Help with smoke alarms needed....please!

[theeggman]

If you are looking for electrical bits online a search on QVS might help. they tend to be cheaper than TLC.

 

[Apple]

Why? people post on here who seem to know b*gger all about bees, so what's the difference

Nice to see the Bah Humbug season is still in full swing!





James

 

[jonnybeegood]

If you have to replace the units I would suggest, if finances will run to them, buying 'photocell' units.
You will get a lot less false alarms from cooking toast etc.
We swapped to them as we have 4 dogs and a wood fired rayburn and were forever getting false alarms.
We still get the odd false alarm, normally at 3 in the morning, and I blow the unit through with an airline. unless you have a VERY powerful vacuum it really won't shift the debris.

Hope this helps.

How does having 4 dogs affect them? Or are you talking about dust off their coats?

 

[theeggman]

How does having 4 dogs affect them? Or are you talking about dust off their coats?

Yep, they come in muddy or dusty and clouds of rubbish float around, it settles everywhere, or so I'm told by SWMBO, including the smoke alarm.

 

[bontbee]

...

 

[bontbee]

Thanks to you all for all the advice and suggestions. Here's an update on not much progress so far...

Unfortunately, the new batteries failed to solve the problem and, having swopped the units to check if there was anything in the socket causing the problem with the one unit, (my logic...if, indeed, that could be called a logical action!, the alarm started shrieking constantly, on battery only. I have now assumed that there is a fault in the unit itself! Why this should randomly happen after seven years, out of the blue, with nothing apparent to trigger it, who knows? Perhaps someone here does.

I am hoping that the company that supplied them will still have the same alarm, or one that is compatible with the base plate, so that I don't have to start drilling new holes in my fragile ceiling - probably a faint hope after seven years.

 

[Thymallus]

I am hoping that the company that supplied them will still have the same alarm, or one that is compatible with the base plate, so that I don't have to start drilling new holes in my fragile ceiling - probably a faint hope after seven years.

Use some double sided number plate tape or similar and use the original positions if you can't get same model. Might have to replace tape and batteries once a year, but save you ruining a good ceiling.

 

[bontbee]

Thanks Thymallus.

 

[Thymallus]

No probs, hope it helps.

 

[bontbee]

Just to let all of you who were kind enough to respond to my plea for help know; situation now resolved.

Thanks to a very helpful man in CEF Swansea, I was advised where to get a new alarm of the same model - from a "competitor". Sourced the new unit, £12.00, and a bargain considering I didn't have to remodel the ceiling - or have any concern about incompatible models.

Also found out why it had been so difficult to get the battery out of the battery compartment in both previous units. Go on, see if you can guess...the electrician, (not the OH), had only put the batteries in the wrong way round!! Once in the right way, they pop out again as easily as a bee from the hive on a foraging flight.

In addition, in the new unit was a card template and the instructions said "this must be placed between the back plate and the alarm". In case of any doubt, the card had printed on it: "this side facing the alarm". This was nowhere to be seen in either of the original alarms..... This is, I sincerely hope, the last legacy of my incompetent electrician. So, if anyone in the area wants to know the name of the company that rewired my house - SO THAT THEY CAN AVOID THEM - please let me know!

Thanks again all for the support

 

[MikeT]

Glad you were able to resolve the problem without too much expense,

Mike

 

[bontbee]

Thanks Mike. I can sleep easy tonight!