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Can’t change the batteries in these … pure torture at end of life.
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View Reddit by IAmHappyPants – View Source
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Can’t change the batteries in these … pure torture at end of life.
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View Reddit by IAmHappyPants – View Source
These are the one use Smoke Detectors. No ability to change the batteries their end of life is absolute chaos.
Fun fact. These detectors have a life of around 10 years. Around that time, they’ll start going off randomly, more likely in the wee hours of the morning. You got to replace them.
Time to buy new ones.
If you smash it, you must keep smashing until you find the wires connecting the speaker.
One smash, and they go off.
They don’t stop until you excise the speaker.
I had a smoke detector go bad on me one time. I put it out in the detached garage to deal with in the morning. Fucker was so loud I could still hear it and it kept me up. So I went out to the garage, smashed it with a hammer repeatedly until all that was left were small fragments of plastic. I don’t know when it stopped beeping. Couldve been hours before I was done beating the shit out of the damn thing. All I know is silence was achieved and when I stepped outside the garage the sun was rising.
These usually have an end-of-life kill switch somewhere. It might be under that plastic square tab. The idea is that you can flip the switch to kill the smoke detector when it runs out of battery but the switch cannot be reversed.
I had one of these stupid disposable detectors go bad on me in the middle of the night. Decided to take it down and use the kill switch on the back of the device cause it kept going off and was out of date. It’s the switch that the manufacturer warns you will make the device inoperable and can’t be reversed.
Went back to sleep so I could get a replacement the next morning.
Motherfucker went off even though I flipped the switch. Took the fucker apart and just disconnected the battery and any wire I could find.
Kill switch my ass.
Some companies will actually replace them depending on the model free of charge. Check with the maker first
HaHa, my son went on a two week vacation and his shared wall neighbors call us a few days in asking we could, “for the love of God” check the smoke detector batteries. No worries, went up, found what we thought was the culprit, hardwired with battery backup, meaning they all chirped. Three storys of random chirping.
After about an hour of detective work found the one that was bad, pulled it out of the system then sat back in our glory with an adult beverage.
WWAIT, WHAT WSS THAT!!! Chirping again??? But it was a different tone…
He also had a detector for travel in a spare suitcase buried in a closet (another hour or so creeping and waiting). That particular detector met an unfortunate fate …..
I recently encountered one of these in my home – had never experienced before. Was totally perplexed and then enraged, completely unable to defeat it. Rushing in the morning, slight aggro already – no time for a brain puzzle – eventually had to hit it multiple with a hammer and yank the wires apart. Thought I must be crazy, missing something obvious, etc. – didn’t think there was any way such a design would have made it to market…
Can’t imagine facing off with one of these for the first time in the middle of the night – ayyy!!!
Does this also check for carbon monoxide? I had one a while ago that kept going off really randomly. It turned out my heater was bad and almost killed me and my family.
The ones with the permanent batteries have a little tab in the back to disable them when they reach end-of-life.
You’re supposed to use that.
New ones can’t have batteries changed at all, they supposedly last 10 years buuuuut yeah, can’t confirm if they actually last that long…
I used to joke about smoke detectors should come with a broom included so you can knock them off the ceiling and sweep up the pieces.
Is… is that carpet? Rock? Are you keeping fires out of a damp cave?
But you literally disconnected it from its power….There’s a key on the back (or on the mount) to disable it permanently and cut the internal power…
The Alarm that cried Fire
They have americium-241 in them, don’t be an idiot and try to break them open.
The last apartment I lived in had those damn fire alarms. One day they went around, gathered quite a few of them up to replace them with a different model… then they threw those ones in the dumpster right outside my unit. It was next to my bedroom window. So one night I finally lost it, dug them up, and hid them around their office windows.
Within a couple of days they had all vanished. I guess they didn’t like the orchestra of beeping any more than I did.
Mines got 2 years left on expiry, and is wired into the mains.
Doesnt stop it from randomly chirping
Visit or call your local fire marshall. Often they will give you smoke detectors for free! I just got some from our local marshall.
Also, the 10 year battery life does not mean it can run on the battery for ten years. It usually means the viability of the Back-Up battery is 10 years. Those are meant to be hard wired. If you read the fine print on those “10 year battery life” you will find the asterix explaining this.
Any fully battery operated ones will have an easily replaceable 9 volt which should typically be replaced every 6 months.
Hope this helps!
