All smoke alarms in your house should be tested once a month, and their batteries replaced annually.
London Fire Brigade carry out free fire safety checks and alarm fitting 08000 28 44 28. If you or someone in your household has a disability the London Fire Brigade can offer a home fire safety visit.
If your battery-powered smoke alarm begins to emit a low-power warning, usually a chirping sound, replace the battery immediately with a fresh one. This will ensure that your smoke alarm will continue to provide protection.
Properly installed and maintained smoke alarms in the home are considered one of the best and least expensive means of providing an early warning of a potentially deadly fire. Smoke alarms save lives, prevent injuries, and minimise property damage by enabling residents to detect fires earlier. The risk of dying from fires in homes without smoke alarms is twice as high as in homes that have working smoke alarms.
Never disable your smoke alarm, even if you experience "nuisance" alarms while cooking or showering.
Clean the smoke alarm following the manufacturer's instructions, and if possible relocate it away from the kitchen or bathroom. If nuisance alarms are a persistent problem, you may need to look for a different type of smoke alarm.
A photoelectric smoke alarm is less sensitive to common causes of false alarms. Some smoke alarms have a silencing feature, so nuisance alarms can be stopped quickly and easily.
