We had one go out on us today. It was 3:30 in the morning and woke up all our kids. I understand the utility of them, but I'd rather not have them all hard-wired together.
Absolutely agree. The clocks changed today for daylight savings time and I thought, I should change the batteries in my smoke detectors to stay ahead of them running low and beeping at 3am. 3 out of 8 of them kept chirping after putting in the new batteries. Major PITA. Close all the doors and listen for which one it is. Take battery out, drain the capacitor, rinse and repeat for an hour.
Yeah, but when you get a fire on a floor that is above or below you and you may not hear the smoke detector on another floor, you’ll be happy you have them
This is not a weird story, just facts about smoke detectors. As a handyman myself, I’ve learned through my experiences various things about smoke detectors. If a modern smoke detector is hardwired with a battery and has that third, usually red communication wired I have found the following to be true. They all have an expiration date which is a maximum of ten if that have the radioactive material inside. When they chirp that is your warning that the backup battery is too weak. At least once a year they should be either vacuumed or blown out to prevent accumulation of dust particles. This is important. An accumulation can cause one or more to give you a “false positive “ or false alarm. I’ve had to deal with that both with several customer and my own home. So three things to remember are fresh batteries once a year, vacuum or blow out the dust inside, and replace them once they expire. Incidentally, all hardwired battery backup smoke alarms have an green led that’s continuously lit whereas the battery operated smoke alarms have a green led that will flash at a fixed rate to indicate that it is working. Thanks.
Help! I live in an apartment w/dropped ceiling tiles like in an office. We have 3 smoke detectors. A week or so ago a chirping sound (exactly like a smoke detector) started occurring, not very often, but now it happens every 1-3 minutes, just like some smokecalarms dov wren battery needs replacing. The sound seemed to be coming from the exact are of my wireless router. I unplugged it, called At&t, no problems detected. Then the sound began migrating to another part of the one room as I was on the phone w/ At& t. The chirping noise seemed to be coming from one air duct on the ceiling now, instead of the corner by the router. Now 24 hours later, chirping happens in 2 rooms near air vents in ceiling (i need to time it to see if there is a pattern. Even after I removed the smoke detectors and took out the batteries, there is STILL chirping, it's very bizarre. I would appreciate any ideas, here are my thoughts: 1. furnace sensor or unseen CO2 detector could be going off and sound is going thru the ducts ( one level floor apartment) . 2. random unseen smoke detector is lost somewhere in the dropped ceiling and is chirping, again echoing thru apartment, 3, CRICKETS. I hope it's not CRICKETS. 4. Something wrong with the red wire, these are the hard wired type of smoke detectors (pain in the neck) and the are all about 4 years expired. I'll reach out to the landlord but wanted any advice if I can solve this mystery! Please help!
Thank you! It worked to actually unplug the thing from the ceiling. Taking out the batteries didn't work. Think I found the faulty detector signaling to all the others! Wow! As a 71 year old woman I feel like one smart cookie!
I’m a fire alarm technician and I find this is something I often get called out on a service call for. These devices you were dealing with were Kidde smoke alarm and Co combo units. The Kidde brand is very specific as to what they can be interconnected with, typically it’s just other Kidde devices manufactured within a few years from each other. Mixing brands or mixing with older models will cause false alarms at some points, especially if the power in the house happens to flicker momentarily I one time at 3am I went out on a call regarding smoke alarms going off in a house, just to find that a spider decided it wanted to live inside the detector haha
Would love your input. Im in the process of swapping out all detectors as 1 went off and even w a new battery it still went off so we decided to replace all as they were approaching 10 yrs. Swapped out all w new detectors and it still trips the sensor and the alarm goes off. Do the plugs need to be swapped out too, could that be it? Can't figure out which one is the culprit.
@@mikeferretti7422 I take it you are talking about the wire harness that plugs into the smoke alarm.. I would recommend replacing the harness as well. In the past I have seen false alarms caused by a loose wire harness arching and making poor connection with the prongs on the detector.
Got a call about 11:30 at night. All the power was out. Since it's usually zinsco panels, one bad 20 amp breaker will trip the main. Determined it was the breaker for the roof pack HVAC. Told the tenant I could get all her power on and she could use floor heaters. I could still hear the breaker hissing even with it off. Midnight, rain pouring down my neck, using the bill of my cap to hold the panel door up and tenant standing there yacking at me. I pulled the breaker and was greeted with the loudest and biggest flash I've ever seen from 240v. I kept working like nothing happened and I heard the tenant quietly say, ummm, ok, I'm going to go back inside now. Lol that made my night
Accidently turned on my dishwasher which caused water 🌊 2 fill up my sink & forced a lite 💡 I never got 2 work 2 finally turn on all from dishwasher 😂😂😂😂
This video reminded me of when my husband and I rented an apartment and the landlord needed to have industrial smoke detectors installed because it was connected to a couple of commercial buildings. I was cooking (and this is not a comment on the kind of cook I am) and a little bit of smoke came from the pan. Now because the landlord was too cheap to install an extractor fan above the stove, that little bit of smoke resulted in the fire department having to come to our apartment on a Friday evening since they were the only ones who could shut off the smoke alarm system. I've never been more embarrassed!!
I know all about smoke detectors going crazy, and in the middle of the night...I’ve found that they can get dust in the sensor and blowing canned air in there can some times fix the issue
5:05 I think the issue with that alarm is that it was painted to match the ceiling. Notice the white unexposed areas. These detectors are not meant to be painted. Nobody says they are pretty. They are tools to save lives not a ceiling decor.
I was reading in bed this morning when all my hard-wired smoke detectors went off for no apparent reason. After walking all around the exterior to make sure there was no smoke emanating from my house, I tried vacuuming around each unit without success. All the windows were already open when it started. Additionally, my purifier was indicating good indoor air quality, confirming this was indeed a false alarm. I then tried to turn them off via the circuit box. This didn’t work of course, but for good measure I flipped all the circuits off and back on again. About 60 seconds later, the wailing alarms finally STFU. My ears are still ringing!
