Stop A Smoke Alarm Chirping With 3 Quick Fixes

Maybe just getting back from work or possibly late at night and hear a super annoying .

Now this is common if it's a battery power smoke detector or a wired unit like this one , which is also a smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector in one same thing , one chirp every about one minute usually means that your battery is low or dead .

Let me show you how to fix that but also a few other tips if just swapping the battery doesn't work out for you .

So the unit I have here is a combination smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector in one , it is hardwired and it's chirping that often confuses people because they don't understand why would it be chirping if it's hardwired and it's getting power ?

Well , there is a battery backup , a nine volt battery backup that you can access off of this door on the side by just opening that up .

And that's for , if the power goes off , you'll still have the capability to detect a fire or carbon monoxide to change the battery on this one .

It's simple , just open that door , remove the nine volt .

Now , it will only go back in one way , if you have it reversed with the positive and negative on the wrong side , the door will not close properly .

So just pay attention to that .

If you have just a battery powered , you might have three AA batteries to replace .

Once you replace the batteries .

Wait 60 seconds .

If you hear that chirp like mine , you still have some troubleshooting to do .

So , we'll move on to step two .

Now in step two , this one is hardwired .

So what I'm gonna do is I will go out to the circuit breaker and I'll turn power off to the smoke detector so I can remove the connector safely .

So I'll just rotate the unit and you'll see there's a small connector in the back with three wires , I'll unplug that and then I can take the smoke detector down , I can remove the battery .

This is a new battery and then I can press and hold this test or reset button for 30 seconds .

Now , for some models that what this does is it helps to take the energy out of the capacitors or helps to reset the unit .

So now we can just put that new battery back in and then close the door .

You might hear a small chirp and now I'm going to reinstall the smoke alarm and then I'll turn on the breaker .

So waiting after the breaker is on , then I'll wait 60 seconds to see if I'm getting the chip on this one , I still am .

So I'll move on to step three .

Now , in step three , I remove the unit again , making sure to turn off the breaker and I'm taking the battery out .

So I'll do two things here .

First , I'm gonna use a compressed air can and blow out any dust or debris inside the unit itself .

Now , this could help clean things up and solve your issue .

And on most of these units , if you actually want to get a deeper clean , what you can do is just with the standard screwdriver on this one , there's three tabs , you just need to press in lightly .

That's the second one .

And then when I do the third , everything pops off and I can see inside and I can already see there's definitely some type of lint or dust build up inside this smoke and carbon monoxide detector .

So now with the housing out , you have much better access and you can blow all the components off getting as clean as possible .

The only other thing I do in this last step is I make sure that the contacts for the positive and negative on the nine volt are not pushed in and deformed .

So I make sure they're pulled out and would make solid contact to the battery .

So that's not causing the issue .

Once I've done that , then I'll put the housing back into place .

I can reinsert the battery and then I will reinstall the smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector and see if that solves my issue .

So for me that last step of blowing out the internals and adjusting the contacts , fixed my chirping issue , let me know down in the comments if you were able to fix it .

And what step was it ?

Just a battery ?

Did you have to reset it or did you have to blow out the internals or a those contacts to make contact with the battery a little bit better ?

Let me know .

I'm always curious or there is a manufactured date on your back of your smoke alarm or the combination like I have here .

This one is April 10th of 2014 .

If you have a combination smoke alarm , carbon monoxide detector , usually only 5 to 7 years is the useful life and then you need to change them out .

So I have reached the end of this useful life .

So even though I got the issue corrected , I'm going to swap all mine out because I am actually past the seven year mark for these combination units .

Now , if you have just a smoke alarm , it's a 10 year useful life .

And now you will notice they are making ones that have integrated batteries and are supposed to last that , that whole life cycle .

So it's supposed to last 10 years .

Once it's done , then you do need to change out the unit .

Let me know if you guys have any comments , I will be happy to jump in there and help any way I can .

And then also , if you haven't subscribed to the channel , don't forget to do that .

As we have multiple videos coming out per week to help you around the house with your repairs and improvements and we'll catch you on the next one .

Take care .