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End of life · First Alert · smoke

First Alert: Five chirps every minute, five green flashes

End of life: the alarm needs to be replaced. First Alert says you must replace it immediately once it starts this chirp.

What you see
Five green flashes about every 60 seconds
What you hear
Five chirps about every 60 seconds

If it is sounding a full alarm instead: the maker’s emergency instruction

Smoke alarm

First Alert (SM210L manual): if the alarm sounds, get everyone out of the house immediately — do not stop to dress or collect anything. Feel doors with the back of your hand and do not open a hot one; cover your nose and mouth with a damp cloth; meet at your planned place outside and count heads; call the fire department from outside, giving your address and then your name; never go back inside a burning building.

From User’s Manual — Smoke Alarm, 10-Year Sealed Battery with Escape Light.

The First Alert alarm on these pages senses smoke only. For a carbon monoxide alarm, follow its own maker’s instruction.

What First Alert says to do about this signal

  1. Replace the alarm immediately.
  2. Pressing Test/Silence can quiet the end-of-life chirp for up to 8 hours (the green LED keeps flashing five times a minute) — time to buy a replacement, not a fix.
  3. Then deactivate the old alarm: break the tab and slide the switch to deactivate mode.

From User’s Manual — Smoke Alarm, 10-Year Sealed Battery with Escape Light. If your alarm’s pattern is not exactly this, check the manual for your model: First Alert models do not all use the same signals.

Other First Alert signals

End of life on other brands

The same state sounds and looks different on each make — which is why a chirp pattern cannot be read without the brand.

Sources

Every line on this page comes from First Alert’s own documents, read on the date shown. Nothing is taken from third-party code sites or other makes.