I always look for the one blinking faster than the others .Also I dont wire them in tandem reason being is they are hook to a wireless system to let us now which one is sounding. Love your vids mr Handyman
Hi, nick here. Company owner of Silverback plumbing. Sounds like your sink drain doesn't have a vent and has what is called an s-trap! Make sure there is a pipe going out the roof above your sink, if not you need to add a vent.
Thank you soooo much!! Searched all over the internet and nothing helped. We took down single smoke detectors except 1 that wasn't beeping. We bought brand new ones (we needed too anyway) and still going off. Watched your video and took down the non noisy one and VOILA!!! IT WORKED!!!
That alarm that you found bad was Obviously Old. It was Yellow from the aging plastic. I know from experience. Mine looked exactly like them. And they were at least twenty years old.
My guess is this guy bought the contractor pack of smoke detectors but actually needed 1 more and rather than buy a full priced one, he used the 1 old one and wound up paying you more for the trip than he would have otherwise. 🤦🏽♂️
Crazy story my client brought a toilet I install when you flush it water doesn't go down. Cone to find out the maker of the toilet company never made the hole in between for the water to have a pathway to the drain😯😡
Thank you! This usually happens in the winter for us and I have never known what causes them to go off, but it’s isolated to one that I have to push to shut off. I am going to replace!
I do not like “smokies” as they’re called on my electrical panel! 😁 Last night they beeped for several seconds, then went silent for a minute and then back on for a few more seconds...over and over last night. I went out for the ladder (plan in front pull them all down) & then I thought of resetting the circuit breaker. So grateful that worked! But now I wonder what caused it...They were all new in 2017. 🤷♀️
I had a toilet that would drain slowly. We snaked it with a long metal snake. Took the toilet off and snaked the pipeline because it was on the 3rd floor of the town house. Still didn’t drain well. We finally replaced the toilet and it worked perfect. We took a hammer to the old toilet and in the pee trap there was a plastic small bottle so when we snaked it it just compressed and then expanded again when we took it out. It had us dumb-founded
12:30 at night..... as far as I can tell, it was one of the smoke/carbon monoxide combos. Maybe now the family can get some sleep and my kid will quit texting "will this ever stop???" Thanks for the video
I am so appreciate bro, my house has more than 20 alarms and has beeping at same time for couple hours. Flow your steps, It finally stopped, thanks for saving my life.
Any circumstance like this you should advise them to call the fire dept. no need for you (AT ALL) to go out and try to figure it out, you might walk into the building and notice nothing.. just to die from inhaling things you shouldn’t.… so just take that into thought. Not all alarms are smoke alarms and being a fireman I’ve been called to these exact situations where “a smoke alarm is going off at my neighbors” and it turns out to be a carbon monoxide incident
One time I had a handyman, I think his name was Andy come do some work at my home. Magically when after he left, all the beer vanished, could not for the life of me figure out where they all went.
Thank you for this video how I would love to have have you close by. A good handyman that you can trust and is dependable is rare these day's. God Bless you. New subscriber.
I figured out why mine do that. If I let the humidity get below 20% in the house, they all go off. I can walk around the house with a spray bottle on fine mist, spray in the direction (not directly on the detector) and they will shut off. This only happens in the winter time, because of the gas furnace drying out the air. I put a whole house humidifier in at the last HVAC upgrade, hasn't happened since.
End story had me laughing when I visualized it. I see something similar on my home inspections every once in a while. My best guess is some kind of bubble forms (why? I don't know). But when I plunge the stopper up and down a few times a bubble blubs up to the top and then it drains. The world may never know.
I once was sent out on the same Call, it actually turned out being a lighting strike made a pin hole in the flexible yellow gas line CCST. This was in a unit inside of a townhouse in a building with multiple units. I opened a hole in the ceiling and saw what looked like a nice lighter 🔥 lit in the truss construction ceiling. The entire building was shut down to make the needed repairs.
in the uk the backup battery can cause them to go off if one gets low which you can replace the battery its only in there for when there is a power cut
While hooking up my own electrical panel, I decided I wanted the utility room light on so I could see what I was doing for the rest of the panel. I figured I keep the one circuit on, and the rest of the panel circuits off. So I found the appropriate white/ black wires and hooked up the breaker to the panel. As I was fishing through all the other wires all of a sudden a flash and a loud 'POP' came from the panel. I was in the dark, but still alive. I stepped out for a minute, came back in to realize that the copper ground wire from the utility light circuit had found its way to the center of the panel. Boom! It shorted the 200 AMP main breaker! I was less than 2 ft away. I think it singed my eyebrow hairs!
Few years ago most of our large appliances wouldnt work. Oven wouldnt get hot, a/c acted crazy, dryer wouldnt heat. Georgia Power inspected and said it was in my house. 2 electricians looked at it, we shook every wire in the attic, inspected the panel box, nothing. Finially got the industrial electrician from the local utility I work for at my regular job to look at it. He pulls the meter out of the box and eureka, had 110 on 1 leg, 85 on the other. Turns out when they pulled the main wire to the house 30 yrs earlier they slightly nicked the wire coating and it took all that time to cause the problem. Georgia Power wasnt happy we pulled the meter but fixed it pronto. And no more crap about pulling the meter when I told them I knew they were liable for any damage to my appliances.
Are those interconnects expected to work across models and brands? When i've done interconnects, i figure i gotta just replace them all with the same model. Also I learned that some models have a built-in lifetime. I had a hard-wired unit that wouldn't stop chirping no matter what battery I used. Turns out that it was the end-of-life chirp, and i had to replace.
I do some work for a property management company. The tenant said they had a water leak in their ceiling. I went to check it out and sure enough there were water droplets in a corner of an exterior wall. I climbed on the roof and it had no obvious damaged. I then went in the attic to look and still no obvious signs of water issues. I did noticed that the blown in attic insulation did not go all the way to the soffits and I deduced that is was condensation forming from the cold attic space to the warm ceiling below. It was winter in Indiana. I walked around the inside of the house and looked along the edges of the ceiling and there were light brown spots in many locations where this was happening. Let the company know what I thought, they let the owner know. I blew in insulation in the whole attic. It was the easiest and most profitable job I've done for them. And more importantly the tenant let me know that he has no more issues.
