I'm desperate

Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum

Help Support Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Silverspoon

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 16, 2011
Messages
2,182
Reaction score
48
DH, aka Mr. Fixit, has always taken over the safety maintenance of our small (3) B+B. Over the years we have had numerous smoke alarms ranging from battery operated to hardwired with battery back up, some with CO detectors, and now hardwired photoelectric, wireless with battery back up. They all drive us nuts with false alarms and we are totally frustrated. I have just spent hours reading about this topic and I am no closer to a solution.
I am ready to hire an electrician to come solve the problem (?). But I want to ask you, fellow inn keepers...Can this problem be solved? Do any of you use common Fir st Alert or Kid die photoelectric smoke alarms without problems? How the heck do you keep these things from waking your guests in the middle of the night? We change the batteries, do not allow smoking etc. We do not have a problem with guests disabling the units so we do not need the sealed units Jon mentioned in another post. Currently we use FA hardwired, wireless SA520 units in the kitchen and FA SC7010BV units in the bedrooms.
Suggestions?
 
My smoke detectors were put in my the same company that put in the burglar alarm system. All hard wired. I've never had a false alarm.
My sister has the cheaper battery powered ones from Walmart in her house. She also never has false alarms.
I wonder if the problem could be the corrosive environment you live near.
 
My smoke detectors were put in my the same company that put in the burglar alarm system. All hard wired. I've never had a false alarm.
My sister has the cheaper battery powered ones from Walmart in her house. She also never has false alarms.
I wonder if the problem could be the corrosive environment you live near.
 
Well most likely the humidity does not help the situation. But we have no control over whether our guests decide to use the AC/dehumidifier or sleep with the windows open for the sea breeze. We did the internal wiring for units when we rehabbed the house in 1988 so I am hoping that some kind of centralized system might work for us if we decide to get rid of the plug in units.
Anyone out there have a place near the ocean with a solution to offer?
 
Well most likely the humidity does not help the situation. But we have no control over whether our guests decide to use the AC/dehumidifier or sleep with the windows open for the sea breeze. We did the internal wiring for units when we rehabbed the house in 1988 so I am hoping that some kind of centralized system might work for us if we decide to get rid of the plug in units.
Anyone out there have a place near the ocean with a solution to offer?.
We occasionally get into a humid or hazy night that has triggered a false alarm. Do you you vacuum them regularly? That seems to help us when it happens. They are hard wired from the original build out.
Otherwise, I am currently replacing them as the batteries die out. It's been ten years. It's a little bit of a pain to have to mess with the wire nuts, but not too troublesome as long as I don't electrocute myself. This is supposed to help and none of the new units have given us any trouble once installed.
 
We have had a problem with false alarms in some of our cottages -- ones particularly prone to Maine coast fog. We switched from the less-expensive ionization detectors to the slightly more expensive photoelectric detectors in those cottages, and it seems to have helped, but not totally solved the problem.
We do still get a lot of smoke alarms, but it can almost always be attributed to people's cooking! (since the bedroom is off the kitchen in most of the cottages, there has to be a detector in the kitchen).
Before we put in the hard-wired detectors (required by our insurance company), we never had a problem (that I know of) with the cheap battery-only detectors (that were not interconnected with one another).
 
Well most likely the humidity does not help the situation. But we have no control over whether our guests decide to use the AC/dehumidifier or sleep with the windows open for the sea breeze. We did the internal wiring for units when we rehabbed the house in 1988 so I am hoping that some kind of centralized system might work for us if we decide to get rid of the plug in units.
Anyone out there have a place near the ocean with a solution to offer?.
We occasionally get into a humid or hazy night that has triggered a false alarm. Do you you vacuum them regularly? That seems to help us when it happens. They are hard wired from the original build out.
Otherwise, I am currently replacing them as the batteries die out. It's been ten years. It's a little bit of a pain to have to mess with the wire nuts, but not too troublesome as long as I don't electrocute myself. This is supposed to help and none of the new units have given us any trouble once installed.
.
Our units are only 4 years old but I have not vacuumed them regularly so that could be part of the problem. I do have one unit from 2006 that I will replace and replace all the batteries as well. Are there any of you with small B+Bs that have a fire alarm system that works off a main panel? Expensive I'm sure....but really I just want to get this problem solved once and for all.
cry_smile.gif

