topic Re: Chirped 10 Hours in Community Chat

Chirped 10 Hours

Desert Lily — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 02:08:59 GMT

Yes there was chirping for 10 straight hours here, and it wasn't the beautiful chirping of birds.

It was the smoke alarm battery running low.

What an obnoxious sound.

It started 15 minutes after I went to bed last night. I have a 2-story home & normally sleep upstairs. I picked up my little dog who was now pacing & panting, shut the upstairs bedroom door, went into the main floor bedroom, & shut that door. The chirping sound was still loud enough to invade the downstairs bedroom, too.

The alarm was chirping EVERY 40 SECONDS.

The smoke alarms in my home are hardwired (connected to the electricity), so I turned on my laptop again & watched YouTube videos on how to change a battery in a hardwired smoke alarm.

I went into the basement to turn the alarm switch to "off" in the electrical box. I found the switch list, & flicked the one that said "smoke alarms." ... The power in the basement went off with that switch too, and it was now pitch dark. I turned the switch back on & went up.

I picked up the short step ladder (2-3 steps) in the garage & hauled it to the upstairs bedroom. I'm an iffy 5'4". I could reach the outside of the alarm & turn it, but I couldn't see the inside. The power was still on from the electrical box anyway & unsafe to battery change. I turned the alarm back together, & it started with a super loud constant alarm! Ugh! I tightened it more, pressed some outside button, & it slowed down. Back to every 40 seconds.

I have a regular size ladder but can't haul it upstairs, especially since I fell down those stairs while vacuuming them last year.

The 9volt batteries in the kitchen drawer expired a year ago, so I ordered 9volt batteries from Amazon at 1:30am to be delivered today. (I couldn't leave my dog)

The alarm continued chirping EVERY 40 SECONDS.

My poor scared & upset furbaby continued to pace with her tail under, shake, & pant the whole night.

I watched TV until 8am. We never got a wink of sleep.

I then texted my nearby brother who was in the car on his way to an appointment. Next, I called my lawn guy who was home from his regular job after dropping his car off at the dealership; but he could help me later when his wife came home with her car if I ended up needing him.

My brother called me back in 30 minutes. I told him what was up, & he said he'd be here after his appointment & after picking up 9volt batteries at home.

We watched the best how-to YouTube together.

He's 5 inches taller than me & has longer arms. He could reach the alarms with the short ladder. We had a hard time peeling the plastic off the batteries he brought & dropped things a couple times. But after we fumbled a bit on the little stuff & laughed at ourselves, he scored the goals of changing the batteries.

The EVERY 40 SECONDS OF LOUD CHIRPING FINALLY STOPPED AFTER 10 HOURS. Hurray!

I counted 5 alarms & my brother brought 5 9volts. When he was done, he reminded me to turn the power back on with the basement/upstairs switch. He asked if there was an alarm in the basement. Sure enough, there was number 6. But the 9volts I ordered didn't arrive until 8:15pm, after it was dark. My brother left at 4pm.

So, I'm crossing my fingers that the basement alarm doesn't find the need to scream chirps soon.

I'm tired & can't wait to sleep tonight. Silence can truly be golden sometimes.

Why don't smoke alarms have a distinctive small flashing light for a week to remind us when the battery is getting low instead of a grueling irritating beep that can send people & animals over the moon?!

Re: Chirped 10 Hours

shoekitty — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 02:16:04 GMT

@Desert Lily OMG! I don't know how you stood it. I crawl up the wall when our regular alarms do that. Luckily ours aren't hardwired. I have in moments of desperation ..knocked the alarm silent with a broom, as I cant reach them by myself. If husband is gome, it's different. I don't think I would get alarms hardwired after your story lol. And YES, they should have a warning for several days before going ballistic!

Re: Chirped 10 Hours

debfau — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 02:18:51 GMT

And Why do they always wait until early morning to start going off.

Re: Chirped 10 Hours

SharkE — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 02:20:48 GMT

I'm a widow woman and I went and bought those

lithium batteries that are good for 10 yrs. I won't climb ladders and tilt head back. Would make me dizzy and I don't have anybody to take me to hospital if I fell I'd have to manage to call 911.

Had my handyman to come over and put up those new 6 lithium batteries and I should be good to go for awhile.

You can call the local fire dept. and they will come over and replace for you. Free, I believe.

Lithium batteries can be bought at Battery Joe's or any place that is just a battery place. Not cheap, but, anything is better then going nuts.

Re: Chirped 10 Hours

SharkE — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 02:23:39 GMT

Eventually, I'm gonna get a security alarm gadget and wear it. Right now, still spry give thanks to the Lord.

Re: Chirped 10 Hours

lynnie61 — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 03:04:06 GMT

@Desert Lily And of course it's ALWAYS at a time that is overnight, or a holiday. I bought 10 year ones, and of course the batteries died near 7. What? Mine was the carbon monoxide alarm though. So we had to evacuate at 1 am. The fire department came and said it was the battery. Just three years short, and I thought maybe we truly had a leak. It was scary. At least it was early fall, and not the middle of winter. Yes, it would be nice if a light shined possibly a few days before. Or even a chirp maybe once every few hours before the 40 seconds beeps.

Re: Chirped 10 Hours

Kachina624 — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 03:12:58 GMT

@Desert Lily. What an adventure you and your pup had. I wonder why you need batteries if the unit is hard-wired to your electricity?

