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Water Damaged Smoke Alarm

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  • 17-08-2011 3:40pm
    #1
    Attol
    Registered Users Posts: 2,386 ✭✭✭


    Hi everyone,

    Just wondering if anyone has any experience with something similar. The OH and I rent in Dublin city centre. We live in the basement of a Georgian house that has been converted into apartments. Two days ago we heard a dripping noise as we were watching TV. We were concerned and checked the bedroom where we noticed that there was water coming from a light fitting on the ceiling. There was a few seconds of our smoke alarm going off, fizz, pop, silence. It now beeps once every minute or so and it is driving us mad! Water was dripping out of it. It is attached to the mains so it's not a simple case of removing the battery.

    My OH went upstairs and let the tenant of the above apartment know about the leak. Turns out she had been showering and that had caused it. He didn't ask for her landlord's number at the time and we haven't been able to catch her yet.

    Our landlord knows and said he'd get on to the management company. We've spent the last two nights sleeping in the living room because the beeping is horrendously annoying (although we can still hear it with the door between the living room and bedroom closed :( ). What (if anything) can we do to stop the beeping and how long is reasonable before we start making a bigger fuss?

    Cheers!


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    #2
    seamus
    Registered Users Posts: 68,317 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    You can disconnect the alarm from the ceiling. Usually it's a matter of just twisting it and it pops out. I think older alarms may be permanently attached to the ceiling, but you can remove the cover to access the inside. Switch off the mains before you touch it, just in case there's still some water in it.
    It has a backup battery and a capacitor. So to stop it beeping, you'll need to remove the battery and hold down the self-test button until it runs out of steam.

    A beeping alarm is an indication that something is wrong - either the battery has been damaged, or the connection to the mains has been damaged. My money is on the former.

    Buy a 9 Volt battery and replace the one in the alarm and reconnect it to the ceiling. If it keeps beeping, then there's something else wrong with the alarm, so it's functionally useless and is OK to remove. In that case, inform your landlord that it needs to be replaced, as it needs to be done asap.


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