---
title: "How to inspect smoke and carbon monoxide alarms before winter"
description: "Test every smoke and carbon monoxide alarm in November, replace expired units, and log the cost before deep winter."
url: https://tivio.io/blog/how-to-inspect-smoke-and-carbon-monoxide-alarms-before-winter
author: "Tivio Team"
publisher: Tivio (https://tivio.io)
published: 2026-11-06
updated: 2026-11-06
topic: "Maintenance"
---

# How to inspect smoke and carbon monoxide alarms before winter

> Inspect smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms in November 2026. Test each device, read the date on the back, and replace any that fail or expire before January 2027. Record the result on a unit work order and pay replacements from that owner's trust balance. This is a maintenance routine, not legal advice. Local codes decide placement.

## Key takeaways

- Test with the button, not with a car in the garage or a gas oven.
- Replace smoke alarms more than 10 years old and carbon monoxide alarms past the printed date.
- Leave refused units open on the work order instead of marking them passed.
- Pay replacements from that property only, under the cap the owner already approved.

Inspect smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms before winter, while you can still buy a replacement and get into the unit on a normal Tuesday. Test each device, read the date on the back, and replace the ones that are past their life or that will not sound. Do the pass in November 2026 so December and January are not the months you discover a dead alarm during a no-heat call.

This is a maintenance routine, not legal advice and not a fire-code opinion. Placement rules vary by city and province, and the lease says who must allow entry. The [National Fire Protection Association's smoke-alarm guidance](https://www.nfpa.org/education-and-research/home-fire-safety/smoke-alarms) and its [carbon monoxide guidance](https://www.nfpa.org/education-and-research/home-fire-safety/carbon-monoxide) are the references to read alongside your local code. [Health Canada](https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/air-quality/pollutants/carbon-monoxide.html) states that carbon monoxide can only be detected with an alarm, that you cannot see or smell it, and that indoor risk is greatest in colder months because homes are heated by burning fuel. [Ready.gov](https://www.ready.gov/winter-weather) lists carbon monoxide poisoning among the risks that rise when winter storms push people toward improvised heat.

![A small smoke detector mounted high on a white wall near the ceiling.](https://tivio.io/blog/media/2026/10/a-small-smoke-detector-mounted-high-on-a-white-wall-near-the-d77hp2.webp)

## Where should each alarm be, and what are you checking?

Walk the unit with a list, not with a glance at the hallway. For smoke alarms, confirm there is a working device inside each bedroom, outside each sleeping area, and on every level, including a basement. For carbon monoxide alarms, confirm there is a device outside each sleeping area and on every level that has a fuel-burning appliance or a door to an attached garage. If your local code asks for more, follow the code. If a device is missing, the inspection result is "missing," not "we will get to it."

Write down the fuel sources. A gas furnace, a boiler, a gas water heater, a fireplace, or an attached garage is why the carbon monoxide alarm is not optional. An all-electric building with no garage and no fuel appliance may not need a carbon monoxide alarm under some codes. Do not guess. Read the local rule and the lease, and note what you decided.

Look at the device itself. A smoke alarm with no battery door, painted over, or hanging by its wires is a fail. A carbon monoxide alarm plugged into a switched outlet that tenants turn off is a fail. Note the room, the type, and whether it is hardwired, sealed-battery, or plug-in.

## How do you test without creating a false emergency?

Press the test button and wait for the sound. A chirp from a low battery is not a pass. Tell the tenant before you test, so a real evacuation does not start, and so a monitored system does not call the fire department. If the building has monitored alarms, follow the monitoring company's test procedure or schedule the test with them. A false dispatch is an invoice and a shaken neighbor.

Do not test a carbon monoxide alarm with a running car in the garage or with oven gas. The test button is the test. Health Canada says to leave immediately if the alarm sounds for real. Your inspection should not be the reason it sounds for real.

If the tenant is home, have them hear the sound. People disconnect alarms that chirp at night. Ask whether it has been chirping, and write the answer down. A tenant who says "I pulled the battery last week" is handing you the work order.

Entry still needs the notice the lease and the local law require. An alarm inspection is not an emergency entry unless an alarm is already sounding. Offer a second appointment the same week if the first one fails. Document a refusal and tell the owner which unit you could not enter. An untested unit is an open item, not a silent pass.

## When do you replace instead of changing a battery?

Replace, do not nurse, a device that fails the test button after a fresh battery, that is damaged, or that is past the date printed on the back. Smoke alarms are commonly built with a 10-year life. If the manufacture date is more than 10 years before your November 2026 visit, replace the unit. Carbon monoxide alarms expire on the manufacturer's schedule, often well before a decade, and many of them announce end of life with a distinct chirp. Read the back. If the replace-by date is before January 2027, replace it on this visit rather than scheduling a second trip in a snowstorm.

Use a compatible replacement. A hardwired interconnected alarm is not a battery puck from the checkout lane unless the local rule and the wiring allow that substitution. If you are not sure, stop and have the electrician or the alarm vendor supply the device. Write the model you removed and the model you installed on the work order, with a photo of the old date stamp.

Sealed 10-year smoke alarms do not have a battery you can change. If one of those fails, the whole device is the part. Do not pry it open. Do not accept a tenant's loose 9-volt as a repair on a sealed unit.

Never disable an alarm to stop a chirp and promise to come back. Pulling a battery to get through the weekend of December 20 is how the unit sits unprotected through January. Replace it the day you find it, or install a temporary listed device the same day if the correct part is on order, and label the temporary device on the work order.

