Why does my smoke detector beeping or chirping? Is it a good sign for a smoke detector or fire alarm to chirp or beep? Well, this article will address why your smoke detector keeps chirping and how you can fix the beeping or chirping sound in your smoke detector or fire alarm at home.
Most smoke detectors are designed to chirp or beep whenever the battery is weak or need to be recharged. So, when your smoke detector is beeping or chirping, the fire alarm is sending a signal that your detector’ battery is about to die, and you need to either change it or charge it.
However, some new smoke detectors don’t chirp or beep; rather, they keep the error in their processor. But, the error kept in the smoke detector will be cleared mostly when the battery is changed.
You can check out our guide on how to change a smoke detector or fire alarm battery.
Note: Changing your smoke detector battery doesn’t guarantee that the smoke detector will stop chirping or beeping. You will discover that most electrical powered smoke detectors with a battery to back it up when there is a power outage exercise these attributes.
So, when you change your smoke detector battery, and the sound keeps beeping or chirping, the only way to fix it is to reset your smoke detector or fire alarm to the default to clear the beeping or chirping error and erase the stored error in the processor.
Causes of Beeping or Chirping in a Smoke Detector
What are the causes of beeping or chirping in a smoke detector? It’ll be easy for you to fix why your smoke detector keeps beeping or chirping when you know the causes.
Therefore, from our research, we came to realize that the following are the reason why your fire alarm chirps or beeps.
There is a Fire Outbreak
If there is a fire outbreak, your smoke detector or fire alarm will chirp or beep multiple times to call your attention to the outbreak. So, when your smoke detector is beeping or chirping, you wouldn’t want to ignore the beeping or chirping.
Smoke Detector False Alarm
A false alarm occurs in a smoke detector for various reasons. And the most common reasons among them include smoking from the environment. If the fire alarm or smoke detector detects or senses smoke from the environment as a result of someone smoking tobacco or cigarette, the fire alarm will start beeping or chirping.
Therefore, to ensure that the smoke detector isn’t reporting false information, monitor what happens where the detector is installed and see that there is no external factor that can trigger the smoke detector to beep or chirp when there is no fire outbreak.
Read Also: how to stop false alarm in a smoke detector.
Low or Dead Battery
It’s common for a smoke detector to chirp or beep whenever the battery is low, or the battery is due for charging. So, if there are no external factors that trigger the smoke detector from beeping or chirping [false alarm], check whether the battery is low or dead.
If your smoke detector battery is low, you’d need to get a replacement and change it.
Read Also: How to change battery in your Smoke detector.
The Batteries are not Properly Installed
If your smoke detector batteries ain’t properly installed, it will chirp to call your attention to it. When installing batteries in your smoke detector, you need to ensure that the negative side is facing [-] in the smoke detector battery compartment and the positive [+] is facing the other end.
So, if your smoke detector battery isn’t dead and all external factors that can cause the detector to chirp are under control, check out the battery installation to confirm that it’s properly installed.
Your smoke detector or Fire Alarm is Expired [Maybe that is the End of the Fire Alarm]
All smoke detectors have an expiry time. And when the time comes, the smoke detector will stop working and, of course, start chirping.
So, if your smoke detector is chirping, it could be because the detector has expired. And this could be why does my smoke detector beeping or chirping.
Note: Most smoke detector has a lifespan of about 7 – 10 year before expiry.
Environmental Temperature or Humidity
If there is a temperature fluctuation in the house, there is a chance that beeping or chirping will occur in your smoke detector. If your thermostat temperature is high or low, which is different from where the smoke detector is installed, it will start chirping to send a signal that there is a temperature change that you may want to check.
So, if the air that is coming out of the kitchen or shower is hotter than the area where your detector is installed, it will chirp. So, when cooking, endeavour to close the door or use a heat extractor to evacuate the hot air that can cause the smoke detector to chirp or beep.
And as for the bathroom during a hot shower, endeavour to close the door or disable your smoke detector in the bathroom for the main time and enable it again.
Battery Drawer not Firmly closed or Open Partially
Check whether your smoke detector battery drawer is firmly closed because you need to close the battery cover very well for the battery to connect with the smoke detector’s terminal.
Your Smoke Detector or Fire Alarm Pull-tab is in Place
Why does my smoke detector beeping or chirping? Well, if you still have the put-tab in place, you will run into the error from your fire alarm processor.
Smoke Detector Residual Charge
Always discharge residual charges in your smoke detector before installing a new residual charge can cause the smoke detector to chirp or beep after installing a new battery, and the battery compartment is well fixed.
If you noticed any of these, your smoke detector might be chirping or beeping uncontrollably.
Read Also: How to Reset First Alert Smoke Detector Alarm
Now that we know why your fire alarm is beeping or chirping, we know what to address. But, aside from this, is there any other reason why does my smoke detector beeping or chirping?
Why does my Smoke Detector Beeping or Chirping
A smoke detector or fire alarming chirping or beeping is caused [mostly] when your fire alarm or smoke detector battery is weak or [about] to die. You can also notice the chirping or beeping sound if there is an issue with the detector wiring.
In a nutshell, the smoke detector beeping or smoke detector chirping reports issues with your fire alarm.
Note: The smoke detector chirping and intermittent alarm ain’t the same as they serve a different purpose in your fire alarm.
Therefore, we will need to consider Chirping or Beeping Smoke detectors Vs Intermittent Alarm.
Chirping Smoke Detector Vs Intermittent Alarm
Do not mistake your smoke detector chirping sound and intermittent sound or alarm as the same. There are two different beepings or chirping in a smoke detector.
A smoke detector chirp sounds just like a high pitched tone that occurs at a regular interval. In most fire alarms or smoke detectors, the chirp sounds every 60 seconds.
While “intermittent”, on the other hand, is a random sound in a smoke detector that beeps or chirps for several occurs with a low pitch compared to chirping.
How to Fix Chirping or Beeping Smoke Detector
We take the steps below are a measure to fix our chirping smoke detector and restore the detector to its working state without beeping uncontrollably.
Discharge Smoke Detector Residual Charge
You can fix your smoke detector beeping by discharging the smoke detector residual charge. To do this, take the steps below.
- Unmount the smoke detector from the ceiling.
- Remove the battery from the battery compartment.
- Press the smoke detector reset button for about 15 – 30 seconds.
- Install the smoke detector’s battery.
- Clean the smoke detector with a microfiber cloth or baby wipes.
- Press the reset button and release it when the alarm chirp a high pitched sound to confirm that the smoke detector is working properly.
Without residual charges in your smoke detector, the chirping or beeping sound should be reset.
How to Reset Smoke Detector
If your smoke detector is still beeping or chirping after checking out the causes of the smoke detector chirping and none was discovered, then you’d need to reset your fire alarm. Therefore, we will consider how to reset the smoke detectors below.
- Unplug your smoke detector from the circuit breaker.
- Unmount the fire alarm from the ceiling and remove all the connected wire if it’s a hardwired smoke detector.
- Remove the smoke detector’s battery and press the reset button for at least 15 seconds.
- To confirm that your smoke detector is reset, the fire alarm will chirp or beep briefly and then stop.
Couple the smoke detector with the battery and compartment firmly closed and mount the smoke detector back to the ceiling.
If you have come this far, you should know why does my smoke detector beeping or chirping and the possible means to stop them. If, after the above suggestions and our smoke detector is still chirping, then you might need to change your smoke detector.