False Alarm with 3 Smoke Sensors

[JCM 1]

Within two weeks I got 3 false alarms with smoke sensors. They all started beeping because of detected smoke. But there was definitely no smoke

in each case. One measured smoke level of 225. It seems to be an software issue. I reregistered all detectors and they work properly. As long as I

didn't reregister them they showed raised smoke levels constantly. I put off the battery and put in again. No change of the smoke level.

Installed firmware version is in all sensors the latest 3.3. The serial numbers of the sensors are: 108647, 132597 and 132329.

I hope, fibaro can fix this soon. I don't want to have false alarms when I am away from home (e. g. in holiday). Sensors that are not reliable do not

raise the security level of a house.. they raise the panic level of the users in case of reocurring false alarms.

[A.Socha 126]

if they was good on start and first false alart show after time please clear them first. 255 it is big smoke or much dust on optical sensor

[JCM 1]

3 hours ago, A.Socha said:

if they was good on start and first false alart show after time please clear them first. 255 it is big smoke or much dust on optical sensor

What exactly do you mean with "clear them"? Shall I clean the hardware or shall I reset the device software and clear the log memory?

The software clearing I did do already. It works now fine again like before the issue. So I assume it's a software issue. Because it occured

in three different locations where in each the air is clear and has normal quality and no smoke was produced.

 

[guidozwaard 4]

i have the same problem some times the smoke detectors give give random a couple of time a false alarm in the rooms is no smoke of dust.

after a couple of alarms they are working correctly.

it is for me in al firmware versions

Edited April 16, 2017 by guidozwaard

[Tundel 9]

I have one smoke sensor from first generation. In my case it was working only one week and then started to give smoke errors several times in a day.

I finally decided to take this sensor at my workplace, but there it is also give false alarm.

I resetted sensor and followed dust chamber control procedure as described in manual, sensor claims, that all is okay.

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Edited April 17, 2017 by Tundel
typo

[A.Socha 126]

please use compressed air to clean, if that will not help please send to service device for better cleaning. Most problem give dust or small bugs (who enter device) - info from service to us

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[Tundel 9]

21 hours ago, A.Socha said:

please use compressed air to clean, if that will not help please send to service device for better cleaning. Most problem give dust or small bugs (who enter device) - info from service to us

I did use compressed air to clean sensor, but no success.
And why my other "stupid" smoke sensors don't suffer dust issues, they serving me already long years?

[hanswurst 0]

Hi Tundel,

 

this is a known issue with the Fibaro Smoke Sensors - but somehow Fibaro does not admit it. Check the Forum for more Threads about this isue. I had two of them next to each other. One had false alarms, the other not. From 5 Smoke-Sensors at my house 2 had regular false alarms, the other three not. They are installed since 7 Month.

 

I will send my two broken ones to the Fibaro Support.

 

Regards.

[jakub.jezek 353]

46 minutes ago, hanswurst said:

Hi Tundel,

 

this is a known issue with the Fibaro Smoke Sensors - but somehow Fibaro does not admit it. Check the Forum for more Threads about this isue. I had two of them next to each other. One had false alarms, the other not. From 5 Smoke-Sensors at my house 2 had regular false alarms, the other three not. They are installed since 7 Month.

 

I will send my two broken ones to the Fibaro Support.

 

Regards.

 

@hanswurst If it beeps every 50 sec and LED does nothing, then there is problem with dust or bugs. I myself had problem with cca 10 FGSD-002. All of them were sent to Fibaro. Thankfully i wasn't the one who installed it, it was someone external.

 

Problem was, it was mounted in unfinished apartment (300 apartments), so that was a problem. If vacum cleaner does not help, then send it to Fibaro service.

Edited April 19, 2017 by jakub.jezek

[Orgli 15]

It seems that the Fibaro smoke sensors need a special treatment.

After all I have ten working right now.

Before, I had two DOA. Unpacking - inserting battery --> 50s-Beep (problem with the detector chamber) --> reset and soft compressed air didn't help --> returned to sender.

A few weeks ago, one sensor breached with remaining smoke density of 255. There was no smoke and compressed air didn't work. In this case, the reset helped...not trustworthy.

A few days ago while sleeping, another sensor in bedroom breached (also in the HC2 history) and gave a few loud BEEPs, but afterwards everything looked normal...not trustworthy, either.

[JCM 1]

After 4 weeks now since the issues occured all sensors work properly (without false alarm) at the moment. This observation supports the

suspicion it could be a software issue. I did not do any cleaning of the devices. Just a complete reset worked. So Fibaro, what's your comment

on this? Is there any issue ticket being worked on, on your side?

 

Edited May 6, 2017 by JCM

[Sankotronic 2,249]

I have 3 Fibaro smoke sensors for more than a year and no false alarms ever, but real one happened once when toaster didn't popup properly so bred start burning. So, for me they are quite nice and ok. I test them every 3 months just to make sure that I didn't broke something with my scenes and that scene will be triggered. It is safety device so it is good to test them regularly every few months.

 

[1152 33]

I have 12 Fibaro smoke sensors, 10 of the older type and 2 newer ones. The majority installed in my home and the rest in my beach house. I have had some odd occurrences  and one real alarm, somebody forgot to open the ventilation to the fire place... My major problem though has been when I lower the temperature in my beach house during wintertime to 5-8 C. One of the smoke sensors goes off and of course little you can do about it being a hundred miles away. (And yes it indicates increased smoke level). By the way the other also had a somewhat similar problem, but it turned out to be tamper warning due to a slight warping of the case due to seasonal changes in the wooden ceiling it was mounted on.

[hcke 2]

I have 5 smoke sensors over a year and from time to time they keep giving false alarms. They really not reliable! I think there is really a problem with the software. It's about time that Fibaro is going to fix this problem. 

[Sankotronic 2,249]

Smoke sensors are sensitive devices, they relay on the very fine measurement of the particles in the air by light! That means that they can't really differentiate smoke particles from dust, pollen, condensation, etc.

 

If you are getting false alarms, then before you wait for somebody else to do something for you, maybe you can first try to do something for yourself.

1. Check where and how you position your smoke sensor. Make sure that it is not near heat, dust or strong light sources! For example, position near fire place, or above stove, range, cooking plate is a very bad place.  
2. Since this is wireless sensor then you have to check quality of connection with HC and either move it to better position or provide device that can relay signal. It will not always work properly where YOU want it to, but where good connection is!
3. Test it at least every 3 months regardless of it's internal test. Press that B button on it according to the instructions and make it sound! Like this you also test your scene or code that you use to give you notification and do other stuff! Safety devices need attention!
4. If you still get false alarms, then try to notice when that happen and what was done before it happened (opened windows for long time, you were doing general cleaning with dust brush , etc.)
5. Lower smoke sensor sensitivity. Believe me, even if set to lowest sensitivity it will still sound if there is real fire and smoke!
6. Reposition it! You may not believe me, but even 20 cm can make big difference! For God sake, it is WIRELESS device with antenna! Everything with antenna can suffer from interference, also see point 2!

Of course, if nothing of this help then your sensor is probably faulty and needs to be replaced. My three smoke sensors still read 0.0 smoke density after more than one year in use, even the one that was breached with real smoke from toaster!