I hate waking up like this

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Rene T

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Farmington NH
Out of a sound sleep at 3:00 this morning, one of my smoke alarms went off. It was either the one just inside my bedroom door or the one right outside that same door. They are hardwired in with a battery backup. I have five in all and they were all replaced this spring. I ran around the whole house like a chicken with it’s head cut off looking for something and found nothing. Being a former firefighter you can only imagine what I was going through. After about 45 seconds it silenced and everything is fine now. Any ideas!
 
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They are only smoke. I just checked the temperature in the house, it’s 76 F degrees and the humidity level is 54%. I have a plug in type CO detector in a wall outlet right outside our bedroom door. I don’t think it was that going off. I just looked at it and it appears to be normal. A zero in the window.
 
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A tiny bug like a knat. When I was stationed in England, wheat bugs would set off the alarms.
 
I’ve got one more thing to check. I also have a stand alone smoke detector which is part of my Simpli-Safe burglar alarm system. I’m going to call them this morning when I get up and they can check my history and see if that one went off during the night. I also changed the battery in that one this spring
 
I just checked the local weather and it’s foggy outside and the humidity level outside is 99%. Maybe some of that humidity snuck into the house and set them off. All my windows and doors are closed so I can rule that out I think.
 
A tiny bug like a knat. When I was stationed in England, wheat bugs would set off the alarms.
Had that problem here for several months. I'd remove the unit and thunk it on a counter and kill bugs. I finally "Sealed" all but the smoke sensor.. no problems since... And I also convinced the bugs do decease and desist bugging me.
 
If it was, my wife and dog were also dreaming. We all had trouble getting back to sleep. It was real.

oh and welcome to the forum.
 
Several things can set off a smoke detector; bugs, dust, human error.. I worked in fire and intrusion systems for 20 years in the military. We would get calls that a system was malfunctioning. I always replied the detector is not malfunctioning. Something broke the beam causing an alarm. And it seems the always activate well after midnight.
 
I just called SimpliSafe and it wasn’t their smoke detector so now I’m leaning towards the fact that it may have been a bug. I just happened to think, yesterday afternoon, I did some demolition work in the basement and it was about 4’ from one of my detectors . I may have disturbed a bug where he was living and he may have been out this morning looking for a new apartment. Hopefully the alarm scared him off and he went to a different neighborhood.
Thanks everyone for your input. You too Dan.
 
Sleeping, that sets them off! Every time the battery drains it happens overnight. Every time!

Hope you get a better night's sleep tonight Rene.
 
Sleeping, that sets them off! Every time the battery drains it happens overnight. Every time!

Hope you get a better night's sleep tonight Rene.
I think we will. I called the manufacturer and he said most definitely it could have been a bug looking for a new place to live.
 
Out of a sound sleep at 3:00 this morning, one of my smoke alarms went off. It was either the one just inside my bedroom door or the one right outside that same door. They are hardwired in with a battery backup. I have five in all and they were all replaced this spring. I ran around the whole house like a chicken with it’s head cut off looking for something and found nothing. Being a former firefighter you can only imagine what I was going through. After about 45 seconds it silenced and everything is fine now. Any ideas!
It has happened to me also, and about the same time. And it was at my Auburn house, a high risk fire area. Nothing was wrong, they are known to false once in a while for apparently no known reason. And of course the unknown reason to false will be at around 0300 hrs

See here.

-Don-
 
Maybe spray some RAID inside the cover so the next bug looking for a warm place to live decides it's not a good idea.
I plan on doing that if it happens again. I’ll remove it from the mounting plate, unplug the AC wire, remove the 9 volt battery then spray it real good then let it set for an hour or so. I’ll also spray the immediate area real good.
 
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