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Off topic to the discussion, but you hit on something that struck a nerve with me so I'm going to go with it . . . Oh good God, this happens to me every time o
by mdip 9y ago
Off topic to the discussion, but you hit on something that struck a nerve with me so I'm going to go with it . . .
Oh good God, this happens to me every time one of my smoke alarm batteries starts to go. I have 6 smoke detectors and an older home where they're not all wired/battery back-up but rather all battery powered.
The "chirp at 90 second interval" thing is the worst design in the universe and it bites me every time. If I didn't know any better -- since there is no clock device and these things are not networked in any way -- I'd swear they are also programmed to only start chirping between the hours of 2:00 AM and 4:00 AM. I've lived here 10 years. I have never had one of these fail in the morning, middle of the day or afternoon; only in the middle of the night. Hunting down the one of the six devices that is failing with its way-too-infrequent chirp that's so high-pitched, only a dog could figure out where it's coming from, is made extra fun when you're in the fantastic mood that being awoken from a pleasant dream in the middle of the night and have the joy of hunting it down in your boxers in a cold house.
How much more complicated would it have been to also include a visual indicator. The things have an LED on them that continues to blink as the battery dies. Why not also have it either stop blinking (to conserve battery) or blink faster -- anything to make it easier to identify which of the infernal, identical, devices is in need of a 9-volt.
Thankfully, they're due for replacement this year. Now I have to research which of the models that are available handle this circumstance with a little more intelligence (that don't cost a hundred bucks a pop). This is such an easy-to-solve problem -- I don't want a "smart smoke detector", I want a $25 one that A) detects smoke and B) reports when it needs other attention in a way that is useful. Heck, I'd pay an extra $10 for the latter feature even knowing it would cost them no more than the "dumb chirp" method.
There was a very bad house fire a few miles from me about a year ago and the person who lived there died in their sleep while the fire raged. The rumor was that the home had a bunch of smoke detectors without batteries in it and it was spread through our neighborhood as a "cautionary tale". I'm willing to bet there's a story of being woken up in the middle of the night for a battery change chirp in there somewhere.
- amenghra 9y agoWhen the battery is weak, fire alarms have a tendency to chirp in the middle of the night because lowered temperature affects the battery negatively.
- lostlogin 9y agoElsewhere in the thead I was moaning about this design, as multiple times it’s been in flat in our neighbours house and I’ve been checking ours. Can’t they just die quietly? If you aren’t checking them periodically anyway, you don’t know they they work.
- TeMPOraL 9y agoThey shouldn't, unless you want to risk dying with them :). That said, everyone should check their alarms at least once. You should be able to find appropriate "testers" to purchase with alarms. I use CO alarms at the place I live in (gas-heated water), and each of them I tested with what I affectionately call "carbon monoxide in a spray can".
- azernik 9y agoVaguely related - I once met a parrot that had learned to imitate that exact chirp. Maddening.
- DonHopkins 9y agoBack when Facebook used a "pop" sound when you get a message, I was able to imitate it well enough to make my friends in the same room check their computer for messages!
- rdc12 9y agoIn the late 90's early 00's, we had a pet cockatiel that could perfectly mimic the sound of dial-up modem dialing. He would also do the tunes to TV theme songs and a few regular TV ads.
- logfromblammo 9y agoI know a caique that learned how to imitate a ringing telephone. They had to replace all the phones in the house with a different model, because they were constantly looking at dark caller ID panels that didn't ever say "your parrot".
- Washuu 9y agoThe whole house hard wired smoke alarms are just SO FUN when they start to fail. The one that is failing immediately sets all of them off, but only once at 3AM every night for two weeks. So you get woken up by a brief ear piercing alarm from around the whole house and have no idea which one it is.
- dvtv75 9y agoI had a battery powered one that randomly triggered in the small hours. I'm very sensitive to loud high-pitched sounds, so I woke up with a fright that must have aged me 20 years. Tore that thing off the ceiling, nearly pulling a chunk out with it. Landlord was very unhappy with me doing that, but it was right over my bed. If I'd had a baseball bat or wooden sword, I'd have smashed that thing free like a piñata!
- isoprophlex 9y agoYour observation of the unhappy timing is probably related to the temperature. Cold batteries have lower voltage across their terminals, triggering the chirp. (You can troll people into thinking you have magical powers, rub the batteries of a just-failing calculator/scale/wristwatch in your hands and you'll get another ten minutes of use out of them)
- IndrekR 9y ago(Un)fortunately there are things that are written down in standards, like the LED blinking behavior, that the manufacturers can not change if they want to legally sell the devices. You can get a smoke alarm with 10 year battery life to reduce the likelihood of this happening. When all are purchased in one batch, you can then pretty much replace them all at once -- if first battery goes, next ones are soon to follow. I got some unconventional looking ones from Jalo Helsinki [1] for my house. They work well and look good. However, I know some people working at Jalo, so my opinion is biased. There are several other long battery-life smoke alarms on the market from different manufacturers to choose from. [1] https://www.jalohelsinki.com/product-category/smoke-alarms-10-year-batteries/ https://www.jalohelsinki.com/product-category/smoke-alarms-1...
- kalleboo 9y agoYou could also just buy the Lithium 9V batteries instead of Alkaline and put in your regular smoke detector - same result https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01684J7P0 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01684J7P0
- IndrekR 9y agoIf it runs on a standard 9V battery, then a very good option! Newer and smarter smoke detector chips are designed for 3V lithium-manganese dioxide batteries.
- wbl 9y agoCan you seriously not add a "Change Battery" LED next to it?
- IndrekR 9y agoIn theory, you can. However, the standards also mandate that the "annoying" function has to work at least few months after the battery is low. Adding an extra LED there will consume too much power.