[autumnspring]

We have builder installed First Alert smoke detectors. They are four years old and I had just replaced the batteries two months ago with Duracell alkaline batteries. Yes, we do replace them every year.

In only two months one unit was sending out chirps in groups of three so I knew it was screaming for batteries. I put in another battery from the same pack of ten that I had bought only two months ago and it was still chirping for new batteries. Annoyed, I removed the battery planing on dealing with it the next day Now it was chirping once every few minutes.

The lesson, the solution, taking the battery out does not shut the ........thing up. They are hardwired. The battery is a backup. You need to push the test button and hold it down to reset it. Interesting, if you look it up on the internet it says you need to shut off the circuit breaker. I did not need to do that.