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When Does Your Smoke Alarm Start Beeping
Never - I'm smart enough to change to batteries frequently enough to prevent this. - 22.2% - 2 votes
Almost always between 11 PM - 6 AM - 66.7% - 6 votes
Almost always during civilized daylight hours - 11.1% - 1 votes
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Posted 9/20/2018 4:19 PM (GMT 0)
OK, at 12:30 AM this morning one of my smoke detectors started beeping. Despite closing the bedroom door, putting the pillow over my head and thinking good thoughts I still heard the dam* thing. So, after setting out to discover "which one", I found it was the highest one in the house forcing me to move the car, get out my 10 foot ladder, find the 9V batteries and do the replacement job.

All of which got me to thinking...this has happened to me every now and then over the years despite what I think is regular battery replacement (well, maybe not). It ALWAYS happens between midnight and 6 AM which leads me to believe that there is a smoke detector manufacturer conspiracy to make this happen during those hours -- or maybe they are only conspiring against me.

Anyone else ever have this middle-of-the-night hassle?

Jim
Posted 9/20/2018 4:30 PM (GMT 0)
I'm completely with you on this one. My wife and I always ask ourselves, "why does this always happen in the middle of the night"?

PS You have just prompted me to replace all the batteries this weekend...
Posted 9/20/2018 4:50 PM (GMT 0)
The detector is just afraid of the dark. Put a night light in the same room and the smoke detector and it will stop crying at night and its batteries will last longer.

I recall an ad campaign awhile ago where they suggested that you change all the smoke and carbon-monoxide detector batteries on the same day daylight savings time ends.

That's also that's the time of year when we refresh our earthquake emergency supplies.

Andrew
Posted 9/20/2018 5:03 PM (GMT 0)
Solution: Replace ALL detector batteries in the house EVERY New Year's Day...don't wait for them to fail. Make it part of the Jan 1st ritual.


BTW, hope you had a good vacation...your steady hand was greatly missed.
Posted 9/20/2018 5:20 PM (GMT 0)
The irony for me is that I replaced all of the batteries last Oct 1 and had on the calendar to so on that date this year. How they knew to start beeping less than two weeks before replacement date is a mystery to me. I may try the nightlight...

And, my vacation was great...cruise to Alaska...our third time there and it's still a magical place. Mixed feelings on missing the drama.

Jim
Posted 9/20/2018 5:38 PM (GMT 0)
Alaska is on my list of places to see.

and if you want, I could arrange for a little drama here so you don't feel like you've missed something...
Posted 9/20/2018 5:46 PM (GMT 0)
Well, by golly, it seems there may actually be a scientific reason why smoke detectors really do go off more often in the middle of the night.

Googling

smoke detectors beep at night

produces the article linked below, which tell us

"As a smoke alarm’s battery nears end of life, the amount of power it produces causes an internal resistance. A drop in room temperature increases this resistance, which may impact the battery’s ability to deliver the power necessary to operate the unit in an alarm situation. This battery characteristic can cause a smoke alarm to enter the low battery chirp mode when air temperatures drop. Most homes are the coolest between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. That’s why the alarm may sound a low-battery chirp in the middle of the night, and then quit when the home warms up a few degrees."

So apparently a quick and easy fix for this problem would be to just keep your smoke detector warmer?

Interesting.

/www.kidde.com/home-safety/en/us/news/news-article/myth_buster__alarm_battery_chirps_aren_t_pre_programmed_to_interrupt_sleep.aspx
Posted 9/20/2018 5:52 PM (GMT 0)
There you go. Get a little blanket for you detector, tell it a story and tuck it in nice at tight at bed time and you'll be golden.
Posted 9/20/2018 6:37 PM (GMT 0)
I’ve found a broom handle to be just as effective as a ladder. It’s not happened since. Problem solved.
Posted 9/20/2018 7:55 PM (GMT 0)

InTheShop said...
The detector is just afraid of the dark. Put a night light in the same room and the smoke detector and it will stop crying at night and its batteries will last longer.

That is hilarious!
Posted 9/20/2018 8:04 PM (GMT 0)
Jim--We took a cruise to Alaska earlier this month. Alaska is unspeakably beautiful, and the weather was perfect.
Posted 9/20/2018 9:25 PM (GMT 0)
I wonder if smoke detector manufacturers are owned by battery manufacturers. You’ve got conspiracy theory wheels turning.
Posted 9/20/2018 9:35 PM (GMT 0)
Yes, they are. Battery companies launched smoke detectors years ago to augment battery sales.
Posted 9/20/2018 10:04 PM (GMT 0)
Tudpock18,

I had the exact problem last month, it was 2:30 am and the darn thing went off. I had to open the garage, backup the car to get my 6 foot stepladder. My problem is that 5 smoke detectors are wired together and when one goes off all of them goes off. Supposedly the red LED shows which one goes off, but I cannot for the life of me see this. So I end up changing all of the batteries, afterwards I can't fall back asleep. UGHHHHHH.
Posted 9/21/2018 12:30 AM (GMT 0)
I've had batteries go beeping on me once, and i've lived in the same home for 35 years. Dunno why, i know its foolish, but i dont pay much attention, i probably should have new smoke detectors installed. But hey, no problemo, i have a fire hydrant right outside my house.

For some odd reason i am much more attentive to my house in Florida vs my full time condo home . I just hired someone to install 4 new smoke detectors, since i boutght the place just a year and a half ago, and have no clue when they were last replaced.
Posted 9/21/2018 1:43 AM (GMT 0)
You cannot make this stuff up...honest to god...I was going to start a post on this very same subject a couple of weeks ago...during all the hurricanes dis and dat during the last month or so ...ours would beep...ebeeep...ebeeep...try change the battery...beep to 3rd power...press the button ok...till the next time...again...up...press...boom...next...the same...after all the wx was gone...and ..I teel you the wx has been super goregeous low humidity...nary a beep...I am fricken on to something...this is...just one small example of the crap the sychronicity I experience and have experienced...for the last 40 years...CJ Jung not only coined the term...but...ok I should have stopped at ...Oh that happens to me...but dam it I"m a fricken story teller...and I'm good at it....er ah sorry I was in in the surf 3 hours...gym 2...ipa'd and feeling and busting with...whatever it is that has me...whatever it is...I know good from evil...its good...no fool me...LIFE...
Posted 9/21/2018 2:04 AM (GMT 0)
Use your 2nd amendment right & shoot that intruder!
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