Fun fact, smoke detectors have a lifetime. After 5-10 years, you should be getting new ones regardless.
i once moved into a place that had a smoke detector with a low battery I couldn’t find.
it was intermittent, and it would stop when i searched for it.
for weeks. it drove me mad! 4am beep beep beep, go looking for it and it stopped. taking a morning dump, beep beep beep. get home, kiss the mrs, beep beep beep.
i was losing my marbles. i couldnt relax waiting for the beep. it was torture!
eventually i found it. i was getting out of the shower, and i dont know why but this time i spotted it. it was in the light fitting on the stairs, a white disc between the fitting and the bulb.
IN.
THE.
LIGHT.
FITTING.
it had an internal battery that would charge when the light was on. that light was almost never on. it would beep, i would turn the lights on to look for it, and after a few minutes it would charge a bit and stop beeping.
i took it outside, stood it on a brick and giggled like an idiot as i found a hammer and smashed it to bits.
BANG!
BANG!
beep
Ahahahahaha!
BANG!
BANG!
boop
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
Hahahahahaha!
bep
Grrrrrrr…
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
silence…..
heeheeheehee
beep
BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG!
i have never felt such a pleasurable psychological release. having just viciously beat a smoke detector to death with a lump hammer in front of the neighbours whilst wearing nothing more than a towel, i could finally relax
i slept like a baby that night.
I’ve attacked all of mine
Seriously… why can’t smoke detectors just have a simple “stop beeping” button? Why is there no way to tell it “Hey, there’s no fire. I’m just cooking. Shut up for the next 10 mins before starting to detect again.”
Like, I know… it’s a fire detector and they don’t want people to be able to turn them off… which is why I’m saying to make it a temporary 5 or 10 min “shut the hell up” button, before it automatically turns back on again.
Because the only alternative is to break the fucking thing. Which I had to do to mine because it wouldn’t shut the hell up no matter what I did to it… there is a button on it… but it doesn’t seem to fucking do anything. Now I have no smoke detector because I had to break it just to get it to shut the fuck up. And I don’t even want to get another one… I don’t care if I’m breaking laws… I’d rather risk a fire than have to fucking deal with another fucking smoke detector that I can’t get to shut the fuck up when there’s no fucking fire.
Like yeah… people muting their smoke detectors for a short period of time MIGHT be dangerous, as a fire MIGHT coincidentally happen during that time… but you know what’s worse? Not having a smoke detector at all because you had to break it to get it to shut up.
So smoke detector industry! If anybody sees this who works in it… stop this. Stop forcing an annoyance upon us. This is not a rare occurrence. I’ve had smoke detectors go off countless times during my life, and not once has it ever been because of an actual fire. The only way to ever get them to shut up has been to wait it out, wave a cloth or something at it to try to get clean air in it… or to fucking break it.
JUST. MAKE. A. SIMPLE. FUCKING. MUTE. BUTTON!
I just like hiding them at friends houses
……..^chirp
Just had one die a few months ago. I started ripping the thing apart to kill it, but then it started yelling at me about carbon monoxide and I didn’t want to be dumb and kill my whole family, so I had to call the fire department to come check with their meter. They got a kick out of how mangled it was from me trying to shut it up.
When I bought my house, I did not realize my smoke detectors were hard-wired into the ceiling.
Any time we lose power for more than 0.5 seconds, the damn things chirp for *hours*
Fire inspector here: I can confirm what most others are saying. They have a shelf life of about 10 years as the sensors inside are eventually not accurate enough and lose calibration. Replacing the entire unit is the whole point. You would be shocked at how many 20-30 year old detectors I see in peoples houses and they are ok with it even though they likely won’t work.
There is a kill switch on the backside if you use your eyeballs. Smashing it is smooth brain, barbarian status.
If it is making noise and activating at random intervals, it is possible that it is an “ionization” smoke detector which are highly sensitive to ions in the air which may come from anything like steam from a hot shower, a toaster, regular cooking, etc. just relocate it to a place that’s further from these appliances.
Literally don’t understand why people suffer these things. Folks, if your alarm starts to beep it means it’s time to go to the hardware store and buy a new one. Disconnect and unplug the old one, plug in and reconnect the new one, voila!
You can change batteries in anything once you find out that plastic welding is a thing.
Just don’t be like my coworker and live with it beeping… every meeting Im thinking “how does someone live that way”
So much more plastic to the landfills with hidden batteries in them lol. Batteries like that actually START fires in recycling plants. Oh the irony is strong.
Ceiling birds