Deep cleaning to fix & prevent false alarms

False alarms, 3 small beeps once a minute or irregularly, or one small beep irregularly (visual instructions below)

When a smoke alarm gives a false alarm, or 3 small beeps either regularly or irregularly, or one small beep irregularly, it is always due to something disturbing the optical smoke sensors inside the product. 

Most often this is a tiny dust particle that has got inside the product, but it can also be a small insect (most often a tiny spider) - or of course some visible disturbance (e.g. vapor or fumes from bathroom or cooking) could also be the cause. 

All of these can happen to any smoke alarm as the smoke detection chamber inside the smoke alarm can not be sealed for an obvious reason: Also the smoke and smoke particles need to able to enter the smoke detection chamber
 
How to fix this:

When such case takes place, the vacuum cleaning from the top of the grill is the first thing to try. 

When the dust particle (or an insect) has already gotten inside the smoke detection chamber, quite often one’s vacuum cleaner is not powerful enough to remove the distracting particle from deep inside the smoke alarm, and thus to make sure it will surely get removed, it is best to do a little disassembly of the product - and then doing the vacuum cleaning: 

Please follow the guidance below:

Step 1:

Disassemble the "rear cover" of the product (attached with 4 small snap fits (Note: not the 3 larger ones that are clearly visible in this photo). 

 

The snap-fits are opened by pressing them to inside direction (use thumb, pen, screwdriver, …).

Step 2:

Vacuum the product very carefully from around the "black smoke chamber" that becomes visible - you can see it in this photo.

Step 3:

Snap the black smoke chamber cover off: take a good grip on the upper edge of the black part with your fingers and pull upwards.

Step 4:

Vacuum the both parts of the smoke chamber that are now visible. Please do it even if you don’t see any particles inside - they are most often extremely small.

Step 5:

Assemble the product back to its original form


Insert back the mounting plate (and make sure to turn it far enough in the clockwise direction to activate the power).

Step 6:

Press the front cover for testing the smoke alarm operation: If everything is right, the test alarm sound is heard after pressing about 3 seconds