I keep seeing Handy Andy walking around my house at night when I rewind the video on my security cameras and the doors are dead bolted, how's he getting in?
Here's a weird (wired?) one for you: Bought a house and am doing minor reno. When I went to replace a kitchen receptacle with new hardware, I couldn't get the plug to power off until I found a combination of TWO breakers that when both were simultaneously off the plug was de-energized. I'm not an electrician, but I know that isn't supposed to be that way. I applied a volt meter and discovered that with one breaker energized there was 114v and with only the other breaker energized there was only 21v at the plug. This certainly isn't right, but I have NO clue where to start untangling this one! (yes, I know I can call an electrician, but where's the fun in THAT!!) My thoughts so far: 1) I doubt its a loose connection because of the two breaker issue and because the voltages are exactly the same every measurement. 2) This house had been converted to a day care so, unlike most other houses, it has been wired for exit signs over the doors, hardwired smoke detectors in each room, and there is some remnant of a security system in a closet and all the outside doors have magnetic security sensors. Can someone suggest some trouble shooting ideas?
I had an issue with wired smoke alarms going off when a renter installed CFL light bulbs. When they tried to dim the lights, the smoke alarms went off.
I had a house once that, in the master bath only , the customers said the shower head "felt like it was shocking them". I could read 5 volts from the shower head to the drain. I checked everything I could imagine from the ground to a bad connection anywhere and couldn't find the cause. Still to this day I'm not sure what the problem was.
I had my smoke detector randomly go off several times. When I called the electrician he told me there was a spider web going to the one smoke detector and to call an exterminator to kill the spiders. I did and so far no more false alarms in the middle of the night.
Yes I also have run across that drain problem. I think it is some sort of surface tension phenomenon, but have yet to have anyone prove it. It would stop, but if I started a swirling motion with my fingers, it would drain great. My solution was to remove the little cross piece in the drain assembly. I call it "vueJaDe" or the reverse of dejavu. When you swear this crap has never happened to anyone else before! Haha
Same problem here but it seems to be my circuit breaker , is it the breaker just bad is it possible or does it always indicated that is wiring shortage causing the breaker to react ?
All I can think about is that poor dog that came running up the steps and looks so freaked out having to listen to those loud beeps! Poor little doggy!! Glad you figured it out. I didn't realize you have to change out the whole unit. I thought you just replaced the batteries 2 times a year. Hum, will have to figure out how old mine are, I have only been in my house for 3 years, but it was built in the '90s. Peace and Good Fortune to you and your family. Stay safe, that dark house gave me the super creeps!!!!
This guy must be a super tough guy shooting those beautiful animals he has displayed on his walls. Tell him if he wants to be a real man and use his hands I’ll be waiting
Electrical issue in client rental, walk in unit and turn on lights, nothing would come on, long goose hunt later, turn stove top element on, and lights in kitchen would come on, adjust heat on element, up or down, lights would dim or get brighter..... never figured it fully, tripped main breaker and actually replaced it. Had not done it since
Two stories First, I worked at a camp and once a year we changed the 9v batteries in the smoke detectors. There were 2 buildings that we hated because only those 2 would have this problem. They did the same thing as this guys house but would only do IT RIGHT AFTER WE LEFT the site! So we would go about our day and about the time we got to the next job, the people are flooding the customer service desk to complain LOL. So we'd have to go back and fix the problem which took another 20 minutes out of the day. I remember once, we got the job done by early afternoon, and thought for once the job was done. NOPE! The people just didnt go to their rooms till 9 at night! LOL Second, not a house, but I was a sound guy for my church for a couple years. This system was fairly old, so it was normal for a simple problem to arise during each service. This particular day was more interesting. My dad was the pastor and his mic was routed through channel 11. But on this day, there was no sound coming out. This was normal, but after testing the mic was on and everything, it STILL didnt have sound. To this day, I have no idea why we tried it, but we started listening through other channels. We found the signal....in channel 15. Mind you, we had little kids so we just expected the wires got pulled out and switched over the week. NOPE. The wires were connected to 11 at the board, through the snake, into the box at the end of he snake, and into the transmitter from the mic. No way the signal could have gotten to channel 15, but there it was.
Hardwired smoke detectors (6) all show green light, but one went beep beep beep (not the chirp for new battery needed), at 3 a.m. then again at 8 a.m. all batteries were changed 3,weeks ago,...beeped again, once more in the afternoon. I can’t wait to be startled awake again tonight...I have to wait until tomorrow to go to the store to buy new on s because I’m sure these are all over 10 years old. Thanks for your video because I will definitely be taking one with me to make sure the plug will fit or has an adapter!
My friend's dog woke her up at midnight on NYs eve, she discovered the beeping (2 year old, installed in a new house) of one of the smoke alarms, way high up... got the ladder out, tried to disconnect it and all of the alarms went off! She wants to disconnect all of them and install the sealed 10yr units that are not hard wired. Can you simply just disconnect each unit from the back (then take the battery out!) and just not use these? She wants to make sure they don't all go off when she starts disconnecting them . Thank you, great video.
I had trouble with one carbon monoxide detector. I received two identical CM detector's when purchased new HVAC unit. Some how one had gotten goofy and would only go off in the middle of the night!!! Very disturbing!!! Of course, the goofy one was NOT near where I slept(that's WAY too easy!!)!!! I put several new batteries in the goofy one and now they both work fine. I had problems for several weeks. NOT sure why the CM detector only liked certain 9V batteries!! Very weird!!! #TheHandyman
Thank you for this video because I did not know what to do just now. I just got home from work and all the alarms going off in the house. I decided to search TH-cam and found your video. I went looking for the one flashing red, found it and discontinued it from the wire and all the others stop 🛑
I set the gas meter at a new house and did the service turn on checked and cycled all appliances and the customer was at the house. I was sent back to the house for a no hot water call a few days later and found that the plumber tied into the same water pipe for the inlet and outlet for the water-heater behind the sheet rock .
a couple months after we moved in a new hours the smoke detectors kept going off in the middle of the night (and only the middle of the night) and scaring the hell out of the kids because they shout FIRE FIRE in between beeping. Eventually we got the builder to send someone out and they found one faulty unit, similar to this video.
