Argh!

[41magsnub]

Timely...  it just happened to me and scared the crap out of me.  10 PM here...

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

The new interconnected systems are the worst.  At least with the old ones you can just yank the dead battery, or take the whole unit off the wall and stick it in the drawer until morning.  If you try that with one of the new interconnected systems, the moment you disable the noisy one all of his buddies start mouthing off, too.

[41magsnub]

The new interconnected systems are the worst.  At least with the old ones you can just yank the dead battery, or take the whole unit off the wall and stick it in the drawer until morning.  If you try that with one of the new interconnected systems, the moment you disable the noisy one all of his buddies start mouthing off, too.

yep...

[Uncle Bubba]

Mine are old school.  All battery.  New Year's celebration is replacing the batteries.

Party animal.

[Uncle Bubba]

Chirp!
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Chirp!
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Chirp!
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BANG!!!

Problem solved!

I did that once when squirrels got into the attic crawlspace. It was Winter and I worked nights. The squirrels got in though an air vent, right above my bedroom, trying to stay warm. I'd made marks on the walls and ceiling from banging on it with a broomstick to drive them off, and ultimately they ignored the noise because they knew it wasn't going to hurt them.

One day I'd had enough of 'em partying while I was trying to sleep, shucked my Granddaddy's .22 Kit Gun out of its holster and fired a shot at the noise. Thought I'd got one but it just scared them into being quiet for a few minutes. They started up again and my second shot must've drilled one because I had no more noisy squirrels the rest of the Winter. I guess his rotting carcass warned the rest off. Lots of big ol' hossflies came out of the crawlspace when the weather warmed up.

[Azrael256]

We don't have any smoke detectors in the apartment that I know of.  We do have sprinklers, though, and this little round thing that emits a piercing tone to warn people that I'm cooking.  I can't figure out how it knows.

We also have an Alarm Pug.  In addition to barking to notify us that there's a thunderstorm outside, she makes it known to any visiting deliveryman that he should put the pizza down and back away slowly.

She also detects fires.  I had some sausages I had made under the broiler, and one spurted at the element.  I just tapped the door shut and it went out.  No biggie.  Except that The Pug saw the fireball and kinda freaked, and the cooking alarm went off.  Now she goes a little nutzo when I turn on the oven.

She goes off at 0300 pretty frequently.

[Regolith]

We don't have any smoke detectors in the apartment that I know of.  

Odd.  It's code to have fire detectors in apartments in pretty much every state that I know of.  Maybe the sprinklers double as fire alarms.

I also live in an apartment, and the smoke alarm is checked once or twice a year by management to make sure its working.  It also as one of those 10 year batteries in it.  Haven't had a low battery warning yet.

I also helped my parents replace one in their house last year.  The old one was a 1980's model that was hard wired into the A/C and had the most godawful annoying buzzer I'd ever heard (it was effective, though).  Apparently, it finally had it and just started going off randomly.  We replaced it with another hard wired unit, though it has a battery backup.  It also detects CO, which is something that the previous one lacked.  Probably a good thing, considering the downstairs fireplace can get a bit smokey at times (though it doesn't have a flue).

[RevDisk]

Odd.  It's code to have fire detectors in apartments in pretty much every state that I know of.  Maybe the sprinklers double as fire alarms.

I'm guessing you missed the part about "little round thing that emits a piercing tone to warn people that I'm cooking".

 

[bmitchell]

We too have a cooking alarm but the apartment was not furnished with such- my roommate brought it when he moved in.
We keep it in the upstairs closet next to the gunpowder instead of its old location right above my wok.

Ben

[jackdanson]

It's amazing how some people take FOREVER to change them.  I've gone to peoples houses where they were chirping and asked "how long it been doing that".. "uhhhh a few weeks I think"..  ARGGHh!!  It takes 30 seconds to switch it!  Mine are run by the house power with batteries as backup, I can't even remember the last time they ran out.

[41magsnub]

Mine started the chirping AGAIN this morning.  I just went to work and would deal with it when I got home.  Found I had inadvertently shuffled one of the old batteries into a different detector the day before and threw out a new battery.  Luckily I used a different brand of battery so it was obvious when I opened up the last of 8 detectors...

Not that anybody who could deal with it reads this..  please for the love of god, in the future make the danged things just beep the detector that currently has a dead battery ONLY or make the light go red on that one or something.

[Uncle Bubba]

Not that anybody who could deal with it reads this..  please for the love of god, in the future make the danged things just beep the detector that currently has a dead battery ONLY or make the light go red on that one or something.

Won't happen. It'd be too much like right.

[AZRedhawk44]

Motherfracker!

Another one last night.  Guess when?

chirp!
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chirp!
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chirp!
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chirp!
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chirp!
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3AM.

[CNYCacher]

First-alert makes a smoke alarm with a non-user-serviceable battery built-in that lasts 10 years.  After 10 years you are expected to throw the unit out and replace.  The unit activates when it is first attached to its mounting plate and can only be permanently deactivated.  I've seen them at Wal-Mart and Home Depot for $20-$25.  Bought one for each of my apartments.

[CNYCacher]

These are NOT the ones I was talking about, but in case you are looking for new ones that talk to you instead of chirp:

http://www.woot.com  posted 5 mins ago.

[HankB]

I put smoke detectors in my previous house (all battery operated) but by code, my new house had six of them hard-wired in.

Silly me, I figured since they were hard-wired, they didn't NEED batteries . . . and since the manuals weren't included in the packet of stuff the builder gave me, I never gave it another thought.

Eighteen months after I moved in, without any preliminary chirping - all six alarms sounded.

At 2:30 AM.

At first, half asleep, I thought it might be the burglar alarm . . . but I'm happy to say my first thought was "DON'T SHOOT A FAMILY MEMBER!!!"

Then the alarms stopped . . . only to start again after 10 minutes. So there I am, running around the house looking for a fire, trying to smell smoke, even checking the attached garage and going up to the attic to make sure nothing was smoldering up there.

After a couple of on-and-off cycles, I used a stepladder to reach the detectors . . . and found that they indeed, did have batteries.

I change the batteries every year now around Mother's Day, even though a voltmeter still indicates they're OK. And I replaced all of them a couple of years ago - they only last about 10 years, and when one goes bad, all six alarms go off at (you guessed it) 2:30 AM.

[Jim147]

Several years ago when I lived in an apartment. I had units that screwed into light sockets. I couldn't get the complex to change it out so I put it in the freezer. It finally got cold enough to stop chirping.

jim

[Scout26]

Several years ago when I lived in an apartment. I had units that screwed into light sockets. I couldn't get the complex to change it out so I put it in the freezer. It finally got cold enough to stop chirping.

jim

"Sir, you have my deepest apology, may I inquire as to what the chicken did to offend you ??"

[Regolith]

"Sir, you have my deepest apology, may I inquire as to what the chicken did to offend you ??"

 


(I love that joke...)