I would have called the fire department for help. Their name is "fire and rescue" and I take full advantage of their rescue capabilities.

Re: Chirped 10 Hours

cindyNC — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 03:17:25 GMT

@Desert Lily What a crazy night you had.

Re: Chirped 10 Hours

SharkE — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 03:18:37 GMT

Mine are hard wired too, but , they still have a 9 volt in the unit.

Mine started out chirping weakly every now and again.

I went around the house hunting for a da*n cricket.

Till dumb a** figured it was the red light on the wall unit blinking. I went thru the night of the long chirping too

over Xmas weekend. Fire Dept was closed nobody answered. Called the non-911 # they had gave me to call at the fire dept if they themselves didn't answer

So, I called the non-911 # everybody gone.

That's when I said I bet I buy those Lithiums !

Re: Chirped 10 Hours

Venezia — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 04:51:45 GMT

@Kachina624 - Hard-wired smoke alarms have a 9-volt battery as a backup. (Think power outages.) The standard advice is to change them every 6 months, but I don't do that.

I try to remember to change them once a year, but usually I just end up changing them when they start chirping. The most recent one went off in my bedroom around 2:30 a.m. Downstairs to get a new battery and the step ladder. Back upstairs to go through the rigamarole of detaching the smoke alarm from the base, swapping out the battery and replacing the alarm. A real PITA!

DH can't do it because he has no sense of balance! He did try to replace one in the office and ended up breaking the connecting pins. I'll have to get an electrician to replace that alarm.

For some reason they most often go off in the wee small hours! And it's not something you can ignore, unless you're stone deaf.

Re: Chirped 10 Hours

sarahpanda — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 04:54:52 GMT

I feel your pain ! I had an episode with mine a while back but live in a small town and called 911 and the big long fire truck with 3 people came to my aid ! They had mine fixed in short order and were very kind about doing so. Then they told me if I ever have any problems again, please call them.. #winning !!!

Re: Chirped 10 Hours

retiredatlast — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 07:41:24 GMT

I have had the same issue with my hardwired smoke alarms that always seem to have the battery go out with loud chirping during the night.

My solution was to change the 9 volt batteries every year around Halloween/time change in November and this has solved the problem for me. I use Energizer Max 9v batteries and they last the year with no issues.

Re: Chirped 10 Hours

Neetgal2 — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 11:02:55 GMT

@Desert Lily

I sympathize with you! I have not had luck with the lithium ones. Less than one year, one did not work, so back to the hardware store with receipt. Not even sure what is up there now. I have three smoke Dectectors, two are definitely 9 volt and I can handle. Very small shore house. I always have batteries.

I had an awful experience one night at home. Smoke detector, in with security system went off. Scared us, both in mid 70's. My mind instantly went to my Dad, who has been gone for 15 years. Well, alarm company was calling, my cell, which was in the bedroom, on silence, since I was out in the main part of the house trying to figure out what was going on. I looked outside and saw flashlights and two police cars. Spoke with alarm company, let policemen in. Fire Comoany on the way. Firemen went all through house and concluded it was some malfunction. I get the system checked yearly! This was so disturbing for us, we had smoke detectors unwired and installed battery. We are both very responsible about battery things. We get notices, in a text, from alarm company in low batteries for alarmed areas, so who knows what was up with smoke dedector.

This happened around 1:00 a.m. The neighbors never heard a thing! Both police and fire came quietly.

Re: Chirped 10 Hours

Shanus — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 11:56:53 GMT

@Desert Lily Ah, the whoas of living in a house at our age. That's why we sold the house and moved. Nothing to do in an apartment. There's always someone in the building to call on, but we haven't needed them yet.

Re: Chirped 10 Hours

San Antonio Gal — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 12:42:15 GMT

What a nightmare @Desert Lily . Your poor baby didn't know what was going on. Hope you don't have to ever go through that again.

Re: Chirped 10 Hours

millieshops — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 13:34:49 GMT

@Desert Lily I also have a hard-wired alarm. The only thing I would have done that you didn't would have been to carry a flashlight with me to the basement. I learned through previous alarm noise to know I can't do anything but flick off the electricity.

Re: Chirped 10 Hours

jlkz — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 13:48:14 GMT

@Desert Lily

I hope you were able to step outside for a reprieve during the 10-hour sound blasting ordeal !

I know how that sound throughout the house can be nerve-wracking: at the mountain place during the winter, if the heater went out and the inside temperature got too low, the chirping would start. It got to the point that thinking was impossible...a good way to go mad !

Re: Chirped 10 Hours

sunshine45 — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 04:09:08 GMT

i got rid of all of our hardwired units. i am not even sure who recommended them. i could not stand them and always had trouble getting them to stop making a noise. YES, always in the middle of the night!

i just have battery operated ones in each room and in hallways. they are MUCH easier to deal with.

Re: Chirped 10 Hours

lolasgaga — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 04:23:41 GMT

Hi Ladies,you need batteries even if hard wired so if you had a power outage the Batteries will keep your smoke detector active.

Re: Chirped 10 Hours

Mom2Dogs — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 16:18:13 GMT

@Desert Lily Holy smokes, what an ordeal. We have three smoke alarms in our house but I guess I am glad they are not hard wired!

At least you are all set for a while...and our dog also freaks out when the alarms go off as well as when it thunders..I bet your dog took a nice nap once it was quiet in the house.