## How do you record a failed alarm on a work order?

One work order per unit keeps the owner's bill readable. The building order is only for a common-area device in a hallway or a boiler room. On the unit order, list every device: room, type, test result, manufacture or replace-by date, and what you did. "Alarms OK" is not a record. "Hall smoke, tested, date May 2019, replaced with a sealed 10-year unit" is a record.

If you could not enter, the order stays open with the refusal date and the new appointment. Do not close it to clear your board. An open order is the reminder. A closed order is a claim that you were inside.

Tell the tenant, in writing, not to paint over the new device and not to take the battery out if it chirps. Ask them to use the portal if it chirps again or if a carbon monoxide alarm sounds. You want that report tied to the unit, not lost in a text.

If a carbon monoxide alarm sounds during the visit and there is no test in progress, treat it as real. Have everyone leave, call the fire department, and do not reset the furnace until a qualified person says the air is safe. Then write a separate emergency work order. The inspection order does not swallow a real alarm.

## What does a 12-unit alarm pass cost?

Ruth Okonkwo owns The Maples, 12 units, one boiler in a common basement. On November 9, 2026 you inspect every unit. Ten smoke alarms pass. Four are older than 10 years and get replaced. Two carbon monoxide alarms are past the replace-by date. One hallway smoke alarm has no power and is replaced the same day. Ruth's available trust balance is $6,800.00. She approved up to $500.00 for alarm replacement before you bought parts.

| Item | Quantity | Unit cost | Line total |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Sealed smoke alarms, in-unit | 4 | $28.00 | $112.00 |
| Carbon monoxide alarms, plug-in, in-unit | 2 | $32.00 | $64.00 |
| Hallway hardwired smoke alarm, parts and labor | 1 | $145.00 | $145.00 |
| Your inspection time, if the agreement bills it | 12 units | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Total posted to The Maples |  |  | $321.00 |

Check the math. Four smoke alarms at $28.00 are $112.00. Two carbon monoxide alarms at $32.00 are $64.00. The hallway device is $145.00 installed. $112.00 plus $64.00 is $176.00. $176.00 plus $145.00 is $321.00. That is $179.00 under the $500.00 cap. The inspection itself is inside your management fee in this example, so you do not add an hourly charge the agreement does not allow.

Pay the supply receipt of $176.00 and the electrician's hallway invoice of $145.00 from trust, both coded to The Maples. $6,800.00 minus $321.00 is $6,479.00 available after the bills, before fees and the regular payout. Do not buy a carton of extra alarms "for later" and bury it in this invoice. Leftover stock is your problem unless she agreed to pre-buy it.

If unit 9 refused entry, it is not in the $321.00 and it is not marked passed. It stays an open order. When you get in on November 16 and replace one more smoke alarm at $28.00, that is a new line, still under the same cap if $179.00 remains. $500.00 minus $321.00 is $179.00, so a $28.00 device still fits. Say so in the note instead of opening a second approval for pocket change.

## What do you tell tenants and the owner?

Tell Ruth the same day you finish the buildings you could enter. Name the date, the replacements, the dollars, and the units still closed to you. Four sentences cover it: On November 9, 2026 you tested smoke and carbon monoxide alarms at The Maples. You replaced four old smoke alarms, two expired carbon monoxide alarms, and the dead hallway device. The total is $321.00, under the $500.00 she approved. Unit 9 is rescheduled for November 16.

Tell each tenant what changed in their unit, in writing, including the test they heard. Ask them to report chirping. Remind them that a carbon monoxide alarm means leave the unit and call the fire department, then call you. Do not tell them the new alarm means the furnace is safe. An alarm is a warning device. It is not a tune-up.

Keep the dates on the work orders so the next November is a comparison, not a blank page. A device installed in November 2026 should not be replaced again in January 2027 unless it fails. The owner statement should show $321.00 of alarm work, described by what you replaced, not a lump called "safety."

Record every device on a unit work order and pay the replacements from that property's trust balance. The December statement should match the list you emailed. Close each alarm visit as a work order in [Tivio](https://tivio.io/), so a chirp in January traces straight back to the November test.

## Frequently asked questions

### How often should alarms be tested?

Test them on the November pre-winter pass and ask tenants to report chirping afterward. A monthly button test is the usual recommendation from fire-safety guidance. Your inspection is the one you can prove with a work order.

### Can I just change the battery?

Only on a device that is designed for a replaceable battery, is inside its life, and then passes the test button. Sealed alarms and any unit past its replace-by date get a new device. Do not pull a battery to silence a chirp and leave the unit dead.

### What if a carbon monoxide alarm sounds during the visit?

Treat it as real unless you are in the middle of a button test you announced. Everyone leaves, you call the fire department, and you do not restart fuel-burning equipment until a qualified person clears the air. That event gets its own emergency work order.

### Who pays for the replacements?

Follow the management agreement. In the example the owner approved up to $500 and the parts and hallway device totaled $321, paid from her trust balance. Do not buy a private stock of alarms and fold it into her invoice.

## Sources

- [Smoke alarms](https://www.nfpa.org/education-and-research/home-fire-safety/smoke-alarms), National Fire Protection Association
- [Carbon monoxide](https://www.nfpa.org/education-and-research/home-fire-safety/carbon-monoxide), National Fire Protection Association
- [Carbon monoxide](https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/air-quality/pollutants/carbon-monoxide.html), Health Canada
- [Winter weather](https://www.ready.gov/winter-weather), Ready.gov