Please move to NJ I cant find the chirp! I got all new alarms harddrive and non hard. The chirping just started up after all new ones replaced. This is driving me crazy!! Thanks
I had this exact problem in my house. Mine looked identical to the ones in your video - it was a combination heat/smoke/carbon monoxide type. I put in 3 new 9-volt batteries. The problem is that it had printed on it that it should be replaced every 7 years. Got a new one and that was the answer. For people who haven't been through this, this video will be very informational.
If there is next time... look for the red light on the head. That will tell you witch unit is faulting. I respond as a Firefighter to atleast 1 smoke or CO alarm a week. Typically it's either old or the battery is dead.
While replacing my Ionizing smoke & fire alarms, I was able to replace 3 of them easily and changed harness wire as well. On the 4th one, whenever I pressed the Test button, all alarms in the house started beeping. Tried it 3-4 times. Only difference I noticed was that this one had 2 yellow wires instead of 3. Wondering what’s going on here 🤷♂️.
3 wierd things one is our dryer stopped heating in side the dryer was spotless no lint to be found same with the duct going in the wall and in the wall was clear exsept 1 roofing nail from when we got our roof replaced less than a year ago pulled out the nail whole issure fixed. the other one is the GFCI outlet in our hallway bathroom we heard a loud buss then we went in there and it popped with a bright flash and started smoking so much it filled up the bathroom. The last one is we pressed start and the microwave tripped the braker reset the braker the microwave didn't work again. Then one is my dad is a bar tender at a movie theater beer got splashed on the outlet tripped that braker then chain reacted tripping all the brakers starting with consesions then the lobby then the hallway then the power to each theater 1 by 1 all the power reclining seats stopped working the sound stopped going the screens turned black the theater was silent besides the sound of tarrified kids.
I had one electric socket which was heating up for years. Nothing seemed to be worn out or bad in the socket. I tried to tighten up bolts, scratch wires nothing helped. Then one day changed the wires and put there a new socket and the problem was solved.
I've got a good one for you...I have 2 light switches in my house that do that same thing. Gotta think about that for a second. Each of the switches controls an overhead light and some porch lights. Both switches do the same thing. This is not a 3-way switch situation. Turn one on, then turn the other on and off, nothing changes. The only thing I can figure is that both switches are doing the same thing on the same phase (pole) of power. So there is no extra power applied when turning one switch on/off while there is one already fired up.
Outside outlet (no gfci) wouldn’t provide power. Took me weeks to figure out that the builder wired it to a gfci outlet in powder room. Drove me crazy.
My plumbing use to always get clogged up in my house toilets would flood and spill over and it happened like 4 times. I have a vent pipe in the front and I would always clear it from there with an auger. Well the 4th time I rented a heavy duty auger from Home Depot that had a different twisted tip and guess what!! I pulled out a 2ft piece of rebar that was causing the problem! And it never happened again
Thank you for this video, my smoke alarm went off in both bedrooms at 6 pm at night and I disconnected them . I was planning on getting two new ones the next morning. This is a new home , only 3 years old. Why are they beeping ? Low and behold they started beeping at 3 am even though they were disconnected. Why are they still beeping if disconnected. I can’t find where the batteries are inside of them. SMH 🤦♀️
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With the magic drain could it have been surface tension?
Bingo. That's it. I didn't what the words were to explain it but that sounds right.
@@TheHandyman1 whoa... you're the second youtube handyman i've helped this week. I need a raise 🤣
Hello @@TheHandyman1
Those hard wired smoke alarms are a pain in the ass ! They always fail at 3 AM !
We had one go out on us today. It was 3:30 in the morning and woke up all our kids. I understand the utility of them, but I'd rather not have them all hard-wired together.
I think the alternative is worse.
Absolutely agree. The clocks changed today for daylight savings time and I thought, I should change the batteries in my smoke detectors to stay ahead of them running low and beeping at 3am. 3 out of 8 of them kept chirping after putting in the new batteries. Major PITA. Close all the doors and listen for which one it is. Take battery out, drain the capacitor, rinse and repeat for an hour.
Yeah, but when you get a fire on a floor that is above or below you and you may not hear the smoke detector on another floor, you’ll be happy you have them
This happened to me at 4 am last night, removing the battery did nothing. I ended up just cutting the speaker out.
If you like listening to smoke alarms, you’ll love this video.
Good to see he invested in the spooky lighting package for his house.
lol. It was pretty spooky in there.
This is not a weird story, just facts about smoke detectors. As a handyman myself, I’ve learned through my experiences various things about smoke detectors. If a modern smoke detector is hardwired with a battery and has that third, usually red communication wired I have found the following to be true. They all have an expiration date which is a maximum of ten if that have the radioactive material inside. When they chirp that is your warning that the backup battery is too weak. At least once a year they should be either vacuumed or blown out to prevent accumulation of dust particles. This is important. An accumulation can cause one or more to give you a “false positive “ or false alarm. I’ve had to deal with that both with several customer and my own home. So three things to remember are fresh batteries once a year, vacuum or blow out the dust inside, and replace them once they expire. Incidentally, all hardwired battery backup smoke alarms have an green led that’s continuously lit whereas the battery operated smoke alarms have a green led that will flash at a fixed rate to indicate that it is working. Thanks.
