How often should you test a smoke alarm?
Press the test button once a month. Change the battery once a year, or when it chirps, and replace the whole alarm after ten years.
The three rhythms
- Monthly: hold the test button until it sounds. That checks the horn and the electronics, not the sensor.
- Yearly: a new battery, unless the alarm has a sealed ten-year one.
- Every ten years: a new alarm. The sensor degrades whether or not it has been used, and the date is printed on the back.
Why it chirps at three in the morning
Battery voltage drops as a room cools, and the coldest hour of the night is usually around then. That is why a dying battery announces itself while you are asleep. Changing batteries on a fixed date, rather than when they complain, is the only way out.
Where they belong
One in every bedroom, one in the hallway outside the bedrooms, and one per floor including the basement. Kitchens want a heat alarm instead, or a smoke alarm far enough away not to react to toast. Not directly above a cooker, not in a bathroom.
What RoofRoutine reminds you of
By default RoofRoutine brings up the smoke alarms once a year, the check that is easy to forget. The monthly button test is quick enough to keep in your head, and you can add it as a monthly task if you would rather not.
While you are there
Vacuum the alarm's vents; dust is the usual cause of false alarms. If it went off during cooking, it is working, and moving it a metre or two is a better answer than taking the battery out.
Stop keeping this in your head
RoofRoutine remembers rhythms like this one for your home, and tells whichever of you is meant to do it. Your partner needs no account.
See how it works