I live in half a shipping container. It’s nice, private bath, split A/C and all the mod cons. It even has a smoke alarm.
The standard generic Chinese-made round ceiling-mounted smoke detector. I opened it up and saw the nine-volt battery was gone. So I went to the shop and got one. I put it in (at the limit of my stretch) and nothing happened. I flipped the battery and put it in again.
The alarm went off. So i closed the cover and pressed and held the ‘test’ button. It did not silence or reset the alarm as I hoped. It just kept going off.
in my experience the typical ionization-chamber smoke detectors (the ones with a little bit of radioactive material in them) are sensitive to steam and water vapor, and will fail after repeated exposure to it.
Smoke detectors do “go bad”, sometimes for no obvious reason. I’ve replaced 3 detectors since I’ve lived my house for 4 years (2 which were probably ~10 years old, and 1 which not much more than a year old).
Well, it is a Scandinavian “labor cabin.” Two rooms in each 40’ container footprint. Two containers go together to make a set of four, sharing connections for the plumbing at the corner they share. I have a small TV mounted on the wall, a child’s desk nailed to the wall near the two smallish windows. Oddly, I have a nice closet. Brown shag carpet and a bit of green space outside my door on the way to the communal dining room.
I suppose I will go pick up a new detector over the weekend.
Interesting. My problem is almost the same. At exactly 6am a few weeks ago my formerly well-behaved, battery powered smoke alarm went off, with a digital female voice telling me “warning, warning, fire, fire.”
I jumped up, ran around looking for any sign thereof, found nothing, and reset. Same thing. I reset again. In a few seconds, same thing. There was no smoke of any kind, even when I stood on a chair with my head up near the ceiling an inch from the device. I took the alarm down and removed the batteries. I had replaced them within a month or so.
I’m interested in the explanation offered in one of your replies that sometimes steam or some strong fumes damage the mechanism, and the other comment, too, that sometimes they just wear out. In any event, I’ve had roughly the same experience you report.
From what I read online when my smoke detectors went wonky, the first thing to try is to blow out any dust using canned air. If that doesn’t solve the random alarms from going off, it’s time to replace the smoke detector.
Detectors also have a finite lifespan - I just replaced one that specified a 10-year replacement schedule.
They’re cheap - just replace the thing and be done with it. If you can help it, don’t just toss the bad one in the trash. Around here, most fire stations will accept them for recycling, as well as the household hazmat collection depots, and wherever you buy them may also take them back.
Seconding the proper disposal. There’s a tiny bit of radioactive material in most smoke detectors (americium, I believe), and it’s best not to just throw that in the trash.