Help! I live in an apartment w/dropped ceiling tiles like in an office. We have 3 smoke detectors. A week or so ago a chirping sound (exactly like a smoke detector) started occurring, not very often, but now it happens every 1-3 minutes, just like some smokecalarms dov wren battery needs replacing. The sound seemed to be coming from the exact are of my wireless router. I unplugged it, called At&t, no problems detected. Then the sound began migrating to another part of the one room as I was on the phone w/ At& t. The chirping noise seemed to be coming from one air duct on the ceiling now, instead of the corner by the router. Now 24 hours later, chirping happens in 2 rooms near air vents in ceiling (i need to time it to see if there is a pattern. Even after I removed the smoke detectors and took out the batteries, there is STILL chirping, it's very bizarre. I would appreciate any ideas, here are my thoughts: 1. furnace sensor or unseen CO2 detector could be going off and sound is going thru the ducts ( one level floor apartment) . 2. random unseen smoke detector is lost somewhere in the dropped ceiling and is chirping, again echoing thru apartment, 3, CRICKETS. I hope it's not CRICKETS. 4. Something wrong with the red wire, these are the hard wired type of smoke detectors (pain in the neck) and the are all about 4 years expired. I'll reach out to the landlord but wanted any advice if I can solve this mystery! Please help!
Hi I found this site and I think my smoke are from 2003
So if I swap out all detectors w new detectors new batteries and they still go off could it be the wiring plug that connects to the detectors?
Thank you! It worked to actually unplug the thing from the ceiling. Taking out the batteries didn't work. Think I found the faulty detector signaling to all the others! Wow! As a 71 year old woman I feel like one smart cookie!
I’m here at 4:35am because of this very issue. Thank you.
Me too I’m in my car because mine is going off now
I’m a fire alarm technician and I find this is something I often get called out on a service call for. These devices you were dealing with were Kidde smoke alarm and Co combo units. The Kidde brand is very specific as to what they can be interconnected with, typically it’s just other Kidde devices manufactured within a few years from each other. Mixing brands or mixing with older models will cause false alarms at some points, especially if the power in the house happens to flicker momentarily
I one time at 3am I went out on a call regarding smoke alarms going off in a house, just to find that a spider decided it wanted to live inside the detector haha
Lol
Hi, please see my question below, I'll check the brands on my devices. Thanks for the info.
Mine are first alert smart alarms and they just when off. They are 2 month-old.
Would love your input. Im in the process of swapping out all detectors as 1 went off and even w a new battery it still went off so we decided to replace all as they were approaching 10 yrs. Swapped out all w new detectors and it still trips the sensor and the alarm goes off. Do the plugs need to be swapped out too, could that be it? Can't figure out which one is the culprit.
@@mikeferretti7422 I take it you are talking about the wire harness that plugs into the smoke alarm..
I would recommend replacing the harness as well. In the past I have seen false alarms caused by a loose wire harness arching and making poor connection with the prongs on the detector.
These are good videos that provide valuable info for fixing home problems. I like when you give real problems and solutions like this.
To be on the safe side next time you go to a smoke/co detector service call bring your own working co detector. To protect yourself.
Hi Tim. That's a good tip. Thanks for sharing it with everyone.
Got a call about 11:30 at night. All the power was out. Since it's usually zinsco panels, one bad 20 amp breaker will trip the main. Determined it was the breaker for the roof pack HVAC. Told the tenant I could get all her power on and she could use floor heaters. I could still hear the breaker hissing even with it off. Midnight, rain pouring down my neck, using the bill of my cap to hold the panel door up and tenant standing there yacking at me. I pulled the breaker and was greeted with the loudest and biggest flash I've ever seen from 240v. I kept working like nothing happened and I heard the tenant quietly say, ummm, ok, I'm going to go back inside now. Lol that made my night
If I remember correctly. The plastic in the alarms when manafactured are designed to turn that yellow/brown color over time.
Accidently turned on my dishwasher which caused water 🌊 2 fill up my sink & forced a lite 💡 I never got 2 work 2 finally turn on all from dishwasher 😂😂😂😂
This video reminded me of when my husband and I rented an apartment and the landlord needed to have industrial smoke detectors installed because it was connected to a couple of commercial buildings. I was cooking (and this is not a comment on the kind of cook I am) and a little bit of smoke came from the pan. Now because the landlord was too cheap to install an extractor fan above the stove, that little bit of smoke resulted in the fire department having to come to our apartment on a Friday evening since they were the only ones who could shut off the smoke alarm system. I've never been more embarrassed!!
a girl i knew managed to get the fire department called to her house (they were a few blocks away) because she managed to burn pasta...
@@fd3871 Lol! That's some bad water boiling, there!
Oh lawd. Things that make you go "hmmm" lol
Awww shiz the legend is back full send bro
I know all about smoke detectors going crazy, and in the middle of the night...I’ve found that they can get dust in the sensor and blowing canned air in there can some times fix the issue
My 3 year old grandson is obsessed with smoke detectors and watching your video over and over. We wonder if the dog that runs through is yours???
😊
5:05 I think the issue with that alarm is that it was painted to match the ceiling. Notice the white unexposed areas. These detectors are not meant to be painted. Nobody says they are pretty. They are tools to save lives not a ceiling decor.
Thanks for giving a very good tip. I am going to follow your direction to find the faulty smoke detector.
Always look forward to your videos Handyman. No crazy stories for me thank God. They’re a pain in the ass to troubleshoot....lol
Must have driven that poor cat crazy!...
Michael Ambler
Sir, that’s a dog...
@@_RT.Tony_ Let's not bring facts and logic into this conversation...
I was reading in bed this morning when all my hard-wired smoke detectors went off for no apparent reason. After walking all around the exterior to make sure there was no smoke emanating from my house, I tried vacuuming around each unit without success. All the windows were already open when it started. Additionally, my purifier was indicating good indoor air quality, confirming this was indeed a false alarm.
I then tried to turn them off via the circuit box. This didn’t work of course, but for good measure I flipped all the circuits off and back on again. About 60 seconds later, the wailing alarms finally STFU. My ears are still ringing!
I always look for the one blinking faster than the others .Also I dont wire them in tandem reason being is they are hook to a wireless system to let us now which one is sounding. Love your vids mr Handyman
Hi, nick here. Company owner of Silverback plumbing. Sounds like your sink drain doesn't have a vent and has what is called an s-trap! Make sure there is a pipe going out the roof above your sink, if not you need to add a vent.
Thank you soooo much!! Searched all over the internet and nothing helped. We took down single smoke detectors except 1 that wasn't beeping. We bought brand new ones (we needed too anyway) and still going off. Watched your video and took down the non noisy one and VOILA!!! IT WORKED!!!
