Smoke Detector False Alarm - Heat Related?

Products Ring Alarm
#1

So I’m on a 2 week vacation, 2000 miles from home, and lying in a hammock looking at the stars at 11:30pm and my phone rings - Ring Security was calling to let me know my 2nd floor smoke detector was going off. It’s one of the First Alert CO2 / Smoke detectors (I think they’ve now been discontinued?) - Not being anywhere close to home and naturally being worried about my house burning down, I called my local police department (I live in a small town where the station is a few blocks away and the police officers are also the firemen). Within minutes an officer went right over, called me on his personal mobile, I unlocked the door remotely, and he verified it was a false alarm - but that it was very hot upstairs.

Because my AC was set to vacation mode it was around 80 degrees near that alarm - does heat / humidity set these things off? I’ve had them installed for over a year with no issues. Any thoughts as to what causes false alarms if no cooking, legitimate CO2 / fires, etc?

#2

Hey @hgpilot. It is very much so possible that your Smoke Detector could have gone off from this heat related concern in your home! For homes that this detector is placed, it is recommended that the room temperatures stay within 40-100 F, so it’s possible your home was too hot in this area, thus setting it off. It’s also possible that if the upstairs is not getting a lot of ventilation from the AC unit being off that the dust particles have built up on and around the detector, thus messing up the sensor and tripping a false alarm. In the manual for the First Alert, it is recommended to not mount the device in areas of high humidity as this can cause a concern as well. Hope this helps clear this up for you! :slight_smile:

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#3

I believe so. I had placed mine in hallway across from the bathroom. My husband left the door open and the steam set it off. I have had many issues with these and plan to return it. I don’t believe older smoke alarms were sensitive to steam.