Handyman Tips - How Often Should You Test Your Smoke Alarm?

You should test your smoke alarm every month. We recommend doing it on the first day of every month. If there is a certain day of the week that works better for you, like saturday, then pick the first saturday of each month to do it. It doesn't really matter what day you do it on as long as you can remember to do it once a month.

It's such an important thing to do but it is so simple. Smoke alarms have a button on them that you push to test them. Push the button until the smoke alarm starts beeping. If it beeps when you push the button then it is working. The smoke alarms should be on the ceiling because smoke rises, so the heaviest concentration of smoke should be at the ceiling in the event of a fire. Being on the ceiling makes it difficult to reach but here is a little tip for easily testing your smoke detectors. To help you reach the test buttons get a broom. Use the handle of the broom to push and hold the button until you are sure the smoke alarm is working properly.

Many houses have all of the smoke alarms connected to each other. When one smoke alarm goes off, all of the other alarms will start going off also. You should still test each smoke alarm individually.

For more information about smoke alarms check out our Smoke Alarms article. We can also tell you how often you should replace your smoke detector battery.

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