Expert: Dave Neuweiler - 8/3/2005

Question
BRK Electronics model 4120b... I live in a 3 story town house, 2 alarms per floor, The one in the kitchen is complete disconnected (b/c it went off everytime we used the stove) Now for the past week or so, they 've been going off non stop, I can not detect any smoke what so ever. Batteries are good. The one near the furnace was blinking red... again no detection of smoke... any ideas?

Answer
Hello Chris, and thanks for your question.

Smoke detectors don't belong in any area where products of combustion are normally created. This would include kitchens and areas near furnaces. I'm not surprised by the problems you report.

Next, today's fire codes require that when one smoke detector alarms, that all detectors sound the alarm. That would explain why all of them are sounding.

The red light near the furnace would be my guess, except that it's still summertime... where are you located -- somewhere where it's cool enough for the furnace to be on?

Anyway, try pulling the plug on the furnace detector and see if that calms the system.

And consider moving both the kitchen and furnace detectors!

I hope this helps. Please write again if you have continuing problems.

Best regards,

Dave