The non noisy one was false alarming
Good info. Keep em coming
That alarm that you found bad was Obviously Old. It was Yellow from the aging plastic. I know from experience. Mine looked exactly like them. And they were at least twenty years old.
My guess is this guy bought the contractor pack of smoke detectors but actually needed 1 more and rather than buy a full priced one, he used the 1 old one and wound up paying you more for the trip than he would have otherwise. 🤦🏽♂️
Trying to save money.
Crazy story my client brought a toilet I install when you flush it water doesn't go down. Cone to find out the maker of the toilet company never made the hole in between for the water to have a pathway to the drain😯😡
Thank you! This usually happens in the winter for us and I have never known what causes them to go off, but it’s isolated to one that I have to push to shut off. I am going to replace!
I do not like “smokies” as they’re called on my electrical panel! 😁 Last night they beeped for several seconds, then went silent for a minute and then back on for a few more seconds...over and over last night. I went out for the ladder (plan in front pull them all down) & then I thought of resetting the circuit breaker. So grateful that worked! But now I wonder what caused it...They were all new in 2017. 🤷♀️
I had a toilet that would drain slowly. We snaked it with a long metal snake. Took the toilet off and snaked the pipeline because it was on the 3rd floor of the town house. Still didn’t drain well. We finally replaced the toilet and it worked perfect.
We took a hammer to the old toilet and in the pee trap there was a plastic small bottle so when we snaked it it just compressed and then expanded again when we took it out.
It had us dumb-founded
We could’ve just smashed it on the floor to shut it up🤣🤣
That's not how you do it
I’m just here for the comments. Haha.
Soon as you walked up to that old looking one it was obvious what the problem was.
It was going Senile!
Thanks for the info I didn't know they needed to be replaced after time
Thanks, I was fighting with the same problem (three beeps and it would start over)and nothing on TH-cam showed how to diagnose this but your video.
Thank you! it work for me.
Here at 1:20am 😹🤦🏻♀️
12:30 at night..... as far as I can tell, it was one of the smoke/carbon monoxide combos. Maybe now the family can get some sleep and my kid will quit texting "will this ever stop???" Thanks for the video
I am so appreciate bro, my house has more than 20 alarms and has beeping at same time for couple hours. Flow your steps, It finally stopped, thanks for saving my life.
Any circumstance like this you should advise them to call the fire dept. no need for you (AT ALL) to go out and try to figure it out, you might walk into the building and notice nothing.. just to die from inhaling things you shouldn’t.… so just take that into thought.
Not all alarms are smoke alarms and being a fireman I’ve been called to these exact situations where “a smoke alarm is going off at my neighbors” and it turns out to be a carbon monoxide incident
One time I had a handyman, I think his name was Andy come do some work at my home. Magically when after he left, all the beer vanished, could not for the life of me figure out where they all went.
Thank you for this video how I would love to have have you close by. A good handyman that you can trust and is dependable is rare these day's. God Bless you. New subscriber.
Thanks for the video 👍🏼
I figured out why mine do that. If I let the humidity get below 20% in the house, they all go off. I can walk around the house with a spray bottle on fine mist, spray in the direction (not directly on the detector) and they will shut off. This only happens in the winter time, because of the gas furnace drying out the air. I put a whole house humidifier in at the last HVAC upgrade, hasn't happened since.
Very informative smoke alarm vedio presentation.
Thanks for sharing this video.
End story had me laughing when I visualized it.
I see something similar on my home inspections every once in a while. My best guess is some kind of bubble forms (why? I don't know). But when I plunge the stopper up and down a few times a bubble blubs up to the top and then it drains. The world may never know.
I once was sent out on the same Call, it actually turned out being a lighting strike made a pin hole in the flexible yellow gas line CCST. This was in a unit inside of a townhouse in a building with multiple units. I opened a hole in the ceiling and saw what looked like a nice lighter 🔥 lit in the truss construction ceiling. The entire building was shut down to make the needed repairs.
I meant BIC lighter not nice lighter. Damn auto correct!
in the uk the backup battery can cause them to go off if one gets low which you can replace the battery its only in there for when there is a power cut
While hooking up my own electrical panel, I decided I wanted the utility room light on so I could see what I was doing for the rest of the panel. I figured I keep the one circuit on, and the rest of the panel circuits off. So I found the appropriate white/ black wires and hooked up the breaker to the panel. As I was fishing through all the other wires all of a sudden a flash and a loud 'POP' came from the panel. I was in the dark, but still alive. I stepped out for a minute, came back in to realize that the copper ground wire from the utility light circuit had found its way to the center of the panel. Boom! It shorted the 200 AMP main breaker! I was less than 2 ft away. I think it singed my eyebrow hairs!
that's not so weird as it is a stupid mistake to have a wire from a live circuit flapping around in a panel to which you are fishing wires
Few years ago most of our large appliances wouldnt work. Oven wouldnt get hot, a/c acted crazy, dryer wouldnt heat. Georgia Power inspected and said it was in my house. 2 electricians looked at it, we shook every wire in the attic, inspected the panel box, nothing. Finially got the industrial electrician from the local utility I work for at my regular job to look at it. He pulls the meter out of the box and eureka, had 110 on 1 leg, 85 on the other. Turns out when they pulled the main wire to the house 30 yrs earlier they slightly nicked the wire coating and it took all that time to cause the problem. Georgia Power wasnt happy we pulled the meter but fixed it pronto. And no more crap about pulling the meter when I told them I knew they were liable for any damage to my appliances.
Are those interconnects expected to work across models and brands? When i've done interconnects, i figure i gotta just replace them all with the same model. Also I learned that some models have a built-in lifetime. I had a hard-wired unit that wouldn't stop chirping no matter what battery I used. Turns out that it was the end-of-life chirp, and i had to replace.
