10 ways your Smoke Alarms can be defective

1. They expire! If a smoke alarm is older than 10 years, which is a very common occurrence, it is considered expired so needs to be replaced. 

2. Not loud enough. The sound smoke alarms make is very important. It needs to be over 85 decibels to wake sleeping residents & have the sound carry throughout the house. 

3. The battery The battery might be dead, or missing. Although you can test the battery yourself, what about all the other things that can stop the smoke alarm from working! 

4. Damaged unit Sometimes the smoke alarm might be damaged; broken hinges or other faults with the hardware. 

5. The electronics As with any other electronic device, sometimes things are just faulty. The unit could be ok one year, then faulty the next, without any noticeable reason. 

6. Tampering One good time to get the smoke alarms checked is when a tenancy changes. Sometimes a unit could have been tampered with by previous people who have had access to the property. 

7. Faulty Wiring If you have hard wired (instead of battery operated), there can be issues with the wiring. 

8. Faulty Smoke detection What if your smoke alarm can’t detect smoke? The only time you’d know this is if there was actually a fire event. Using canned smoke, we test that the units smoke detection ability is up to scratch. 

9. Wrong placement There are a lot of reasons why smoke alarms need to be placed in certain locations throughout a property. Placement of alarms vary due to a range of reasons & the placement of alarms is written into legislation. Your Smoke Alarm Compliance test checks that there are ENOUGH alarms in the RIGHT place! 

10. Missing! We have seen properties we first visit, where there are simply NO smoke alarms in the property! This has legal, ethical, safety & property/fire insurance implications galore.

Most commonly, you might not know your smoke alarm is defective – until a fire breaks out & the alarm doesn’t sound.    During a fire event is way too late to find out that your smoke alarm is defective. Ensure your Smoke Alarm is compliant by using trained professionals who have the right equipment & knowledge to do the job right.   julie@ccsas.com.au