Smoke detectors save lives, there is no doubt about that, but before they save your life they might just make you crazy! If you are a Facebook friend you may have seen this photo of Bailie two weeks ago. We were all awakened in the middle of the night when one of the detectors went off for no reason. The same one did it again two nights later, so Mom ripped it out of the ceiling and took out the battery.
Our number one question is, “Why do they only go off in the middle of the night?” One would think if we can put people into space, we could invent a detector that flashes a big light or something before it goes off when there is no fire. Tuesday night we went to bed, were sound asleep, and another one went nuts on us at three am. We have four within ten feet of each other so it is hard to determine which one is being bad. Mom bolted out of bed, grabbed the ladder and immediately ripped two more out of the ceiling. We have nine total, and by morning, they were all ripped out and in a pile.
Mom said ours were too old and we needed new ones so she headed to the store and came back with all new ones. Luckily I can use power tools and could help put up the new ones. Work is super busy right now which means Mom was not pleased wasting time on these naughty smoke detectors. She skipped the electrical ones and went for this ten year battery deal. I figure I’ll be almost fourteen when they lose their minds, and maybe even hard of hearing. This is good for me.
I got right to work and fired up my battery powered screwdriver power tool. Being short, I needed a big ladder, and balancing was not easy, but I got the job done. The entire family is grateful Mom bought new ones and they are all installed.
In case you don’t know, ten years is the maximum lifespan for smoke detectors. Ours were way over, so it’s no wonder they went nuts on us! Hopefully we can sleep through the night again because being jolted out of bed by the beeping is no fun, with the exception of Olivia who looks, rolls over, and goes back to sleep. The new detectors look nice and white, and we hope they keep us safe for the next decade. We are thankful to have them if they behave nicely!
My GBGV Life is joining Brian’s Home Blog in the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop!
I’m impressed that you could install the new ones. I would have needed to call someone. Glad you are all safe and can sleep through the night again.
Mom didn’t know who to call, and then it would probably take days to get someone, so we did it on our own. The first one took forever, but then it got easier.
Our fire department offered in-home checks, OK, t’was done. Insisted on the addition of two, and said where they were to go, OK. One is now way way way too close to the kitchen, wants to beep at Boiling Water. Now it’s been ripped out! …. won’t let the fire department back in unless there’s a fire …
They may be over the top on these things. We have so many upstairs in a small space, but it is code, so we need to keep them there.
We agree with you, a flashing light when there is no fire would be great. Yep, they do go off in the middle of the night and they’re quite loud and scary. Thanks for joining our Thankful Thursday Blog Hop!
Once they wake us, no one can really get back to sleep, which is so irritating.
oh your mama had the best idea ever… 10 years without screaming noises at night… why this happens always at night, that the batteries are empty?
We don’t know why it is always at night, but it sure ruins the rest of the night and the whole day because we are so tired.
How can Olivia sleep through that racket? I would have been talking back to the noise. I am glad you girls are handy and could get the job done! Girl Power! XOXO, Sparkle
Olivia is a different animal! She really hears a loud noise, thinks for a second and goes back to sleep. No one else can do that around here.
Good job, Madison and Bailie ! I see you, Madison are the angel and crew foreman. Why did Olivia sleep through? That’s easy, she knew she could trust her big sisters to take care of things!
Olivia is a different animal sometimes. I guess she doesn’t care about noise, but we know she can hear, so that is good.
That’s something that can make mom crazy too! It can be so hard to find which one is making the noise! Good work getting such an important project accomplished!!
My mom was very grouchy when it happened and not being able to find the bad one only added to the issue. Hopefully we will have ten quiet years ahead.
Nothing worse than the sound of a smoke detector, especially in the middle of the night, poor you! This is a good reminder for me, I believe ours are getting pretty old too – time to get some new ones.
Good idea before they keep you up at night. It is not fun!
We have electrical ones here and we’ve never heard them go off, thank doG! You mom is lucky to have such knowledgeable girls to install the new ones!
We had electric/battery combo, but after ten years even electrical ones can start to malfunction. Their lifespan is only ten years most of the time.
We used to do this ourselves and now we have our alarm company do this. They replaced all the detectors and they came out and changed the battery (only one) about a month ago. They are notified when the battery gets low and they come out and change it. They say we will never have that problem again. I’m thankful for that. So far so good.
Have a woof woof Thankful Thursday. My best to your wonderful mom. ♥
Now that is really nice! Hopefully ours will be quiet for the next ten years. It is terrible when they go off randomly, and then in the night too!
It’s one of those “can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em” deals, right? It looks like your Mom at least bought some better ones this time, we hope they work as they say. I can’t even remember where we’re at with ours now, or if we got the longer lasting ones! I know we had tried switching to a different type because the one near our kitchen got set off by everything; but I think that one is gone now too because it was still causing issues. Ugh….I don’t think any of our dogs have ever been able to sleep through one beeping. Good for Olivia!
Olivia can be weird! These will hopefully work for ten years. The other ones were hard wired plus a battery, but they wore out. I guess it happens always after ten years or more.
We had that happen here a couple of years ago – it was awful. Flashing lights would not me good for our household because our mom would be worried that the lights could trigger Zachary’s seizures.
That would be bad, but something to signal humans besides the beeping and alarm that shock one to death out of a deep sleep would be nice.
They do always beep in the middle of the night, don’t they?? We are so glad your Mom had you to help her replace them!
Paws crossed for ten beep free years!
Mom is always setting ours off, so we are glad we only have ONE. Mom is a rather bad cook and tends to forget things.
Gramma sets hers off too in the kitchen a lot.
So so true!
You’re right, there is nothing more maddening than a fire alarm on the fritz. We had one go out years ago, your post reminds me I should replace it with something that actually works (even though there’s another one is close proximity so we’re still safe).
Mom figures it is worth the trouble to replace all of ours since they may save a life one day. Hopefully we never need them for that, but the amount of time and money to replace them is nothing compared to the safety they might provide.
Grandma and Grandpa have a smoke detector that goes off if you burn something in the kitchen, and it sends the doorbell sound booster crazy so it starts ringing, so you have the alarms going and the doorbell booster sounding, it’s insane, but at least it’s while people are up and cooking. (A doorbell booster is not the right name for it, it rings when the doorbell goes off, nice and loud, so older people with hearing loss can hear the bell.)
Hope your new detectors do a great job, and thanks for the reminder, ours are probably due for replacement also.
Our Gramma’s smoke detector goes off when she is cooking too, a lot and she gets so mad. They are a good thing, but they can drive people insane!
Ugh! That will drive a person crazy. When we moved into our new house, one of the back-up batteries went our in one of the smoke detectors and would only beep every few minutes. We had to go around and wait for it to beep so we could find out which one it was. It made us crazy.
That is how ours started to tell us they were dying but at 2 or 3 am. Mom was very crabby about it!