And no, it is not because there is smoke. This is the basement alarm. It is only a smoke alarm. It is located at the bottom of the stairs. There is a smoke/CO alarm on the first floor, right on the other side of the basement door and it doesnt go off. Every alarm in the house is brand new and was installed just about a year ago with the fire inspector supervising.
The one in the basement started going off in the summer, shortly after I swept up 50 years of dirt. Going on the assumption that dust in the air was screwing with it, I cleaned it out with canned air. When that didn’t work, I replaced the battery. When that didn’t work, I took the battery out.
My boyfriend cleaned it out and replaced the battery also. The time when out burner backed up and belched smoke into the basement, the alarm didnt go off.
My boyfriend replaced the alarm with a new one.
Friggen 1:52 this morning we are all woken up by the alarm going off and no smoke on the basement. He took the battery out.
So, this has been going on since July and now with 4 batteries and 2 alarms. This is the first tome it has gone off since the alarm and burner were replaced.
I will be calling the fire inspector in the morning to see if he has any ideas but since we are definitely not on fire, the furnace isn’t smoking, and the CO alarm isn’t going off, I’m not going to do it at 2:20 am. I am curious though if any of you have experienced this.
Well there’s some sort of particulate that’s causing it to go off. It could be a mold problem, or do you have any open cans of paint or do anything that needs venting in the basement, like cleaning supplies?
No cans of anything. We have laundry detergent, dryer sheets, and window glaze down there. Other than that - no chemicals at all.
As far as I know, there’s no mold. If there is, it’s new. Our home inspector was very thorough so I’m fairly certain he would have told us about mold.
Our basement is fairly large and completely open. There is very little down there. We have the one remaining window that needs to be glazed, some broken window glass, Jeep parts, and dirty clothing. That’s pretty much it. The floor isn’t dirt though it could do with another sweeping.
Are you sure there isn’t a C02 detector component in it thats going off? Might be time to call you local gas utility and have them run their sniffer through your basement.
This tells me that the detector in question is an Ionization Detector. This type of detector senses the non-visible particles of combustion. They do not do a very good job of detecting dark, sooty smoke. Photoelectric detectors are made for this purpose.
The new burner is likely what is setting this detector off. Most new parts have a protective coating of something to keep it from rusting while it is on the shelf waiting to be sold. Sometimes it takes a while for this coating to burn off. You may have noticed a “hot” smell after you replaced the burner.
Very wise you is. I checked the back. It is an ionization detector. So, do they make one that does both? Which one would be better for my basement? Obviously if my basement is filled with sooty smoke, I’d prefer to know about it before opening the door to do laundry. But, I’m assuming there’s a benefit to the Ionization detector.
Shouldn’t the stuff on the new burner have burned off by now? We’ve been running the heat since before Halloween. Granted, it’s not running all the time and we don’t tend to have it very high but the new burner has been in use for more than a month now.
By the way, I did email the fire inspector. Just waiting for him to get back to me.
Not really all that wise, but I make my living as the senior technician for a small fire alarm company.
Yes, they make combination Ionization/Photoelectric detectors. That is what I have in my house. This will allow for the best detection. It is very likely that the burner will be fine now.
This site has a few videos that explain the difference:
Well those were sobering videos. When we bought this place, it was determined that we only needed 2 alarms - the one in the basement and the one upstairs. Our house is very open. The 2 bedrooms, the bathroom and the basement doors are all right next to each other. Other than that, the rest of the house (living room, kitchen, dining room) are all 1 big open space. So, the CO combo alarm is upstairs and the ionization alarm is downstairs, in the basement. There’s nothing in the loft, the attic, the garage, or near the fireplace. I don’t know if the combo alarm is ionization or photoelectric.
I’m thinking we need to go to Home Depot.
I still want to know what set off the basement alarm this morning though. I’m not convinced that it was the burner because it has been used many times since it and the alarm were changed, without the alarm going off.
I had to put my dogs outside about 5 minutes into the smoldering video because they freaked out every time an alarm went off. It’s nice to know that even if the alarm doesn’t wake us up, the dogs will.
I have combination Ionization/Photoelectric detectors in
Each bedroom
The hallway in front of the bedrooms
The top of the stairs from the basement
The bedroom in the basement
The family room outside of the basement bedroom
The attic
I have a Carbon Monoxide detector on each level.
The plot thickens.
My boyfriend just told me that it looks like the little Plexiglas window thing on the side of the furnace looked different to him this morning. So, we went down to get a good look. I don’t know what the hell happened to it but it looks like it slipped down. There’s a noticeable sliver of openness where there should be window. Gonna call the furnace guy in the morning to see if he can fix it.
You know, most people just fill those with water. I’m not sure what molecular structure fluid would implode a site glass with just 40 gallons, but if I see Angus Scrimm & some floating silver balls I’m running like Hell…
I don’t know the differences between the types of detectors, but I can tell you I had one that was too close to the bathroom in an apartment about 10 years ago, and if I took a shower with the door open, the alarm went off. I had to move it closer to the kitchen. So, water vapor seems to be a factor sometimes, too. Are you doing laundry when it goes off at all? I wonder if the washer drains into a sink (steamy hot water) or if the dryer isn’t venting properly.
Reading this thread with great interest. The difference between the types must be why ours didn’t go off last Thanksgiving when the stockpot boiled dry and filled the kitchen with smoke!
A photoelectric detector will be tripped by water vapor. The sensing chamber has a light source and a light receiver that are not aligned. Smoke particles essentially reflect the light from the source back to the receiver. Dust particles and water vapor are usually the culprits when the Photoelectric detectors issue a false alarm.
Ionization detectors use a radioactive element called Americium to ionize the air between two points, one with a negative charge and the other with a positive charge, causing a small current flow between the two points. Non-visible products of combustion effectively neutralize this ionization and cut off the current flow, causing the detector to generate the alarm. Many types of airborne particles have the same characteristics of non-visible products of combustion. Butane will set off an ionization detector. The major cause of false alarms in household ionization detectors seem to be cooking fumes.
Often, I have to explain this when I show up at a client site that has ionization detectors near break rooms. Microwave popcorn causes more office space false alarms than any other single cause.
No gas. It’s not even available in this neighborhood. And we’re positive there’s nothing but smoke on that alarm.