 
We have had a problem with false alarms in some of our cottages -- ones particularly prone to Maine coast fog. We switched from the less-expensive ionization detectors to the slightly more expensive photoelectric detectors in those cottages, and it seems to have helped, but not totally solved the problem.
We do still get a lot of smoke alarms, but it can almost always be attributed to people's cooking! (since the bedroom is off the kitchen in most of the cottages, there has to be a detector in the kitchen).
Before we put in the hard-wired detectors (required by our insurance company), we never had a problem (that I know of) with the cheap battery-only detectors (that were not interconnected with one another)..
I think Ark may be correct about the environmental factor since, aside from our own kitchen, there is no smoke coming from any of the guest locations. We do seem to have more problems now that all of the units "talk" to each other. When one goes off they all go off and DH has not had luck getting to "hush". It sounds so simple in the advertising material but in reality they just keep going.
 
Do you get the false alarms mostly in the summer when you might be subjected to fog and humidity?
The smoke detectors that give us the most problems are in the room that gets the most humid. The batteries go out twice as fast.
Knock wood, all the other detectors, hard wired and battery, work fine.
If it seems like it's humidity related you might consider changing the batteries more frequently and replacing the units sooner as well.
 
We have had a problem with false alarms in some of our cottages -- ones particularly prone to Maine coast fog. We switched from the less-expensive ionization detectors to the slightly more expensive photoelectric detectors in those cottages, and it seems to have helped, but not totally solved the problem.
We do still get a lot of smoke alarms, but it can almost always be attributed to people's cooking! (since the bedroom is off the kitchen in most of the cottages, there has to be a detector in the kitchen).
Before we put in the hard-wired detectors (required by our insurance company), we never had a problem (that I know of) with the cheap battery-only detectors (that were not interconnected with one another)..
I think Ark may be correct about the environmental factor since, aside from our own kitchen, there is no smoke coming from any of the guest locations. We do seem to have more problems now that all of the units "talk" to each other. When one goes off they all go off and DH has not had luck getting to "hush". It sounds so simple in the advertising material but in reality they just keep going.
.
We have one room like that. It has 2 levels so 2 detectors. And, yes, if they talk to each other they both go off.
 
Do you get the false alarms mostly in the summer when you might be subjected to fog and humidity?
The smoke detectors that give us the most problems are in the room that gets the most humid. The batteries go out twice as fast.
Knock wood, all the other detectors, hard wired and battery, work fine.
If it seems like it's humidity related you might consider changing the batteries more frequently and replacing the units sooner as well..
Yes that seems to be the major time, when we are full and out straight in July and August...except for the chirping in the spring if we don't change the batteries soon enough. Some of the units are in the basements of the house and cottage which are really difficult to keep dry in the summer even with a dehumidifier going full time. This old house has the original field stone foundation and some is crawl space as well so it is virtually impossible to seal all the cracks. But I will take your advice and get on a new maintenance schedule, replacing the batteries sooner rather than later.
 
We have had a problem with false alarms in some of our cottages -- ones particularly prone to Maine coast fog. We switched from the less-expensive ionization detectors to the slightly more expensive photoelectric detectors in those cottages, and it seems to have helped, but not totally solved the problem.
We do still get a lot of smoke alarms, but it can almost always be attributed to people's cooking! (since the bedroom is off the kitchen in most of the cottages, there has to be a detector in the kitchen).
Before we put in the hard-wired detectors (required by our insurance company), we never had a problem (that I know of) with the cheap battery-only detectors (that were not interconnected with one another)..
I think Ark may be correct about the environmental factor since, aside from our own kitchen, there is no smoke coming from any of the guest locations. We do seem to have more problems now that all of the units "talk" to each other. When one goes off they all go off and DH has not had luck getting to "hush". It sounds so simple in the advertising material but in reality they just keep going.
.
We have one room like that. It has 2 levels so 2 detectors. And, yes, if they talk to each other they both go off.
.
I'm going to put a new detector in the basement of the cottage that is not connected to the wireless system. I know it is cheating a bit but there is just no way to control the atmosphere in that damp space and we can't go another summer with guests up half the night with the alarm going off in the cottage and in the house as well because of humidity in the basement.
 
