Have you ever noticed that your smoke detector's battery
 

Have you ever noticed that your smoke detector's battery
always runs out at 3:00 in the morning?

I have a pretty good size house with 9 smoke detectors.
Why is it that when the battery always runs out it's like 3:00 in the morning.

Step 1: Loud beep wakes you up from deep sleep.
Step 2: Put pillow over head and hope that it will somehow stop
beeping on its own.
Step 3: Dog now is barking after each beep.
Step 4: Get out of bed and try to figure out which smoke
detector is guilty of the disturbance.
Step 5: Go to cold garage, (in underware) and pull
ladder out. Remove and destroy all spiders living on ladder.
Step 6: Find a good 9 volt battery. If I can't find one in the
battery drawer, then rob one from my guitar tuner.
Step 7: Drag ladder in from garage and install battery.
Step 8: Leave ladder in house cause I cause I don't want to
deal with putting it back in the garage til morning.
Step 9: Go back to bed and lay there thinking that some one needs
to invent a smoke detector with a light sensor that will
only allow it to give low battery alerts during daylight hours.

I know these things save lifes but there has to be a better mouse trap. Just venting a little here.

You don't stub your toe on the way to get the ladder? :D

Wearing flip flops, but those damn spiders....yuk...that will wake you up.

every time you have to change the time on your clocks, change your smoke detector batteries. that's what i do anyway.

My temperature and smoke detectors are mains powered with a battery backup.

Don't have to worry about them beeping about needing changed so often.

Actually, we changed all the batteries this fall when we went back to standard timing. The problem is my wife thought she was doing good by buying all the batteries at the 99 cent store and saving money. Yep....you get what you pay for. Mmmmm...maybe I should let her do the next battery change in the middle of the night.

Have you ever noticed that the battery is now missing, since it got stuck into an effects pedal or tuner?

Gotcha.

Step 10- get either line voltage or low voltage smokes. Never have beeping unless on fire.

Actually, my system is powered by a low voltage main power supply. The house powered fire detecters here in California are still required to have back up batteries in case the main power goes out. If you use cheap crap batteries they still will go off will a low battery warning. In my case they all seem to go off in the middle of the night.

I have lived in many apartment buildings over the years and apparently am the only one that ever hears the once-a-minute, sickly chirping sound of a dying 9v.

I've even brought a battery and a ladder across the courtyard to a neighboring hallway to get some peace and quiet.

I feel ya', brother.

They fail at 3am because thats when the house is coldest, making the voltage drop below the triggering threshold.

Ok....makes sense. I never thought about it that way. All this time I thought that the Fire Gods were doing it just to piss me off. I like it when someone can put some science behind the reason that something happens.

No, no. Hardwired to the house detectors and power goes out around 9:30 pm. Chirp, chirp, death chirp... Ah, blessed silence.

2:13 am. BEEP BEEP BEEP as the system resets and there is no way to turn off the reset noise.

Wake up, freak out, realize power is back on and lay in bed for an hour or 2 returning from that adrenaline rush :)

My grandma,rest her soul,went nuts trying to find the cricket in her house ...

We'll find it grandma ... There ,got it ....

When I replace fire alarm batteries, I use a Sharpie to write the date on them. Helps me know their age IF I remember to check them.

I keep a box of all major types of alkaline batteries in the garage..I usually don't remember to change them annually so as least I know where the supply is.

That's funny!

The one that inevitably goes out is the one in the basement, two floors below my bedroom. Inevitably it freaks out my dog, who wakes me with her whimpering and shaking -- because it beeps once every three minutes. And yes, it inevitably happens at 3:00 a.m. And never after a gig, when I'm still awake; always on a "school night."

It knows...

-jb

My stupid smoke sniffers do NOT like ANY battery except Duracels...how the freak they KNOW if I put Energizers in??