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My house has a wired smoke alarm system, three smoke detectors and one CO detector. These are all old firex detectors, I am replacing them with three kiddie smoke alarms where one is combo CO + smoke detector.

The problem is if I remove the old CO detector and leave it disconnected the alarms chirp every 5-10 minutes. I put it back in and the chirping reduced to rarely a couple times a day.

How can I fix this setup to remove that old detector from the system?

DoxyLover
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jheagle
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1 Answers1

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I solved this by re-inspecting the detector that was making the noise. I discover that the original wiring had reversed white and black power connections.

Perhaps the older alarms were not polarized.

I have no confirmed idea why the external CO detector impacted this system, my theory is it helped balance the load to offset the crossed wires.

After fixing the wiring, I was able to remove the external CO detector without any further issue.

jheagle
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