To ask why my smoke alarm is going off every 10 mins

[singme]

Yesterday the fire brigade broke down my door because the smoke alarm was going off, but there was no fire.

Today I am off work.
There’s building work going on two floors below, I have closed all windows and cleaned all dust as I think this may have been the cause. But it’s still happening! I’m going insane! I tried hoovering the alarm, I unscrewed it and shook a bit of dust out. It’s mains attached so don’t think I can turn it off, plus obviously need a smoke alarm!

Anyone ever had this??

Is it linked to a carbon monoxide detector?

Not a battery warning is it?

Are you in a flat? Have all other areas been checked?

This once happened to me and it turned out that another flat was in fire and setting off our alarm. It was a slow burning fire as some papers had been left over a heater.

Ours is mains connected but goes off when the back up batteries are low.

I would check the batteries

Pop a shower cap over it to keep out the dust while the work is going on.

It will still have a battery, for the 'manual check' function and as a back up in a power cut. Change the battery and see what happens.

Battery

Ours did this. We had to hoover it and it stopped

Straycatblue

Exactly what my input was going to be

Thanks for replies. Sorry I’ve been madly trying everything and contacting landlord about door etc.

Yes it’s a flat in the attic of an old tenement.

If it was the battery would it have stopped going off overnight? Because as soon as the work stopped at 4pm it stopped going off yesterday, and only started again this morning.

I can hear drilling now, it’s shakinf the whole building!

I am surprised the fire brigade just broke down the door, didn’t leave an official note, just a note from our neighbour to tell us what happened. Letting agent has contacted them to see about an incident number.

I will try the batteries too. I have tin foiled the alarm as well, shower cap would be an excellent shout if I had one!

It really is every 10 mins. I’m working a 60 hour week and today is my only day off and I just want to watch an episode of the Crown in peace! I can’t go out, it started going off even in the 5 mins when I took out the bin!

Haha I want to watch that Friends episode “for research”

i have the same problem, and don't know how to deal with it. if i would know, i would let you know.

This happened to us - unless it’s the batteries it’s dust. Give it s good hoover with the nozzle attachment!

Couldn’t even watch that video fully without it going off, tinfoil did nothing

Just disconnected it and running diagnostics any progress I’ll let you know!

If you cover it and it stops, its dust or gas. (Ours are linked, they all go off)

If you cover it and it still bleeps, the back up battery needs replacing or its faulty.

Bloody irritating things when they go haywire!

Good luck finding a cure for it

Would a battery noise just be a single beep or an full on alarm? This is the actual full on piercing shrieking alarm.

It’s stopped now I’ve disconnected it from the mains...I don’t know it that means it’s dust or battery...

We don’t have gas so I’m relieved it’s not that!!

It squeaks every minute or so if it is the batteries... next door went to America last Christmas... for 6 whole weeks!!!!! Gah!

Sounds like it is the dust or an error! Your LL will have to move quite speedily to get it sorted, it is illegal not to have a working alarm in place at all times in rented properties. Have you told him about the fire brigade and that you have had to disconnect it entirely?

Yeah I told the letting agent everything and they should be sending someone round. We have one in the hall and one in the kitchen and I only disconnected the hall one. Still think it would be illegal though
I’m going to let the dust settle, literally, and then plug it back in. Seems so odd that it kept happening even after full dusting, hoovering and covering it!

Not necessarily! The law only requires 1 working smoke alarm on each inhabitable floor.

So if the remaining alarm is a smoke alarm, not a heat alarm, then it is fine!

Most heat alarms have a sticky out bit, Google has lots of pictures, they are easily distinguished, and, though you can get combined ones, they are not usually used in kitchens as it defeats the purpose of them - to ignore burned toast but to still raise the alarm in a fire.

As it is hard wired it is more down to the Landlord, your responsibility stops at replacing the batteries, cleaning it and reporting on going issues, which you have! So keep the agent up to date with how it goes.

Ah ok, thank you! I didn’t know that! It could be a heat alarm, I’ll check!

Has it stopped yet?

Ours did this about a year ago going off for the first time at 5am and freaking us out completely (and making us also review our fire alarm procedure with the children and keeping an emergency key hidden but close to the door to get out urgently). When taking it down to hoover out, change batteries etc (mains wired linked alarm) we discovered an "expiry" date on the ceiling side (where we could not otherwise have seen it if not off the ceiling). We had no idea they should be changed every so often and this one was well past the date stamped on it for replacement (by about 4 years). Hoovering, new batteries etc did not stop the problem, but we did get new ones the next day and installed into the same points that the originals had been on and no problems since.