I do some work for a property management company. The tenant said they had a water leak in their ceiling. I went to check it out and sure enough there were water droplets in a corner of an exterior wall. I climbed on the roof and it had no obvious damaged. I then went in the attic to look and still no obvious signs of water issues. I did noticed that the blown in attic insulation did not go all the way to the soffits and I deduced that is was condensation forming from the cold attic space to the warm ceiling below. It was winter in Indiana. I walked around the inside of the house and looked along the edges of the ceiling and there were light brown spots in many locations where this was happening. Let the company know what I thought, they let the owner know. I blew in insulation in the whole attic. It was the easiest and most profitable job I've done for them. And more importantly the tenant let me know that he has no more issues.
I keep seeing Handy Andy walking around my house at night when I rewind the video on my security cameras and the doors are dead bolted, how's he getting in?
the owner knows him and trusts him obviously people are starting to give me their keys too
its part of being a bisiness man earning peoples trust to the point were they are throwing there walet at u saying please fix it😂😂😂😂😂
Here's a weird (wired?) one for you: Bought a house and am doing minor reno. When I went to replace a kitchen receptacle with new hardware, I couldn't get the plug to power off until I found a combination of TWO breakers that when both were simultaneously off the plug was de-energized.
I'm not an electrician, but I know that isn't supposed to be that way. I applied a volt meter and discovered that with one breaker energized there was 114v and with only the other breaker energized there was only 21v at the plug.
This certainly isn't right, but I have NO clue where to start untangling this one! (yes, I know I can call an electrician, but where's the fun in THAT!!)
My thoughts so far: 1) I doubt its a loose connection because of the two breaker issue and because the voltages are exactly the same every measurement. 2) This house had been converted to a day care so, unlike most other houses, it has been wired for exit signs over the doors, hardwired smoke detectors in each room, and there is some remnant of a security system in a closet and all the outside doors have magnetic security sensors.
Can someone suggest some trouble shooting ideas?
thank you... I did it!
I think handy andy had installed those smokies lol
Nice 👍😃
I had an issue with wired smoke alarms going off when a renter installed CFL light bulbs. When they tried to dim the lights, the smoke alarms went off.
Good info, I'll look into that as well, i have a question at the bottom that is a mystery 🤔
I had a house once that, in the master bath only , the customers said the shower head "felt like it was shocking them". I could read 5 volts from the shower head to the drain.
I checked everything I could imagine from the ground to a bad connection anywhere and couldn't find the cause. Still to this day I'm not sure what the problem was.
Loose or bad ceiling vent-fan wiring? Touching a pipe? These are usually the closest electrical devices near showers. I think.
Ours all went off when I was having roof work done . Can the pounding have set them off? Still have not tried putting them back in
Just curious, when you were on the ladder in the main room, did you not see the dog run through to another room?
I had my smoke detector randomly go off several times. When I called the electrician he told me there was a spider web going to the one smoke detector and to call an exterminator to kill the spiders. I did and so far no more false alarms in the middle of the night.
Yes I also have run across that drain problem. I think it is some sort of surface tension phenomenon, but have yet to have anyone prove it. It would stop, but if I started a swirling motion with my fingers, it would drain great. My solution was to remove the little cross piece in the drain assembly. I call it "vueJaDe" or the reverse of dejavu. When you swear this crap has never happened to anyone else before! Haha
yep that's it
My detector wouldn't stop chirping until I put on a CD of Neil Diamond singing Sweet Caroline. Totally weird.
I have an alarm going off for 3 beeps and stops. Very random. 3 beeps. Been here 8 years so may be time to change them all! Thanks for this vid.
Do you mean like chirps or long beeping
My dog has mid flight 💩 every time the fire alarms go off..poor baby
Same problem here but it seems to be my circuit breaker , is it the breaker just bad is it possible or does it always indicated that is wiring shortage causing the breaker to react ?
All I can think about is that poor dog that came running up the steps and looks so freaked out having to listen to those loud beeps! Poor little doggy!! Glad you figured it out. I didn't realize you have to change out the whole unit. I thought you just replaced the batteries 2 times a year. Hum, will have to figure out how old mine are, I have only been in my house for 3 years, but it was built in the '90s. Peace and Good Fortune to you and your family. Stay safe, that dark house gave me the super creeps!!!!
That was my dog. I only let her in once I got them to turn off.
This guy must be a super tough guy shooting those beautiful animals he has displayed on his walls. Tell him if he wants to be a real man and use his hands I’ll be waiting
Electrical issue in client rental, walk in unit and turn on lights, nothing would come on, long goose hunt later, turn stove top element on, and lights in kitchen would come on, adjust heat on element, up or down, lights would dim or get brighter..... never figured it fully, tripped main breaker and actually replaced it. Had not done it since
4:58 as soon as I saw thst I knew it was a hell of a red flag
Two stories
First, I worked at a camp and once a year we changed the 9v batteries in the smoke detectors. There were 2 buildings that we hated because only those 2 would have this problem. They did the same thing as this guys house but would only do IT RIGHT AFTER WE LEFT the site! So we would go about our day and about the time we got to the next job, the people are flooding the customer service desk to complain LOL. So we'd have to go back and fix the problem which took another 20 minutes out of the day. I remember once, we got the job done by early afternoon, and thought for once the job was done. NOPE! The people just didnt go to their rooms till 9 at night! LOL
Second, not a house, but I was a sound guy for my church for a couple years. This system was fairly old, so it was normal for a simple problem to arise during each service.
This particular day was more interesting.
My dad was the pastor and his mic was routed through channel 11. But on this day, there was no sound coming out. This was normal, but after testing the mic was on and everything, it STILL didnt have sound. To this day, I have no idea why we tried it, but we started listening through other channels. We found the signal....in channel 15. Mind you, we had little kids so we just expected the wires got pulled out and switched over the week. NOPE. The wires were connected to 11 at the board, through the snake, into the box at the end of he snake, and into the transmitter from the mic. No way the signal could have gotten to channel 15, but there it was.
Funny how devilish things happen in churches!
@@lockedin60 it is interesting and it went right back to normal the next week,, so...
Good investigation
Hardwired smoke detectors (6) all show green light, but one went beep beep beep (not the chirp for new battery needed), at 3 a.m. then again at 8 a.m. all batteries were changed 3,weeks ago,...beeped again, once more in the afternoon. I can’t wait to be startled awake again tonight...I have to wait until tomorrow to go to the store to buy new on s because I’m sure these are all over 10 years old. Thanks for your video because I will definitely be taking one with me to make sure the plug will fit or has an adapter!
