The Invisible Killer in Your Home and/or Office
STOP. Before you continue reading, please press the test button on all your smoke detectors, and make sure the warning sounds and (if so equipped) the spotlight illuminates. If it doesn’t, and it is battery-operated, please replace the batteries NOW. Out of batteries? Unless you read this in the middle of the night or while traveling, go out NOW and buy new batteries for each one. Please.
How Should You Maintain a Smoke Alarm in Your Home?
A smoke alarm is a specific type of fire alarm designed to detect the presence of smoke in the air, which is an early indicator of a fire. Maintaining a smoke alarm is similar to maintaining a general fire alarm. Here are some steps to follow for proper smoke alarm maintenance:
- Test regularly: Test your smoke alarms monthly by pressing the test button on the unit. The alarm should sound, indicating that it is working properly. If it doesn’t, replace the batteries and test again. If it still doesn’t work, consider replacing the unit.
- Replace batteries: Replace the batteries in your smoke alarm at least once a year or when the alarm emits a low battery warning sound, usually a chirping noise. Some smoke alarms have a 10-year lithium battery, so you won’t need to change the batteries as often. Check the manufacturer’s instructions for specific information on your alarm.
- Clean the unit: Dust and debris can accumulate on your smoke alarm, potentially impacting performance. Gently clean the exterior of the alarm with a soft brush or cloth. Avoid using water, cleaning sprays, or other chemicals, as they may damage the unit.
- Replace the alarm: Smoke alarms have a limited lifespan, usually around ten years. After that time, their sensors may become less effective. Check the manufacturing date on your smoke alarm and replace the unit if it’s older than 10 years.
- Check the location: Ensure that your smoke alarm is installed in the correct location. It should be placed on the ceiling or high on a wall, away from windows, doors, or air vents, which can cause false alarms. Install smoke alarms inside each bedroom, outside sleeping areas, and on every level of your home, including the basement.
- Interconnect alarms (optional): If possible, interconnect your smoke alarms so that when one sounds, they all do. This can be particularly helpful in larger homes where you may not hear an alarm from a distant part of the house.
- Familiarize yourself with the alarm: Read the manufacturer’s instructions and learn about the specific features of your smoke alarm, such as how to silence a false alarm and identify different alarm sounds.
- Create and practice an escape plan: Develop a fire escape plan for your home and practice it regularly with your family. Make sure everyone knows how to react when the smoke alarm sounds.
By following these steps, you can help ensure that your smoke alarms function properly and that your home is protected in a fire emergency.
How Should You Maintain a Fire Alarm in Your Home?
Maintaining a fire alarm in your home is crucial for ensuring the safety of your family and property. Here are some steps to follow for proper fire alarm maintenance:
- Test regularly: Test your fire alarms monthly by pressing the test button on the unit. The alarm should sound, indicating that it is working properly. If it doesn’t, replace the batteries and test again. If it still doesn’t work, consider replacing the unit.
- Replace batteries: Replace the batteries in your fire alarm at least once a year, or when the alarm emits a low battery warning sound, usually a chirping noise. Some fire alarms have a 10-year lithium battery, so you won’t need to change the batteries as often. Check the manufacturer’s instructions for specific information on your alarm.
- Clean the unit: Dust and debris can accumulate on your fire alarm, potentially impacting performance. Gently clean the exterior of the notice with a soft brush or cloth. Avoid using water, cleaning sprays, or other chemicals, as they may damage the unit.
- Replace the alarm: Fire alarms have a limited lifespan, usually around 10 years. After that time, their sensors may become less effective. Check the manufacturing date on your fire alarm and replace the unit if it’s older than 10 years.
- Check the location: Ensure that your fire alarm is installed in the correct location. It should be placed on the ceiling or high on a wall, away from windows, doors, or air vents, which can cause false alarms. Install smoke alarms inside each bedroom, outside sleeping areas, and on every level of your home, including the basement.
- Interconnect alarms (optional): If possible, interconnect your fire alarms so that when one sounds, they all do. This can be particularly helpful in larger homes where you may not hear an alarm from a distant part of the house.
- Familiarize yourself with the alarm: Read the manufacturer’s instructions and learn about the specific features of your fire alarm, such as how to silence a false alarm and identify different alarm sounds.
- Create and practice an escape plan: Develop a fire escape plan for your home and practice it regularly with your family. Make sure everyone knows how to react when the fire alarm sounds.
By following these steps, you can help ensure that your fire alarms function properly and that your home is protected in a fire emergency.
