Dodgy smoke detector

We've got a Fire Angel smoke detector in our 'van, which is just 4 years old.
The battery flattened a short while ago and I put a new Duracell one in and all was fine for a few weeks.
Giving the 'van a run the other week, the alarm started going off as we were driving into town.
At first I thought it was a flat battery warning but realised it was the actual smoke alarm alarm.
All was well with the 'van and we later brought the alarm in to the house to check and it seemed OK.
Back in its place in the 'van, there were no problems while we were away in it last week although it did go off when I was frying some chops. 

This morning nuevogirl asked if I could hear some beeping or chirping outside.
Being deaf as a post I obviously couldn't, until I opened the music room window.
At first I thought it was a bird, but then realised it was the alarm in the 'van again.
The 'van wasn't connected to the mains and nothing was on inside, but it was alarming like a good 'un.

I've checked it over again, tried it in the house and put it back in the 'van again, and all is eerily quiet.
I guess it's got some sort of intermittent fault and I'll change it for another one.

Anyone got any recommendations, as we've had similar problems with one of the Fire Angels in the house before.
(And yes, I have checked there are no spiders webs inside).

Strangely my Fire Angel smoke detector started beeping this afternoon!  I took the battery out and put it back in several times but it still kept beeping - very strange.  If it keeps doing it tomorrow it will get relocated to the bin.

Fire Angel may replace it if proven to be faulty. See date of manufacture model/serial number.

nuevoboy wrote:We've got a Fire Angel smoke detector in our 'van, which is just 4 years old.
The battery flattened a short while ago and I put a new Duracell one in and all was fine for a few weeks.
Giving the 'van a run the other week, the alarm started going off as we were driving into town.
At first I thought it was a flat battery warning but realised it was the actual smoke alarm alarm.
All was well with the 'van and we later brought the alarm in to the house to check and it seemed OK.
Back in its place in the 'van, there were no problems while we were away in it last week although it did go off when I was frying some chops. 

This morning nuevogirl asked if I could hear some beeping or chirping outside.
Being deaf as a post I obviously couldn't, until I opened the music room window.
At first I thought it was a bird, but then realised it was the alarm in the 'van again.
The 'van wasn't connected to the mains and nothing was on inside, but it was alarming like a good 'un.

I've checked it over again, tried it in the house and put it back in the 'van again, and all is eerily quiet.
I guess it's got some sort of intermittent fault and I'll change it for another one.

Anyone got any recommendations, as we've had similar problems with one of the Fire Angels in the house before.
(And yes, I have checked there are no spiders webs inside).

Ours is the same and we’re going to replace it.

I'd refitted ours as it seemed to have settled down a bit.
Five o'clock this morning, nuevogirl informed me it was beeping away merrily again.
I had to dash out to remove it again before it woke the neighbours up.

I see on the Fire Angel website that they are guaranteed for 5 years, so I'll be contacting them soon.
I must admit I've lost faith in their products.

One other thing I'm not happy about is that other manufacturers have different mounting methods and it'll mean drilling new holes on the panel. Although they will be hidden by the replacement, it's not the same is it!

After a good gander at Fire Angel's website, I followed their instructions to give the detector a good vacuuming.
We left it on in the house for a couple of days and it seemed to have settled down again, so refitted it in the 'van.

I'd booked a home habitation service for this morning and approximately one minute before the technician arrived, the damned detector alarmed again. I was in the process of removing the battery when he arrived and explained the situation to him. He was well aware of the problem and showed me a freephone number on the back of the unit and suggested I ring them.

Happily, the 'van passed with most colours flying, apart from a note stating the smoke detector was not working properly!

I then rang Fire Angel and spoke to a very helpful lady, who checked the model type, serial number etc and then declared that as it was just within the warranty period, she would send me a replacement. The new one would be a different model with a different mounting bracket. I mentioned that I was expecting that and would probably have to drill new holes. With that, she checked through her catalogue and believes she has found one with a similar bracket which may not require drilling.

