Ghost in the machine - fire alarm edition...

[Bill]

Ok, more likely a spider.

We have Fire Angel WiFi battery alarms and one keeps going off if it's turned on. They're not that old (a year or two.)

There's some cobwebs around where it sits so I've given it a good hoover but no joy. Any ideas??

[Spare tyre]

Are these heat or smoke detectors?

[Bill]

Smoke.

[Spare tyre]

Contact fire angel

We had a bunch of their 10 year life dumb detectors and they started going loopy around 1 year

[Bill]

Ah, did their replacements work ok?

[Spare tyre]

Bill said:

Ah, did their replacements work ok?

To be clear ours were battery issues

Perhaps as a test clean yours out and put it in a box or sealed bag to rule out spiders

[Bill]

I've hoovered it plus dragged some bits of clinging web out with a tooth pick and it still goes off as soon as it's switched on.

[Belle427]

They are junk in my experience, I wont buy them anymore.

[curvature]

This probably doesn’t help you but I have 3 Nest smoke/heat alarms and have had no issues in over 10 years

[PhilboSE]

Aico are a good brand of detector, but they only come with a 10 year working life now whereas their older ones were good for 25 years. Don’t know if that’s industry-wide.

[Djtemeka]

I’ve had 3 of my own fire angel alarms start doing this within 3 of their 10 year life span.

Another 4 for clients I’ve installed them in.

They’re crap now. Stick to Aico.

[Bill]

Hmmm, arse. The issue is that my eldest uses cochlear implants so is completely deaf at night and Fireangel do a linked vibrating pad and strobe unit.

Need to do some more research...

[alscar]

We use the FA Carbon monoxide detectors which are excellent but can’t comment on their smoke versions.
Our smoke detector system is an EI Professional set up - 2 ionisation / 1 Heat / 2 Optical detectors - all 5 fitted onto Radiolink bases so one goes off they all do.
There is a also a control box separately so can be tested / shut off.
Ours is hard wired with battery back up but they can be just battery powered I believe.
Occasionally one of the dectectors ( always the same one ) has a spider issue but a quick clean sorts.

[PhilboSE]

alscar said:

Our smoke detector system is an EI Professional set up - 2 ionisation / 1 Heat / 2 Optical detectors - all 5 fitted onto Radiolink bases so one goes off they all do.
There is a also a control box separately so can be tested / shut off.
Ours is hard wired with battery back up but they can be just battery powered I believe.
Occasionally one of the dectectors ( always the same one ) has a spider issue but a quick clean sorts.

That sounds like an Aico setup as all their models are Ei in front of the number.

I just installed a bunch at my daughter’s flat, managed to get all of them powered and linked apart from one which has a sealed battery for life, but connects to the others via Radiolink.

[alscar]

PhilboSE said:

alscar said:

Our smoke detector system is an EI Professional set up - 2 ionisation / 1 Heat / 2 Optical detectors - all 5 fitted onto Radiolink bases so one goes off they all do.
There is a also a control box separately so can be tested / shut off.
Ours is hard wired with battery back up but they can be just battery powered I believe.
Occasionally one of the dectectors ( always the same one ) has a spider issue but a quick clean sorts.

That sounds like an Aico setup as all their models are Ei in front of the number.

I just installed a bunch at my daughter s flat, managed to get all of them powered and linked apart from one which has a sealed battery for life, but connects to the others via Radiolink.

Correct - I think Aico are the distributor.
Noise levels when they all go off are quite remarkable as my Mother ( and the rest of the household ) found when she was visiting and got confused between the light switch and the control box at 1am !

[pghstochaj]

The Fireangel wifi devices are awful in my experience. I've got about 14 devices in my house and have replaced a bunch (some under warranty, some paid for). I wish I hadn't got into the "ecosystem" as they do not live up to their marketing with regards to battery life but the cost to replace the whole lot is too much for me. Additionally, I get random CO alarms at 3am (think the battery gets cold) and the odd random fire alarm.

I bought the wifi hub which helped though - at least it now gives me information on which device is playing up. Of course after three years the first one of those went faulty and I even had to buy a replacement one of those! Fireangel doesn't care - just look at their online reviews.

I think a lot of their problem could have been resolved by using replaceable CR123 batteries rather than non-replaceable 10 year batteries (which last 3-4 years).