Smoke Detectors Maintenance Tips In Dallas For Homeowners
Smoke detectors are one of the most important safety devices you can install in your home to protect your personal belongings and your family. Once you’ve installed smoke detectors, it is absolutely necessary to test them regularly to ensure that they will sound during a fire.
Outfitting your home with smoke detectors is only the first step though. You can’t just put them up and then forget about them. Maintenance is vital to ensuring the safety of your family and your home.
Smoke Detector Maintenance Tips
Whether you live in a secluded home on the water or you share walls with your neighbors in an apartment or condo, smoke detectors are essential to the safety of you and your loved ones. They undoubtedly save lives, and give residents the chance to make it out safely when disaster strikes.
At times, they can seem like a necessary evil. If they aren’t properly maintained, they become a nuisance, beeping when no smoke is present, and waking you out of your peaceful sleep. It’s enough to put you on edge for hours.
Here are some quick tips to help keep your smoke detectors in shape and your family protected in the event of a fire (and they might just save your eardrums from a fewunnecessary beeps, too).
At least one smoke detector should be installed on every level of your home, but it’s best to have one in each bedroom as well. There are two types of smoke alarms;ionization and photoelectric, detecting either fast-moving blazes or slower, smoky electrical fires within the wall. It’s best to have a dual sensor smoke alarm which combines the two.
Change the batteries once a year. Replacing annually, during your spring cleaning or New Years, is easy to remember. Plus, a fresh battery should eliminate the annoying low-battery chirps before they happen at 2 AM!
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If you replaced the batteries (and you’re sure the batteries are fresh) and your alarm is receiving power but it still won’t stop chirping, the detector probably needs to be reset. Disconnect it from the ceiling, remove the battery, and press and hold the test button for 15-20 seconds. The unit should beep several times, and stop. Put the battery back in and reconnect the detector to your ceiling or wall.
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Even if the batteries are fresh, many other things can cause false alarms.
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Cooking? This is probably the biggest culprit. If this happens a lot, consider relocating the smoke detector, at least 20 ft from your oven.
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Humidity. It seems odds, but ionization alarms can go off when placed too close to showers and laundry rooms.
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Dust and dirt. Use your soft brush vacuum attachment to clean out the detector chamber.
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Power outages. Hardwired smoke detectors may briefly sound when power is interrupted and restored. Read more…
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The Importance Of Smoke Detectors Maintenance
We all know how important it is to have multiple smoke detectors in your home. Location is everything for these devices as well. They need to be strategically located so that they can appropriately sense smoke. They should also be hard-wired into your electrical system so they are working constantly, plus be backed up with batteries in case your power goes out. Call (214) 238-8353 us for your home service and repair needs.
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