Here’s a great way to remember. Every Valentine’s day, replace the batteries. It’s the gift you give to yourself, your family, and your pets. Think of your heart and how quickly it could stop beating for you and everyone else in your home from smoke inhalation. If it is electrically powered, meaning wired into your home, office, or apartment wiring, check to see that the breaker going to it hasn’t flipped. If you own or know someone with a simple electric tester, it will confirm whether power is going to the unit. Most likely, the unit itself needs to be replaced. Whether electric or battery-powered, every smoke detector MUST be replaced every 10 years.
Why every 10 years?
Tests have been done by manufacturers and US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has consistently shown a lower response to smoke that passes over a sensor between 10-12 years of use. The failure rate at 10 years is 30%, meaning 3 out of 10 smoke-filled spaces will not set off a smoke alarm.
Kinds of Smoke Alarms
Optical Smoke Alarms use an LED that pulses every ten seconds. Once smoke enters the optical chamber, the particles enter the chamber of the smoke alarm and scatter the LED light onto a photodiode light receptor. Immediately after the light is scattered inside the alarm chamber, an integrated circuit sounds the alarm. In higher quality units, turns on a spotlight to assist in seeing through the smoky air.
A Heat Alarm relies on a temperature change as heated air enters the unit chamber. Once the heated air rises and reaches 135 degrees Fahrenheit, it sounds an alarm. Heat-based alarms make sense in kitchens where smoking from typical cooking smoke will cause false alarms on optical smoke alarms.
Ionization-based alarms create positive and negatively charged air, causing them to become ionized, and creating a small current inside the unit. When smoke enters the detector’s chamber, it creates an imbalance of the ionized particles causing the integrated circuit to sound an alarm. These alarms are best used as transition points between landings on different floors of a multi-level home or office.
Other deadly gases and appropriate detectors
Besides the smoke mentioned above detectors, homes or businesses that use natural gas or propane gas require an additional sensor to address any leakage of either gas. Natural gas is mixed with a product that adds the smell most often described as “rotten eggs”. That’s OK if it’s coming from an appliance you’re working close by, such as a stove or cooktop. But when that leak is in the property’s basement, it’s likely too far to be noticed until it permeates the doors and floors, when it may be too late.
Similarly, exhaust gases from gas-powered clothes dryers, water heater tanks, and heating furnaces or boilers produce Carbon Monoxide (CO). This gas is hazardous because it has little to no smell, not much noticeable heat above ambient room temps, and though not explosive, can quickly cause an average size man or woman to lose consciousness due to a lack of oxygen promptly.
These gases, alone or in combination, are invisible killers. If you suspect a leak, leave the location quickly with any children and pets.
Next, call Muccia Plumbing, Heating & AC and have one of our technicians do a complete inspection. Our techs can identify the kind and source of the leak and resolve the problem so your home or office is safe. They will check to see if all your detectors are in working order, and may recommend replacing some with detectors that can identify and alert you to CO exhaust and natural gas leaks. They will also advise of any updates to changes in the plumbing codes, which would require replacing exhaust pipes with vent furnaces and water heaters.
Another bonus. The perfect time to check your air conditioning and heating systems is when the tech is on the premises. A clean oil-fired furnace will improve its efficiency and avoid breakdowns. Similarly, checking for loss of refrigerant in your cooling system will ensure a comfortable home or office all summer long.
Trust Muccia Plumbing, Heating & AC to ensure that your home or office is a safe, comfortable place to live and work all year and throughout every season. We know what it takes. Call today and learn more.
Still need help? No sweat. Call Muccia Plumbing, Heating & AC at 201-343-1414 or click the following link mailto:info@mucciaplumbing.com
About Muccia Plumbing, Heating & AC
Exclusively Serving Bergen County, New Jersey
Michael Muccia is a Master Plumber and the owner and operator of Muccia Plumbing, Heating & AC. Muccia Plumbing, Heating & AC is a full-service Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) service company based in and serving Bergen County, NJ, since 1978. The Muccia Plumbing, Heating & AC team of trained and certified service technicians offers various services, including general plumbing and heating maintenance, for residential and commercial clients.
Whatever your plumbing, heating, air conditioning, or ventilation needs are, it’s easier with Muccia Plumbing, Heating & AC. We treat our customers, large and small, with the best service in the industry. We know you have a choice when considering an HVAC company, and no matter what we do for you, we treat it as the most crucial job in our history. Our experience proves that we know how to work efficiently, which keeps costs low, uses only the best components within budget, and stands behind the work we do.
Muccia Plumbing, Heating & AC has locations in the following areas:
Hackensack | Hillside | Ramsey | Waldwick | Maywood | Tenafly
