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Fire alarm….ghost??!!

6 replies

Nearlyspring23 · 27/01/2025 22:05

We have an issue with fire alarms going off all the time in our house. I’m not into woo and believe that all things like that have a logical explanation, but struggling to work out what this one is.

We moved into our house a few years ago and bought with us a couple of fire alarms. They were expensive ish wifi enabled ones that you could link to each other, so if one went off the other did too and you also received an app notification. Never had any issues with them before, yet within a few months of moving they started to go off for no reason. Often they would go off in the middle of the night, although sometimes it was during the day, and it tended to go in cycles. We would have a week where they would go off numerous times, or a few nights in a row, then they would be fine for a few months, then it would start again. I only once got an app notification that they had gone off, we tried uninstalling and reinstalling, changing batteries, changing location etc but nothing worked. Eventually we decided they must be faulty and so brought a pack of standard issues fire alarms.

Not long after getting these it started again! Not to the same extent as the first ones, these ones tend to go off 2-3times a year. But it is still an absolute pain to be woken in the night to the sound of the alarm. The last couple of times have been over the summer, during the daytime, about 30mins before we were due to leave on holiday. Then again last night at 4 in the morning.

Things to consider:

  • we have tried changing batteries on all of them. We always make sure to get ones that state they are compatible with alarms and have tried a few different brands.
  • They are standard smoke alarms, they don’t go off for heat or carbon monoxide.
  • They aren’t wired in, just standard battery operated. The first were wifi enabled, the second not.
  • They go off in different locations, it doesn’t seem to be one area that is always triggered.
  • They tend to go off in the middle of the night, but not always. It doesn’t seem that there is a pattern to season or weather.
  • We don’t live in a particularly dusty house, it’s a standard 70s semi in a village.
  • We don’t use anything that would give off any smoke like substance, no plug in air fresheners or heavy use of aerosols or sprays etc.

After last nights alarm I am going to get another brand in to see if we get any luck with those. But I just can’t work out why it keeps happening. Anyone else ever had the same?

OP posts:
Sunshiiine · 27/01/2025 22:09

Not those king of alarms no, but we have ones that are meant to last 10 years and they keep going off randomly, usually in the middle of the night as you say. We’ve had them replaced by the company twice, and they’re definitely only a couple of years old.

being woken up in the night to a smoke alarm is fucking petrifying.

IRLuse · 27/01/2025 22:16

Spiders or similar?

That’s what I always assume the odd time mine go off with no other apparent reason.

But maybe equivalents of Caspar, the Maitlands and the ladies in black/white/mistletoebridal gowns have really been vying for my attention all this time…

OldTinHat · 27/01/2025 22:31

Do you vacuum them every week or so?

I have battery ones installed by the fire brigade and I was told to vacuum the dust out once a week and do a quick battery test.

Of course, I don't. Who does irl?! So I am often leaping out of bed, dog included, at 3am, wrestling a fire alarm off the ceiling.

Why do they never go off like that in the day?!

And why do the buggery things never go back in their holders again properly?!

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MassiveOvaryaction · 27/01/2025 22:31

We had this in an old house (though not so frequently as you). It was carpet moths. Fuckers would fly right on in there and over the sensors. Not content with destroying soft furnishings and clothes, they had to come for our sleep too Angry

BertieBotts · 27/01/2025 22:35

Where are they placed? If you don't have them placed right on the ceiling, dust will get inside and gravity will make it fall on the sensor.

Nearlyspring23 · 27/01/2025 22:37

Sounds like some good, non ghostlike options. Spiders could explain the cycles, if they make their home there, cause havoc for a week, then move on.
Thankfully we don’t live in a particularly mothy house, as we have had terrible issues a couple of houses back, I hope it’s not a sign they are still sticking around.

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