Smoke alarm help

[mattg1500]

In our house there is a smoke alarm in the hall from the kitchen to the front of the house. In the hall is the door to basement and a powder room and the stairs to gonto 2nd story. Anyway, that smoke alarm goes off over any little bit of heat. If we light a burner on the stoove it goes off, use toaster, goes off, open oven goes off. Its wired to the others so when it goes off the other 4 go off! Tried changing it to a new one and that one seems worse! Any ideas? 

[username]

14 minutes ago, mattg1500 said:

In our house there is a smoke alarm in the hall from the kitchen to the front of the house. In the hall is the door to basement and a powder room and the stairs to gonto 2nd story. Anyway, that smoke alarm goes off over any little bit of heat. If we light a burner on the stoove it goes off, use toaster, goes off, open oven goes off. Its wired to the others so when it goes off the other 4 go off! Tried changing it to a new one and that one seems worse! Any ideas? 

Smoke alarm only?  No CO or Nat gas?

I would try a second plug-in detector in the area and see what it does.

Have you tried swapping the detector that always goes off with one in the circuit that does not?

 

Edited April 26, 2020 by username

[mattg1500]

2 minutes ago, username said:

Smoke alarm only?  No CO or Nat gas?

I would try a second plug-in detector in the area and see what it does.

 

Have a plug in smoke and CO detector about 12' from that one and its silent. I initially thought it was just because we upgraded our stove but for the friggin toaster to set it off???

[mike033089]

my brother in laws newly renovated house does this.  the one in the kitchen goes off when your boiling water on the stove or open the oven.  then the rest of the house follows suit.

[username]

46 minutes ago, mattg1500 said:

Have a plug in smoke and CO detector about 12' from that one and its silent. 

Same level?

Anything in the attic causing a heat dump near the detector that is going off?

 

 

Edited April 26, 2020 by username

[NJREALTOR]

Like Username says, I would try swapping with another one. Also, by changing out 1 detector, it may not sync with the others. You would need to change them all.  Although not a great idea to put a detector in the kitchen, or too close to it.

[tcook8296]

You should change all of them. 

Most likely the one you have is an ionization type which is commonly used in residential homes.  Buy the photoelecric type. It will tolerate more and help with nuisance alarms. 

Are you sure its the one closest to the kitchen?

A common problem to consider is dust build up

.Try blowing the smokes out with compressed air. Dust build up will make them more sensitive. This happens all the time when homeowners or contractors do remodeling or drywall sanding and dont cover the smoke heads. 

If the smoke near the powder room is going off 

Is there a shower in there? A burst of steam when the door opens causes them to alarm also. 

In that case , install or turn on a bath fan and or open a window if you take steamy showers and or relocate the smoke detector

Edited April 26, 2020 by tcook8296

[mattg1500]

Attic access is upstairs in master bedroom closet. This detector is 4ft down hall from kitchen. House is 2500sqft with 2 story foyer. Its getting real annoying. The plug in one is down low at outlet level. Maybe i need to change all and check type like tcook said

[Bojaffa]

How close to the kitchen is it? How high are your ceilings ? Sounds like it’s working the way it should. But if ceilings are low and smoke is close it will go into alarm. As it’s doing. Maybe you could move it a little further into the hall? 

[tcook8296]

If your smoke detectors are older than 10 years, just replace them. 10 years is end of life. 

Only other thing I can think of which is not usually common in residential 110 v smoke alarms is if their is also what is called a rate of rise heat det built into it meaning the temp would have to rise 10 degrees in one minute. Ive seen this with heat detectors in close proximity of ovens or heaters. In this case a fixed type heat detector would solve the issue. This though is more commonly found in low voltage residential and commercial fire systems utilizing an alarm panel. 

Id go with compressed air first. If you dont have compressed air, stick your shop vac up to the smoke heads 

Edited April 26, 2020 by tcook8296

[mattg1500]

So today i purchased all new Kidde 10yr photo electric alarms and installed them. 1 smoke/co combo in basement, 1 smoke on 1st floor hall and 1 in upstairs hall. This is same location as the hard wired ones i am replacing. These interconnect wirelessly some how. I set them up and tested them, all good. 4hrs later we are sitting on the couch AND THE F***ING ALARMS GO OFF!!! downstairs hall one first, the original location of the problems, and then they all stop. Nice day, windows are open, wifes not cooking and no fire. WTF is going on?

[Bojaffa]

You have a ghost. See if it happens again. Really doesn’t make sense. 

[mattg1500]

35 minutes ago, Bojaffa said:

You have a ghost. See if it happens again. Really doesn’t make sense. 

No sense at all

[buckhound]

we had that happen with our hard wired first alert near the kitchen whenever we made bacon would go off  the electrician replaced it with the photoelectric one ended the problem only time we have an issue is when one goes bad in the circuit and it is goes on and off till you find the one thats bad. also I remember something about the wireless ones that communicate sometimes will go off when the communication is interrupted or something like that.. 

[tcook8296]

So these new ones are completely wireless and not connected to the existing wiring?

Somethings going on. Do you have any carbon monoxide detectors with a digital read out on them? If not you may want to give your local fire dept a call and tell them whats going on and ask if they could send someone to see if you have a co problem. They have electronics to test the co levels in your house. When I was younger, we had a squirrel block up our chimney when he decided to build his nest in there. Lucky we found it, it could have killed the whole family. You cant see or smell co

Edited May 2, 2020 by tcook8296