully received. Fionna Answers: RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Had same experience as Shelley - checked everything, changed batteries, turned out to be the carbon monoxide detector in the plug 6 feet below the smoke detector we were blaming. Go figure, they have a battery backup too! (08/27/2008) By Joe Report Spam or Abuse Request: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Archived on 07/16/2008 I have 3 smoke detectors (hard wired with battery backup) on the three levels of our house. Upstairs unit started beeping a week ago. No difference after replacing the battery. I swapped this unit with the basement one. Even the basement one placed upstairs is beeping. The old one from upstairs is fine in the basement. Any ideas of what might be wrong? Thanks. sk50 from Gaithersburg, MD Answers: RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping I was just having this problem, it started at 1:30 am, there I was on a step ladder changing the battery in the middle of the night. It did not help so I went back up the ladder and took it down for the night, bought new batteries the next day and it still kept beeping. I read some of these suggestions and I used a "can of air" (3M Dust Remover) and that fixed the problem immediately. I actually saw the pieces of dust come out of it. My house is peaceful again! (11/17/2007) By Addie RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Had same problem, used the compressed air trick, worked like a charm. (11/24/2007) By FJW RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Good info. I have had this same problem for weeks. I replaced all of the batteries twice, but still had issues. I just used the air can to clean out the detectors. One of the most frequent troublemakers blew out so much dust it actually triggered the system. All is quiet...so far. Thanks! (12/02/2007) By R. Streeter RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping After changing all my batteries and blowing everything out with the compressed air, it was the carbon monoxide detector going off. (01/04/2008) By shelley hardwired smoke/carbon monoxide detector is beeping but not Our home is around three years old and we have hardwired smoke/carbon monoxide detectors. Last night they started a beep that would only happen every min or so and then move to another one. we have 6 or so throughout the house. I looked for the manual and could not locate one. These were put in by the builder. Why are they doing that? How do I make it stop?(1/16/08) (01/16/2008) By Kristen RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Thanks Fred. Cold morning hard wired smoke detector stopped chirping when house "warmed up". Thank you (01/20/2008) By susan s. RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Thanks so much you guys! It really helped a lot! (02/16/2008) By danni RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping I have the same problem, but only in one unit. That noise is making me crazy, I tested all of them and still the same beeping. Also, the weather here was cold and now is getting warm. (03/15/2008) By Rambo RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Thanks for the tips. I changed the batteries and used the can of air. Eventually the detectors stopped beeping after about 10 minutes. (04/08/2008) By K. Wood RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Thanks guys for the info. I woke up at 5am to this loud beeping sound and I nearly freaked out. It took me a while to figure out that it was the smoke alarm going off. After reading this, I feel much better. (05/12/2008) By Ama RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping (submitted via email) Alarm beeping and don't know how to get into change battery Colin (05/15/2008) By jess_admin RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Beeping is usually the battery or dirty smoke detector. A compressed air cleaning should do the trick. If the alarm goes off every few hours, do NOT overlook the CARBON MONOXIDE issue. Check your furnaces and/or the top of your water heaters, if there is no tubing/piping taking the exhaust out of your house, then you need to call an expert immediately. CARBON MONOXIDE is odorless. Leave the windows open so fresh air is constantly coming into the house. Many people are silently killed by carbon monoxide every year! (06/24/2008) By Bocanot RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping It's currently 6 in the morning and at 5:30 the smoke alarm went off. Now it continues to go off but in a series of beeps. I have been looking all over for an answer. I asked my dad if it could be the batteries, he says it's electric and doesn't run on batteries. We can't stop the noise and at this rate we'll never be able to go back to sleep. Help! (06/30/2008) By e.a RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Help, my smoke detector is going off. It started for the longest while, stopped, and then started again. It keeps going between 30 seconds and 20 minutes and I get very short breaks. When I hit the smoke alarm, a few roaches ran out. Could that be the problem? There's no fire, the power is on and it's the 4th of July. Please help, it keeps on going off and my heart keeps jumping. (b)Editor's Note:(/b) Roaches love electronics so that is possible. Try opening it up and vacuuming it out and see if that helps. (07/04/2008) By nobody Report Spam or Abuse Request: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Archived on 10/16/2007 We have an electric smoke detector. It won't stop going off. It is a continual beep. I had to unplug it. What could be the problem? Shirley from Creve Coeur, MO Answers: RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Hi Shirley! Does your electric smoke detector have a battery backup? If so, that battery probably needs to be changed and then the beeping should stop......hopefully :D (08/30/2006) By Luvyabye RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping Check to see if your smoke detector has a battery, it should for backup if your electric goes out. Good luck. (08/31/2006) By Stickchilly RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping You definitely need new batteries! (08/31/2006) By RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping I had the same problem a few years ago and was told it could be 2 things - spiders walking across the sensors or a short in the smoke detector. I vacuumed all the detectors with the brush attachment. That seemed to help a little, but not completely. I ended up replacing all of the detectors in the house. The problem stopped. (09/01/2006) By K RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping We had one do the same on cold mornings (we turn down the heat during the night)as soon as the heat came on and warmed the house it stopped Also do change the batteries even if you have tried that, we had to change them at least twice. (03/03/2007) By Fred Dittloff RE: Electric Smoke Detector Won't Stop Beeping If the smoke detector beeps periodically every minute or so then that means that one of the batteries is low. The best thing to do is to replace ALL the batteries throughout the entire house. It the smoke detector has triggered and is constantly alarming and there is no sign of fire or smoke, then one of the detectors has malfunctioned and it has caused all the rest to go off. This situation happened to me recently. My AC air handler froze up with ice and so my wife turned it off. When it started to defrost, the water seeped through the second floor and collected in the detector below. It wasn't until after the fire department left that I figured it out.. hope this helps someone. (09/13/2007) By B. Buck Report Spam or Abuse