Smoke Alarm Batteries

arclight

arclight

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Saturday morning at 0300 ............ the dreaded bleep - bleep - bleep every few minutes wakened me. Another smoke alarm battery had bit the dust.

I cannot recall any of my smoke alarms giving a low battery warning during the day. It always seems to be in the middle of the night.

Anyone else noticed that ?
 
Yup - guaranteed to be at some ungodly hour of the morning

Like my neighbours blasted bathroom extractor - frequently wakes me at 3am !!
 
Mine pips at regular intervals when the battery is getting low, changed one last week at the civil time of 19.00hrs
 
wow just checked mine today and tested fine but must be 5 yars old.
how long is it expected to last?
 
Most of the ones we fit now are 10 year battery life.
 
Or if housing association then required to be on mains ring
 
I’m amazed when we do an annual check just how many people nick the batteries out of the old type to put in their remotes...
 
gerry s said:
I’m amazed when we do an annual check just how many people nick the batteries out of the old type to put in their remotes...
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I've attended more than one fatal house fire with the batteries removed, some people just can't be helped i'm afraid. The new alarms with non removable batteries are much better, plus they don't set off as many false alarms as the earlier models. For the money they are probably the biggest saver of life in the UK, whist obviously they won't prevent a fire they do provide that early warning to either deal with it in its early stages, or better still, get out!
 
Mark twiglet said:
Or if housing association then required to be on mains ring
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We converted our attic earlier this year and I had to get hardwired alarms in to keep the council happy. Wouldn't mind all my alarms being hardwired as we have lots of the battery ones and yep the low battery alarm goes off at the worst times.
 
Even the mains ones have batteries in, presumably in case the mains goes off. I found this out in my old place in the middle of the night too :rolleyes:
 
boogie man said:
Even the mains ones have batteries in, presumably in case the mains goes off. I found this out in my old place in the middle of the night too :rolleyes:
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Battery back up instead of battery powered!

Trouble is a lot of people who are HA tenants consider 2 cans of special brew to be more important than a PP3 9 volt battery in their smoke alarm!

I grew up in a council property where money was tight but times have changed obviously
 
I’ve just replaced the smoke/co2 alarms in our new house with Nest. Self Checks that everything is working daily and alerts you on your phone if batteries are going flat.

Whilst all the batteries in the old ones were all good, two of the alarms had manufacture dates of 1981. From what I understand the actual detection devices expire after around 10 years anyway and the alarm should be replaced.
Certainly the nest ones only have a 10 year life.
 
ecoleman said:
I’ve just replaced the smoke/co2 alarms in our new house with Nest. Self Checks that everything is working daily and alerts you on your phone if batteries are going flat.

Whilst all the batteries in the old ones were all good, two of the alarms had manufacture dates of 1981. From what I understand the actual detection devices expire after around 10 years anyway and the alarm should be replaced.
Certainly the nest ones only have a 10 year life.
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Good to see someone fitting CO (Not CO2 as stated above, easy mistake, Carbon monoxide as opposed to dioxide) alarms as well as smoke. CO has killed many people over the years and the risk should not be underestimated. I'd never live in a property without one fitted.
 
Yeah the sensors get blocked up with crap and dust so become less effective at detecting ! It’s like a furry extractor fan not sucking the steam well enough
 
When I moved into my current house I had the beeping from the smoke alarm. Replaced batteries but it still beeped, removed the batteries and we still heard the beeping. Turned out when the previous owners lowered the ceiling in the hallway the lazy t***s never took the old alarm down, took 3 months for the old batteries to die completely. Too much hassle to remove and replace ceiling.
 
frank said:
When I moved into my current house I had the beeping from the smoke alarm. Replaced batteries but it still beeped, removed the batteries and we still heard the beeping. Turned out when the previous owners lowered the ceiling in the hallway the lazy t***s never took the old alarm down, took 3 months for the old batteries to die completely. Too much hassle to remove and replace ceiling.
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Bloody hell thats funny
 
I can laugh now but it was a nightmare at the time, thought the house was haunted
 
rick448 said:
Good to see someone fitting CO (Not CO2 as stated above, easy mistake, Carbon monoxide as opposed to dioxide) alarms as well as smoke. CO has killed many people over the years and the risk should not be underestimated. I'd never live in a property without one fitted.
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I have three. For all they cost why anyone would go unprotected is beyond belief.
 
neil_g said:
could be temperature related. cooler at night, batteries fade more in cooler temps.

maybe..
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Yes, sounds feasible. Batt could have been on the verge of being unable to produce the required minimum power and a temp drop tipped the balance.

Certainly cannot ignore it at that time in the morning. Do something about it or don't sleep.
 
neil_g said:
could be temperature related. cooler at night, batteries fade more in cooler temps.

maybe..
Click to expand...
Maybe, also probably more noticeable in the middle of the night when there are no other noises around.
 
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