Why is it that smoke detectors always seem to get low battery warnings in the middle of the night?

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They're programmed to do that. What good would it be if the test were to occur during the day when you are probably at work. Think about the old adage 'if a 🌲 falls in the forest, and nobody is around does it make any noise?'

Same principle operates on smoke detectors.
 
This brings back memories. couple years back when my Boxer/ pit dog was still alive, we had on of those talking smoke detectors. It happened a few times where the voice would announce " Low battery" in the middle of the night. This triggered the there's an intruder in the house, and "I'm gonna protect the family with my life" response from Rocky. He would raise such an racket , and look confused when there was nobody there.,,
 
In the "isn't rocket science" department, colder temperature reduces battery voltage.

In the "do the math" department, a new detector with integral 10 year battery costs less than ten 9 volt batteries.
 
In all the years I have owned a house and had to deal with detector batteries, I only remember *one* time where the thing was chirping when I came home from work. The rest, 2AM-3AM.

The worst time that happened, I actually had a 9V battery on-hand to replace the bad one, but IT was also bad. And the thing would keep chirping even after I took the battery out. I wound up taking the chirping detector out to the garage, and locking it in the trunk of the car to muffle the noise so I could get some sleep.
 
I use the lithium batteries so I don't have to change them as often. Now the state code requires 10 year battery smoke detectors so I'm slowly phasing out all the old battery ones although the hardwired ones still use regular batteries. And yes, the colder it is, the less power the batteries put out so more likely to happen at night. I change them out for tenants when they start to chirp. I can't believe some of them can put up with it for days/weeks and they don't even say anything, I just change them when I hear them.
 
Several years ago I tried some of those combo units with 10 year batteries. 3 units died in short order, all in the dead of the morning, and would not silence, so I had to slide the "switch of death". I went back to cheapo 9V ones. I should have looked into returning them, but at the same time, they were not the "proper" hardwired ones, so I decided to take it on the chin.

New house has a new set of hardwared units, save one room, which for some reason had a different vendor, which of course isn't compatible, so I still need to buy just one more unit.
 

“Why is it that smoke detectors always seem to get low battery warnings in the middle of the night?”​


Because that’s when you’re most likely to need that smoke detector to save your life.


ripcord said:
When ours goes off, it means dinner is ready.
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So, who uses the smoke detector as a cooking timer, you or your wife?
 
slo town said:
The subject line says it all, or so it seems in our house. At 3:30AM this morning I had to get a ladder to reach the smoke detector in our vaulted ceiling living room. And my ladder was outside, way outside, in our very large backyard because of a project I'm working on. So, I stormed outside in nothing more than slippers, sans a single fiber of clothing, to retrieve it. It's amusing now but it wasn't at the time.

I try to replace batteries yearly but I guess I forget. Necessary devices but it's annoying when they do this.

Scott
Click to expand...

Showing up anywhere with a video crew also set them off.
They can be silent for years prior.
 
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