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“The "chirp" will only be caused by issues surrounding the battery or miss-wiring. However, a homeowner may confuse the chirp with an intermittent alarm. Try and get the homeowner to be specific as to what they are hearing. A “chirp” will have a higher pitched tone and sound in equal intervals about once every minute. An intermittent alarm will be random, sound usually for several seconds and have a lower pitched tone.”
Can you verify?
Yes, it's definitely a "chirp" at regular intervals of one minute. Sounds just like the "low battery" chirp... one short, sharp "chirp" at about 60 second intervals. Thanks for the idea.
I hate the smoke/fire/CO2 alarms. Local codes require one in every bedroom and in common areas. But interestingly, they only chirp at night. They prefer to chirp at around 3 AM. Never at 3 PM.
All new batteries. All wiring checked. Only 4 years old.
They'll chirp for a while and then nothing. So I feel secure and safe. And then the next night they will blare out a single alarm screech.
I'm thinking of disabling the entire flock of those chirps. Permanently!
I wonder if disconnecting one of the two lines carrying current would have any effect on this situation? It shouldn't take me long to find out. I think I'll give that a try.
OMG, I found the problem and I'm too embarrassed to admit it.
I can't believe it, but it's true... thankfully. The problem wasn't with my smoke detector system after all. It was with a little battery operated water detection device that I had sitting on the floor in a closet about 3 feet (horizontally) from where the smoke detector is located.
That closet is used as a kind of utility/storage closet and has the electric water tank in there among other things. Although the tank is only about 4 years old, I decided that if it ever started to leak, I would want to know about it ASAP instead of waiting until damage had been done. Therefore, I sat this little water/moisture detector alarm device on the carpeted floor beside the water tank. It's been several years since I put that moisture detector in there and the 9V battery in there was going bad, so it started beeping just like a smoke detector does.
WOW! I've been wracking my brain and studying diagrams of hardwired smoke detector systems for 2 days trying to figure out what's wrong with my smoke detector system, and it turns out that it wasn't the smoke detector system after all. What a dunce I am!
Yes, it's definitely a "chirp" at regular intervals of one minute. Sounds just like the "low battery" chirp... one short, sharp "chirp" at about 60 second intervals. Thanks for the idea.
I chased an unexplained chirp for several hours once before we figured out the freezer door wasn't closed all the way.
Also had a whirlygig vent thingy in the roof that would squeak periodically.
I hate the smoke/fire/CO2 alarms. Local codes require one in every bedroom and in common areas. But interestingly, they only chirp at night. They prefer to chirp at around 3 AM. Never at 3 PM.
All new batteries. All wiring checked. Only 4 years old.
They'll chirp for a while and then nothing. So I feel secure and safe. And then the next night they will blare out a single alarm screech.
I'm thinking of disabling the entire flock of those chirps. Permanently!
Exactly!!! Can't recall a smoke or CO detector EVER deciding its time was up during waking hours. Must be a conspiracy. They deliberately plan their fails when it is least convenient: bedtime or the wee small hours. When you're tired and want nothing but sleep.
Once the chirp wakes you up you can either lie there in your comfy bed, pull the covers over your head and try to ignore it, or:
roust yourself,
get the ladder (which for me usually means bundling up for my 12F trip down a snowy icy path to a detached garage or shed),
rummage through box or drawer for a charged battery,
climb the ladder,
balance against the wall,
wrestle with that tiny wall wiring connector without damaging it,
and change the battery.
then try to get back to sleep again.
Yes, the detector itself can have an end-of-life chirp too but the pattern may be different. That one's caught me a few times. To decipher which chirp code is happening you have to peer at the tiny print on the back of the detector. For me that means finding my glasses. So sorry, I don't commit the chirp patterns of any detector to working memory.
I detest hardwired/battery backup detectors with a passion. Depending on how inaccessible the hardwired ones are in the house, I unplug them (sacrilege I know) and re-hang the detector on the wall in an easier high spot by a simple finish nail and run them off the battery. Swapping them out is so much simpler. If/when I put that house on the market I plug the original or new detectors into the wiring again to cover up past sins. If you're one of those obnoxiously proactive people who changes all the batteries at New Year (or whenever pundits say you should) whether they need it or not, slap yourself on the back. I'm not one of those people.
This 5 year old house has three bedrooms. Detector overkill...they put them everywhere. All but the one in my bedroom have been disabled and that one runs directly off its battery. The combo CO/smoke/fire hardwired detector has been exchanged for a simple plug in type. Kind of ironic. The industry makes these things to save lives, but they're also hard to live with. So, people destroy or disable them. Which costs lives...
OK, back to our regularly scheduled program...rant over.
Last edited by Parnassia; 02-08-2022 at 04:11 PM..
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