Their all interconnected
Its funny how on 7:34 when that smoke alarm goes off by itself
My friend's dog woke her up at midnight on NYs eve, she discovered the beeping (2 year old, installed in a new house) of one of the smoke alarms, way high up... got the ladder out, tried to disconnect it and all of the alarms went off! She wants to disconnect all of them and install the sealed 10yr units that are not hard wired. Can you simply just disconnect each unit from the back (then take the battery out!) and just not use these? She wants to make sure they don't all go off when she starts disconnecting them . Thank you, great video.
I had trouble with one carbon monoxide detector. I received two identical CM detector's when purchased new HVAC unit. Some how one had gotten goofy and would only go off in the middle of the night!!! Very disturbing!!! Of course, the goofy one was NOT near where I slept(that's WAY too easy!!)!!! I put several new batteries in the goofy one and now they both work fine. I had problems for several weeks. NOT sure why the CM detector only liked certain 9V batteries!! Very weird!!! #TheHandyman
Thank you for this video because I did not know what to do just now. I just got home from work and all the alarms going off in the house. I decided to search TH-cam and found your video. I went looking for the one flashing red, found it and discontinued it from the wire and all the others stop 🛑
Had the same shit happen with our smoke detectors....replaced them with $1500 worth of Nest ones and never looked back. Lol
Only need one
I set the gas meter at a new house and did the service turn on checked and cycled all appliances and the customer was at the house. I was sent back to the house for a no hot water call a few days later and found that the plumber tied into the same water pipe for the inlet and outlet for the water-heater behind the sheet rock .
a couple months after we moved in a new hours the smoke detectors kept going off in the middle of the night (and only the middle of the night) and scaring the hell out of the kids because they shout FIRE FIRE in between beeping. Eventually we got the builder to send someone out and they found one faulty unit, similar to this video.
Searching how to stop smoke detector beeping finally our in store stopped after 30-40 mins😂
Please move to NJ I cant find the chirp! I got all new alarms harddrive and non hard. The chirping just started up after all new ones replaced. This is driving me crazy!! Thanks
I had this exact problem in my house. Mine looked identical to the ones in your video - it was a combination heat/smoke/carbon monoxide type. I put in 3 new 9-volt batteries. The problem is that it had printed on it that it should be replaced every 7 years. Got a new one and that was the answer. For people who haven't been through this, this video will be very informational.
Smoke Detectors are a HUGE PAIN IN THE ASS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We had a pot on the stove that made a lot of smoke. We aired out the kitchen, but this morning 4am they went off briefly
The pot did set them off
Just a little tip the tone for CO and Fire are different. Fire is 3 beeps and pause, CO is 4 at least in the US.
is there a way i could ask you some questions about plumbing
If there is next time... look for the red light on the head. That will tell you witch unit is faulting. I respond as a Firefighter to atleast 1 smoke or CO alarm a week. Typically it's either old or the battery is dead.
While replacing my Ionizing smoke & fire alarms, I was able to replace 3 of them easily and changed harness wire as well. On the 4th one, whenever I pressed the Test button, all alarms in the house started beeping. Tried it 3-4 times. Only difference I noticed was that this one had 2 yellow wires instead of 3. Wondering what’s going on here 🤷♂️.
Had a similar problem. Is that your dog walking through a customer's house? Or did they leave their dog to fend for himself while on vacation?
3 wierd things one is our dryer stopped heating in side the dryer was spotless no lint to be found same with the duct going in the wall and in the wall was clear exsept 1 roofing nail from when we got our roof replaced less than a year ago pulled out the nail whole issure fixed. the other one is the GFCI outlet in our hallway bathroom we heard a loud buss then we went in there and it popped with a bright flash and started smoking so much it filled up the bathroom. The last one is we pressed start and the microwave tripped the braker reset the braker the microwave didn't work again. Then one is my dad is a bar tender at a movie theater beer got splashed on the outlet tripped that braker then chain reacted tripping all the brakers starting with consesions then the lobby then the hallway then the power to each theater 1 by 1 all the power reclining seats stopped working the sound stopped going the screens turned black the theater was silent besides the sound of tarrified kids.
I had one electric socket which was heating up for years. Nothing seemed to be worn out or bad in the socket. I tried to tighten up bolts, scratch wires nothing helped. Then one day changed the wires and put there a new socket and the problem was solved.
I've got a good one for you...I have 2 light switches in my house that do that same thing. Gotta think about that for a second. Each of the switches controls an overhead light and some porch lights. Both switches do the same thing. This is not a 3-way switch situation. Turn one on, then turn the other on and off, nothing changes. The only thing I can figure is that both switches are doing the same thing on the same phase (pole) of power. So there is no extra power applied when turning one switch on/off while there is one already fired up.
JKL Workshop I’ve got a client that has a whole bank of 4 switches he says turn on his porch light. Haha
@@bmac8130 Yes!!! Somebody's Friday afternoon project I guess. LOL
Ear protection what a good idea!
Bet you enjoyed editing this video!
Get another live stream going again!
Outside outlet (no gfci) wouldn’t provide power. Took me weeks to figure out that the builder wired it to a gfci outlet in powder room. Drove me crazy.
I have seen that one many times on rental homes.
My plumbing use to always get clogged up in my house toilets would flood and spill over and it happened like 4 times. I have a vent pipe in the front and I would always clear it from there with an auger. Well the 4th time I rented a heavy duty auger from Home Depot that had a different twisted tip and guess what!! I pulled out a 2ft piece of rebar that was causing the problem! And it never happened again
Thank you for this video, my smoke alarm went off in both bedrooms at 6 pm at night and I disconnected them . I was planning on getting two new ones the next morning. This is a new home , only 3 years old. Why are they beeping ? Low and behold they started beeping at 3 am even though they were disconnected. Why are they still beeping if disconnected. I can’t find where the batteries are inside of them. SMH 🤦♀️