We have had a problem with false alarms in some of our cottages -- ones particularly prone to Maine coast fog. We switched from the less-expensive ionization detectors to the slightly more expensive photoelectric detectors in those cottages, and it seems to have helped, but not totally solved the problem.
We do still get a lot of smoke alarms, but it can almost always be attributed to people's cooking! (since the bedroom is off the kitchen in most of the cottages, there has to be a detector in the kitchen).
Before we put in the hard-wired detectors (required by our insurance company), we never had a problem (that I know of) with the cheap battery-only detectors (that were not interconnected with one another)..
I think Ark may be correct about the environmental factor since, aside from our own kitchen, there is no smoke coming from any of the guest locations. We do seem to have more problems now that all of the units "talk" to each other. When one goes off they all go off and DH has not had luck getting to "hush". It sounds so simple in the advertising material but in reality they just keep going.
.
We have one room like that. It has 2 levels so 2 detectors. And, yes, if they talk to each other they both go off.
.
I'm going to put a new detector in the basement of the cottage that is not connected to the wireless system. I know it is cheating a bit but there is just no way to control the atmosphere in that damp space and we can't go another summer with guests up half the night with the alarm going off in the cottage and in the house as well because of humidity in the basement.
.
I don't want to jinx myself but the one in the basement is not the problem child here. We have it at the top of the stairs so maybe there is enough air exchange going on from the cooler, drier upstairs to keep it quiet.
You might be getting spiders in yours. So the vacuuming could work, too.
I had a hard wired one in my house that went off whenever it was humid. My teenage son, the one who has my short fuse, whacked it with a frying pan one day. He had had enough.
 
Well most likely the humidity does not help the situation. But we have no control over whether our guests decide to use the AC/dehumidifier or sleep with the windows open for the sea breeze. We did the internal wiring for units when we rehabbed the house in 1988 so I am hoping that some kind of centralized system might work for us if we decide to get rid of the plug in units.
Anyone out there have a place near the ocean with a solution to offer?.
We occasionally get into a humid or hazy night that has triggered a false alarm. Do you you vacuum them regularly? That seems to help us when it happens. They are hard wired from the original build out.
Otherwise, I am currently replacing them as the batteries die out. It's been ten years. It's a little bit of a pain to have to mess with the wire nuts, but not too troublesome as long as I don't electrocute myself. This is supposed to help and none of the new units have given us any trouble once installed.
.
Our units are only 4 years old but I have not vacuumed them regularly so that could be part of the problem. I do have one unit from 2006 that I will replace and replace all the batteries as well. Are there any of you with small B+Bs that have a fire alarm system that works off a main panel? Expensive I'm sure....but really I just want to get this problem solved once and for all.
cry_smile.gif

.
we do - and I need a new one once we get the new extension in in December as they have changed the law again and we need a sounder in every room now - before you could have Super loud sounders in the hallways (and believe me there is no way you would sleep through ours!) we have only had one false alarm due to an electrician drilling through a radiator pipe - plumber was with him so they fixed it all up and didn't tell me - however it leaked through in to the room below which was exactly the place the fire sensor was - and it would not shut up! had to turn the whole system off as it was about 4am!
 
Ours go off when guests take a shower and open the door. it's the steam. We are having vents put in all the bathrooms that are automatically tied to the light switch. Hoping that works.
 
Ours go off when guests take a shower and open the door. it's the steam. We are having vents put in all the bathrooms that are automatically tied to the light switch. Hoping that works..
Yes, more and more it sounds like moisture in the air is the main problem. Good luck with that here in coastal NE! Our bathrooms all have exhaust fans, but they are not automatic and many guests seem to like a soupy, wet bathroom. Sigh.
OK so I guess I will order a couple new smoke alarms, vacuum the ones we currently have that seem to work and replace the batteries. If we can get through the winter, with no guests, without a false alarm then surely it is the humidity that is the culprit and we will just have to deal with each incident as it occurs. If that does not work I'll look into spending some big bucks to have an electrician install a central system.
Thanks everyone for your input.
 
Back
Top