Before that annoying chirping sound interrupts your deep sleep once again, get ahead of the annoyance. This article will explain how to maintain all your home smoke alarms effectively, how easy it is to test them monthly, and why simply replacing batteries annually, plus a few other tricks, will defeat the sudden alarm warnings that always seem to occur during your sleep time.Â
Out-of-Slight, So We Forget
Smoke alarms are purposely mounted to the underside of room ceilings, Why? Because heat rises and smoke is a by-product of heat. Smoke from a fireplace that isn’t properly drafting up the chimney, smoke from a pan on the kitchen stove or oven that is overcooking food, for example, often triggers your smoke alarm. Many appliances too can produce smoke when they experience a belt malfunction. And of course too many candles, each individually producing just small amounts of smoke can collectively set off your alarm.Â
Brady Chuckel, President & CEO, Paul Davis of Southeast Wisconsin speaks from experience. “Smoke alarms are super simple, economical devices that save lives, period. We’ve seen the downside of not having them installed or just plain neglected and therefore not functioning properly. When our employees visit a customer’s home it’s most often not a fire occurance but some sort of water, mold, or other damage that requires our mitigation and clean-up experts to spend hours correcting the issue. It’s also a practice of ours to ask them when we’re there about their smoke alarms – have they been serviced lately or attended to by the homeowner? You’d be amazed how often the responses are, I don’t know or I don’t remember. When we’re there, we’re glad to check their smoke alarms to be sure they are operating as they should be.”
Here’s What Chuckel Suggests.
Every month or so, test your smoke alarms by pressing the round test button on the face of each smoke alarm. It should chirp loudly once if the batteries are good and the sensor, electronics and sounder are working properly. If your ceilings are higher than 8 feet or you have a balance concern, you may want to hire a handyman with a suitable ladder to do this. When you don’t hear a single chirp, it’s time to replace the batteries. If you hear a “chirping” sound, it’s a sign that the batteries are low and need to be replaced. For 10-year lithium-powered smoke alarms, you won’t need to replace the battery. However, like many home devices, sensors can wear out so every ten years it is recommended to buy and install a new smoke alarm. It’s also a good practice to dusk the device occasionally to keep dust from collecting and affecting operation. Paul Davis Restoration puts into practice community fire safety in the areas we service. In conjunction with the American Red Cross Paul Davis businesses conduct community awareness and smoke alarm replacement services in neighborhoods in many cities and towns.
