Smoke alarms save lives, an essential feature of any home in recent years hard-wired smoke alarms have replaced traditional battery-operated smoke alarms. Building regulations now state that newly built and refurbished properties should have hard-wired smoke alarms that are interconnected, which is a good thing as wired smoke alarms are superior to battery-powered alarms.
Those who have used battery-powered alarms in the past are aware of the regular single ‘beep’ that occurs when the battery is getting low, indicating that the battery needs changing.
Hard-wired smoke alarms can emit this single beep too some people find this confusing the alarms powered by electricity, so why is this happening?
The alarms telling you it needs attention, there are four reasons why it’s beeping
- The alarm needs resetting
- The backup battery needs replacing
- The sensor’s covered in dust
- The sensors deteriorated
Whatever you do don’t ignore the alarm, you probably couldn’t even if you wanted to that regular ‘beep’ will get annoying after a while, enough to spur you into action.
A simple reset might be all that’s needed, follow these steps
- Turn off the smoke alarm via the RCD in the consumer unit
- Remove the smoke alarm from the bracket
- Disconnect the power
- Remove the battery
- Hold the test button for a few seconds
- Reinstall the battery
- Reconnect the power
- Reinsert into bracket
- Turn on power via RCD in the consumer unit
Your alarm will probably beep once when powers back on this is normal you should also test the alarm at this point to make sure it’s connected properly and working listen out for the beep if it doesn’t occur then the reset has worked if the beeping continues then the battery might need replacing.
Hard wired smoke alarms have batteries as backups in case the power fails.
Follow the above steps, but this time, replace the old battery with a new one.
Is your smoke alarm still beeping now and then? Then a build-up of internal dust could be the culprit.
- Remove your smoke alarm and battery following the above steps
- Get a vacuum cleaner and run it over the smoke alarm, front, back and sides alternatively you can blow dust out with a can of compressed air
- Reinstall the battery and alarm then test to make sure it’s working
Still beeping?
After following these steps, you would have eliminated resetting, old batteries and dust build-up if the alarms still beeping then your alarm likely needs replacing. Smoke alarms should be replaced every ten years. (the age of your alarm will be marked on the alarm body somewhere if you want to check).
We regularly replace old smoke alarms if you need any help with your alarms, please contact us.