Put in the new battery, making sure the polarized ends are facing in the right direction. You can know this by the + and - markings on both the battery and the smoke detector. The 9-volt battery will have two prongs that need to be pushed into place tightly, while the AA types will...
All smoke detectors consist of two basic parts: a sensor to sense the smoke and a very loud electronic horn to wake people up. Smoke detectors can run off of a 9-volt battery or 120-volt house current. In this article, we will examine the two most common types of smoke detectors used...
Open up a real optical detector and you'll find something like this:Photo: An optical smoke detector with the cover removed. The large black cylinder is the chamber where the smoke is detected. There's a long-life lithium battery, a piezoelectric alarm (which makes the shrill noise), and...
If you havebattery-poweredsmoke alarms, the change is easy to make — just remove the old one and put a new one in its place. Hardwired smoke alarms require a bit more effort because they are wired into the home's electrical circuitry, so the job might call for a modicum of electrica...
Battery-powered smoke detectors are stand-alone units. But if you have AC-powered smoke detectors in your home and your home has been built in the last 10 years in the U.S., chances are they are wired together to intercommunicate. This sort of wiring guarantees that if one alarm in the...
How do you remove and replace an old smoke detector? If you have a battery powered smoke detector, it’s pretty straightforward. Use a screwdriver to remove the old one and screw in the new smoke detector. If your smoke detector is hard-wired, you’ll need to call your security system ...
If so, you've heard another one of the most common myths regarding fire sprinkler systems: We don't need them if we have a smoke detector. Some even believe that smoke detectors can put out fires. They cannot. Smoke detectors are designed to alert us to a potential fire, and in cases...
An auxiliary battery so that the alarm can operate even if the main battery gets disconnected A computer control unit that monitors everything and sounds the alarm — the "brain" of the system The brain in most advanced systems is actually a small computer. The brain's job is to close the...
Learn how to use a fire extinguisher by following four easy steps, and how to maintain it to ensure it works as expected.
5.Attach the CO detector to the mounting bracket. CO alarm maintenance Smoke and CO alarms both need regular maintenance to operate properly. To maintain a CO alarm, start by pressing the device's test button to check its battery level. Even if the device works, you should replace the bat...