Smoke Alarm Goes Off When Battery put in

Okay, here is the setup.

All my smoke detectors are wired to the house electrical. They also have backup batteries.

Well they all went off. No fire, etc.

So, I took out all the batteries and reset the electrical circuit breaker to shut them up, which it did. Then I turned the electrical back on and they stayed quiet.

One by one I add a NEW battery back in and then all of a sudden they all start going off again (even when I put the batteries back in in different order).

I go through the whole routine AGAIN. Same result.

I think I finally got them quiet with three with batteries in and three with batteries out. But the electrical is on, so logic would would have it that a dirty detector would go off even with battery out and electrical on.

Any ideas what the heck is going on?

Wow, I've wired three AC fire systems and have never run into this before. I hope that you get it resolved.

Do you know exactly how they are strung together?

Could you spend a short eternity figuring it out by process of elimination?

Tom

They all connect through one circuit. This I found because I know which breaker to throw to turn them all off.

Well I got a hold of the manual for this particular alarm and it looks like the model might help me in doing my elimination.
With this model of detector (FIREX Smoke Detector #46186) if they all alarm all the detectors will dark out the red indicator light except for the one that is actually the alarm instigator. That detector is supposed to blink a red light every 1 second to show it is the alarm that is thinking there is a fire.

I am hoping that this will show which alarm is probably faulty and sending all the other ones into a crazy fit. then I can only replace the faulty one.

If that does not work I checked and they are only $14 a piece at home depot so I can replace them all.

I just finished one in the house I'm living in currently. There are 10 of them in the house. At $14 a piece that would be a heft propostion.

Also the one in the kitchen and the furnace room are special and cost much more. The one in my kitchen is photo and is about $30. The on in the furnace room is photo and CO and costs about $50.

Good luck.

Tom

That would stink. Luckly from the symptoms I am pretty sure it is one of the cheaper ones in the hallways and bedrooms. Cross my fingers that it does not end up being the one in the kitchen that is 15 feet off the ground

Removing Detector

Okay so I unscrewed the Firex Model 46186 from its base plate. All the wires connect to the detector with a connector plug that snapped on to the back of the detector. for the life on me I cant figure out how to unhook the connector plug from the detector. Is it a permanent link and to replace the detector I have to actually unwire the connector plug from the wires that go into ceiling?

you can find the use manual here which shows how to install but not how to remove:

http://www.firexsafety.com/NR/rdonl...819-A5E3555C2893/0/110761GEnglish46185000.pdf

Just unplug the connector plug from the baseplate. The plug remains wired to the interconnect cable up in the box. As the instructions state, it snaps in place, so there may be an unsnapping involved in the unplugging, but the 5700 I just checked unplugged smoothly.

You have to squeeze the small tabs on the sides of the plug and pull firmly but not like an animal. The tabs are small.

Tom

You learn something new every day

statjunk said:

You have to squeeze the small tabs on the sides of the plug and pull firmly but not like an animal. The tabs are small.
Tom

Click to expand...

So THAT'S what they meant by "snaps in place." Never noticed or engaged the tabs, or got one to snap -- you've got to push pretty hard to snap the plug in, and one side at a time at that. Probably their main function is to prevent the device from dropping while it's hanging on the wires while you change the battery. Thanks...