Spookily, one of our household smoke alarms sounded for a short period this morning too (I think it's a delayed Halloween effect) and I mentioned this to her also. Both our household alarms were fitted by the Fire Service when they did a fire safety check some years ago and I thought they must be around ten years old. After asking for our location, she tracked down a freephone number for our Fire Service and advised me to ring them to see if they still did safety checks.

I must praise the way she went about handling my call and she was most pleasant and helpful.
Once I'd come off the phone, I removed one of the household alarms and on the back it said, "Replace by end of 2019".
So, I'll be ringing the Fire Service in the morning and will no doubt keep you posted.

Paramedic wrote:Fire Angel may replace it if proven to be faulty. See date of manufacture model/serial number.

Hi Nuevo Boy, your full explanation of how you received excellent customer service from Fire Angle, was the same for me.

I replaced ours earlier in the year - perhaps they have all caught the virus!!!

rgermain wrote:Strange, we have noticed the fire angel has gone off when I open the rear doors and it is windy. No cooking on etc, just fresh sea air.
The alarm is mounted by the sliding door, which was also open.
--------
Richard

Yes, mine is also  mounted by the side door and when windy will ofter set off the alarm if the door is open.

I don't know if this will help Richard or others, but if you are old enough (don't know what age you have to be?) the local fire brigade may well offer free advice on smoke alarms.

They did for us, and recognised the ones I had bought for both home and van, (from an apparently very reputable company which I had better not name) as cheap Chinese counterfeits.

No wonder they had never gone off - they simply did not work!

Dave

For anyone wishing to replace their Fire Angel alarm without changing the base plate we found one. Our original faulty one was a SI601 and we’ve bought a SI 622T.

This came from Safe Lincs of Alford and cost £12.90 inc p&p. The battery now lasts 10 years and isn’t replaceable.

Thanks for that info Harry.
Ours is/was a SI601 so we'll see what it is that Fire Angel replace it with.

This is an update on our detector.
To save you reading all of the above......
Fire Angel replaced our defective smoke detector, under warranty, in November 2020.

Unfortunately, the replacement one has started "chirping" indicating a flat battery.
On the rear of the unit, it states that it has a 10 year battery life and a 5 year warranty.

However, the battery cannot be replaced in the unit, so I contacted Fire Angel.
They have come back to me stating that the original one fitted when I bought the 'van in 2016, had a 5 year warranty, which was why they replaced it.

They now claim that the warranty of the new one doesn't extend beyond the original 5 year date (so wasn't transferred to the new one); so the warranty expired in 2021.

I will have to accept their policy but have written back asking why their detector batteries have a stated 10 year life, when they only appear to last 3 or 4 years and are irreplaceable.

Can anyone recommend a different manufacturer please?

Kidde.
https://www.argos.co.uk/product/7003512

My Nuevo was supplied with a FireAngle CO alarm with a non-replaceable battery and a FireAngle smoke alarm with a replaceable 9V battery.  Both units have been replaced under warranty; the CO alarm for a flat battery and the smoke alarm for false alerts.  At the moment both are OK but, to prolong their life including their battery, when the van is out of use I turn them off by refitting the wire prong to the CO alarm and removing the smoke alarm's 9V battery.

I went with Paul's suggestion in buying the Kidde model.
I didn't want to buy from Argos and found it online at Safelincs for £3 cheaper and free post.
It arrived less than 12 hours later.

Seems like we all have problems with the FireAngle CO alarm in our Nuevo's, I took mine back to MDG as my MH is still under warranty, they just binned the FireAngle CO alarm and renewed for another brand, no quibble, problem solved.
footnote, credit where credit is due, Three counties Motorhomes, part of the MDG group have been awesome in all that was expected of a dealer and more, they are on the Ringwood road in Dorset, try them you wont be disappointed, well I wasn't anyway.