Chirped 10 Hours

Desert Lily · ‎06-24-2011

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?!

shoekitty · ‎03-10-2010

@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!

“sometimes you have to bite your upper lip and put sunglasses on”….Bob Dylan

debfau · ‎03-25-2010

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

SharkE · ‎08-19-2010

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.

SharkE · ‎08-19-2010

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

lynnie61 · ‎04-28-2010

@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.

Kachina624 · ‎03-10-2010

@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.

New Mexico☀️Land Of Enchantment

cindyNC · ‎08-01-2019

@Desert Lily What a crazy night you had.

SharkE · ‎08-19-2010

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 !

Venezia · ‎03-09-2010

@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.