I realize smoke detectors are important to wake us up in case of a fire, but invariably, smoke detector beeping, sometimes called chirping, starts around two in the morning, and always in one of your bedrooms. The other night as I peacefully lay in bed dreaming of chirping birds, suddenly realized it was not a dream. Instead, the smoke detector in my kids’ bedroom decided it was time to die. Why they always seem to die at night, and in your kid’s room no less, is beyond me, but as a mother I wish the smoke detector gods would stop messing with us sleep-deprived mothers.
The next day we put in a new battery, thinking it would solve the smoke detector beeping, but to our dismay the smoke alarm started to chirp again! We tried another battery, but with the same result. I called up the fire department, and a nice fireman told me some things I could try. They worked! The smoke detector beeping stopped and it saved me the time and money of purchasing a new smoke alarm. Check out my steps below!
Try These Steps When Your Smoke Detector Beeping Starts
Before you go out and buy a new smoke alarm try these steps first.
1. Replace the old battery, making sure you insert it correctly. See if the smoke detector beeping stops with simple battery replacement.
2. If the smoke detector beeping continues despite replacing the battery, remove the smoke alarm from the ceiling. This is usually done by rotation of the detector until it releases from the base. If the smoke detector is wired, then you must also disconnect the wiring plugin from the smoke alarm.
3. Once you have the smoke detector down from the ceiling, remove the battery if still needed, and hold down the test button on the top of the smoke alarm for about 15 to 20 seconds. Any residual smoke detector beeping will drain from the electronic capacitors and circuitry within the smoke alarm.
4. Next, the smoke detector must be cleaned from dust that accumulates over time. There are several methods to do this. Vacuuming is the method recommended by many manufacturers, but some electronics experts recommend against vacuuming due to static electricity created, which can damage some electronic components. Another effective method, and the one we recommend, is to blow out the smoke detector with compressed air. If you do not have an air compressor, you can easily use a can of compressed air purchased from your local home goods or office supply store. Make sure you blow out the detection vent on the front surface of the smoke alarm, inside the battery compartment, and around the side openings around the smoke detector. Reinstall the smoke detector and insert a charged battery. In most cases, the smoke detector beeping will stop. If it does not, see the notes below.
How to Stop Smoke Detector Beeping or Chirping Video
Other Notes for Smoke Detector Beeping
In some smoke alarm brands, one weak battery in a wired system can cause smoke detector beeping in all smoke alarms.
Some smoke detectors expire after five to seven years, and none of these steps will stop smoke detector beeping. You will need to replace the affected smoke alarm. Some of the top-rated smoke detectors are found HERE.
Great tip! My daughters friends smoke detector would be beeping in the background when they would facetime…drove me nuts and I didn’t even live there! I told him to go buy a battery and change that dang thing. He did but I think it still was beeping. I’ll have to pass this info along to him…I don’t know how people can live with that constant beeping! LOL
I am so glad this tip helped Phyllis I know it has saved us quite a bit of money. 🙂
I went through the whole routine with my oldsmoke alarms, They were chirping, Bought new ones, installed them and I’m still getting the chirping! Any thoughts? Electrician maybe?
Awesome tips! We had one that WOULD NOT stop chirping and I wish I would have tried the dust cleaner stuff before we had tossed it and paid for a new one! ha!
Yes I totally understand! I am thankful we found out because almost every single one in our apartment was starting to chirp over the last month.
Thank you for the tip. We will be trying this tomorrow. It’s so annoying, even my little ones are saying “please stop the noise’.
Hi Ruby,
I hope it helped you and thanks for commenting.
I have a 1 year old smoke detector, it’s suppose to last 10 years, so there is no access to change a battery. It chirps every few months, I’ll try the cleaning tip and keep my fingers crossed. Thanks
In my apartment, my bedroom ceiling keeps beeping at night intermittently, even though I took out the smoke detector battery (and didn’t replace it because it’s dysfunctional, as is the one in the hall it was connected to). The hall one does not beep, but I pulled the one in the bedroom off of the wires because it just kept beeping. But the thing is, it’s still beeping, even though it has no battery and it’s not connected to the wiring. (It’s supposed to be a combination smoke/carbon monoxide detector.) I only put it back on the ceiling because of the hole in the ceiling where the wires are, that it is covering. (The one in the hall has no battery and no wire connection, but it doesn’t beep.)
So, with no battery and no wire connection, why is the one in the bedroom still beeping? Or it somehow coming from something else in the ceiling there?)
Help!! (I keeps waking me up and I feel like I’m stuck in the Twilight Zone!)
