Our fire alarms are losing their shit: why?

[Medsy]

We moved into a rented house, and we set off the downstairs heat alarm (cooking and I guess the kitchen got too hot). Fine, all good.

Now 5 days later, out of nowhere, when nobody had been cooking at all, no heat on etc, the kitchen heat alarm went mental and then suddenly all the other alarms in the house (so not just on the ground floor, but on the first and second floor too) went crazy. A total of 4 alarms with no triggering.

Why?! Anyone got any ideas? Now we're paranoid about getting woken up at 4am by all these crazy alarms

They’ll be dirty, give them a clean and should sort it

I’d the second floor a loft conversion? If so they’ll be linked alarms do if one triggers they all sound.

Could someone have sprayed deodorant/air freshener too close to one? If not one might be dirty.

We had flies in ours! A quick vacuum and they were fine.

Our alarms are linked so if one goes off a few seconds later the others go off.

Either dirt or spiders have got in there. Nothing to worry about. just clean them and you'll be fine.

Maybe it's a ghost! 👻

But no, I'm not sure about the heat detecting ones - these should not go off when cooking, they are meant to be better than the smoke ones for that - but the smoke detectors typically have a little beam either of light or of radiation (!) which is picked up by a sensor, and the sensor triggers if the beam is blocked. They can be blocked by things other than smoke, like if an insect gets in there or dust.

Maybe see if your local fire station has a non emergency number and they might come and have a look? I know they do fire safety inspections and smoke alarm advice.

Interesting guys, I didn't realise re the beams of light!

What I don't understand is that these alarms have a "hush" button but nothing happens when we press them.

How do you clean them, do you just pull hard to remove them? I'm worried if I do that I'll set them off again or break them

@BertieBotts
Thanks so much for the tip I've booked a home visit!

Dirty of batteries. Ours are wired into the mains but also have a 9v rectangle battery as a back up in case mains electricity goes. Every few years one of them will need a new battery and start doing weird beeps at seemingly random times.

If they are hard wired in then there may be a slot that you can poke a knife or flat head screwdriver in and they pop off.
Some of them twist off.

Give it a vaccum and make sure there are no dead spiders in them. If they still. Go off then change the battery.

Most of the time the cover unscrews.

They also expire after a while and need replacing. I think it is 10 years. The Fire Brigade will inspect them and will let you know if they are OOD.