Sounds like you need to decharge it down by pressing the button on it.
Removed all smoke alarms, put them in the garage, removed the batteries and discharged the alarms.
A chirping sound still is coming from the EMPTY socket, same as before the alarm was removed.
No, not crazy. Everyone can hear it.
They are the type that connects to the three wires in the ceiling and a 9V battery, then you press and rotate the unit — the most common type.
Not sure. Seems like you’ve done everything you should and is unusual!
You Are not crazy. I have the same problem right now and can’t figure out how to stop the ceiling from chirping every few seconds. I have the fire detector sitting on my desk and the battery in hand. I pushed the test button for 15 seconds and nothing. There is no power to this unit, but there is power in the ceiling where it was installed. It is in series with four others. Did you have any luck finding out what causes this and how to fix it. I want to completely remove the thing, but the ceiling still chirps.
No I never did for sure. I just blow them out periodically and it seems to work for awhile. Eventually, they seem to wear out, so I get new ones.
Is there any alarm with a LED that you can see to know which alarm has a low battery? I have more than 8 alarms in my house and when I hear the chirp, It can take a while to identify which one is bad. A re LED would identify it right away. Maybe the LED could come on before the battery gets too low so I could be proactive and not have to fix it in the middle of the night.
Frank that is a good idea. I have no idea as most of ours have no light and always go out at night.
My 3 smoke detectors all went off at once one morning last week. OMG. I was home but it took a while to get out the ladder and the pliers to remove them. I got new batteries but the darn things are now all chirping. Do they still work even when they chirp? What is probability of false alarm again? Know I need new units, but need a short-term fix. Thanks!
Yes they still work when they chirp. I am not sure about the false alarm probability.
My smoke detector decided to start chirping at 4:00 AM on a school night. Great.
Always at night I wonder if there is a conspiracy. Hope you were able to go back to sleep!
They go off at night because the temperature drops (around 60 degrees) and the battery is getting low and has a harder time functioning when it’s cold. Then up the heat and change the battery in the morning.
So grateful! It’s actually eerily quiet now without the beeping…
Inside the unit it has a sticker that says the alarm should be replaced before 2015!
Interesting Polly thanks for sharing.
Hi. Once it starts chirping does it sometimes stop beeping and then start up again? My started chirping at 4am (yey!) and when I finally got up to it on a ladder i couldn’t figure out how to open up the device. I pressed the test button accidentally and then it stopped chirping. Is this just temporary? I’m wondering if I need a professional to look at it. It’s a new condo and I’m not sure of the model and how to uninstall it to change the battery.
Hi Jackie,
I am not sure. Is yours hard wired? If so you may need an entirely new one and isn’t it crazy how they always go off at night or early morning.
Tried all of those ideas none of them are working I guess I just have a faulty alarm
Infortunately been putting up with one for over a week and it’s driving me crazy. Rental property though and it’s 10 foot ceilings. Stupid thing chirps like crazy but is in hallway to apa to apartments. Been told i have to wait for alarm installers to fix it but days later still no sign. If only i had a baseball bat handy.
My 85 year old mother has a hard wired smoke alarm system with of course one at the very top of a cathedral type ceiling. She had the entire system replaced after 9 years and all was well until 4 months later the battery on the highest unreachable unit went off with it’s annoying screeching . So here is my tip, when replacing the system use new reliable brand batteries, don’t use the ones that come with the new units , especially hard to reach units. She called the fire dept. , however it was Sunday and the secretary handling these things works Monday through Friday. My mother wanted to call the emergency number but I convinced her although it seemed life threatening to her it really was not. It took a few days and we tried everything , even turning off the electricity to the ceiling. That did not work unless we turned off the main switch and not an option . After two days she received the assistance she needed. We now set up an appointment with the fire dept every 12 months to change batteries for her before they go out.
I dont know where to turn for help My detector at the top of the stairs started chirping at 5:30 am and I replaced the battery. Chirping continued so I removed it and put it in garage. Next morning at exactly sme time the one at bottom of stairs started chjirping. Took it off also and called an electrician Bought new smoke detectors and ne batteries,-FIREX Kiddie He installed them =charged me $85 and left. Next morning exactly at :30am, chiorping began again at top of stairs. I called him and he came by and swapped the smoke detectors- checked the wiring on both –said that all looked good and left after charging me another $40. Well, next morning – same time chirping began. What do I do? Electrician told me to call the manufacturer!!
Can anyone help?? PLEASE
I’m not sure mines have been doing the same so I took them all off until I can clean the dust and replace batteries. They don’t let me sleep.