Why is it ALWAYS in the middle of the night?

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  #1  
Old 02-20-2022, 08:18 AM
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Default Why is it ALWAYS in the middle of the night?

Early last week, the Boss called me to inform me that one of the smoke alarms had started beeping around 4:00am... She wasn't happy...

Via FaceTime, I was able to help her determine which one it was (with a significant amount of exasperation and muttering under my breath...), and replace it...

I told her that when I came down at the end of the week, I would replace the rest of them, since this was the 2nd one to go (the last being in December)...

I arrived Friday evening, had a wonderful dinner, relaxed and had a good night sleep...

Saturday came, and we went to an exercise class, had brunch, took the dog for a long walk (making sure she pooped IN OUR YARD before we set out) and then dinner at a friend's house... All in all a very nice day...

Soooo... at 3:05am, CHIRP!, CHIPR!, CHIRP!... It's the one in the hallway between our bedroom and the laundry room...

Go to the garage, get the ladder, batteries and proceed to change THAT one...

So much for a good night's sleep...

This morning, I changed all of the remaining detectors... I'm done for at least another year...

So here's the question... How do they always know to go off in the middle of the night?
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Old 02-20-2022, 08:36 AM
sawtooth sawtooth is offline
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Just had this happen to us (3:00am), replaced all six as couldn’t determine which was chirping. We did discover that flipping the breaker worked quickly so could deal with it better in the daylight hours🤪
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Old 02-20-2022, 09:14 AM
Papa_lecki Papa_lecki is offline
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JM - i got tired of that sort of thing. I went to Lowes and got the detectors with a 10 year battery, replaced all smoke detectors (my house is about 14 years old, so figured it was smart to replace them anyway). I put a label on them with the install date. Don’t have to worry about 3AM chirping anymore.
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Old 02-20-2022, 10:25 AM
CoachKandSportsguy CoachKandSportsguy is offline
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3AM is dark, smoke from the fire makes it dark. the fire alarm is easily confused. .
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Old 02-20-2022, 11:16 AM
Altavia Altavia is offline
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Temperature related. Lowest temperature at night equals lowest battery voltage.
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Old 02-20-2022, 01:14 PM
TedfromGA TedfromGA is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbie0723 View Post
Temperature related. Lowest temperature at night equals lowest battery voltage.
This is the correct answer.
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Old 02-20-2022, 02:46 PM
JGVillages JGVillages is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JMintzer View Post
Early last week, the Boss called me to inform me that one of the smoke alarms had started beeping around 4:00am... She wasn't happy...

Via FaceTime, I was able to help her determine which one it was (with a significant amount of exasperation and muttering under my breath...), and replace it...

I told her that when I came down at the end of the week, I would replace the rest of them, since this was the 2nd one to go (the last being in December)...

I arrived Friday evening, had a wonderful dinner, relaxed and had a good night sleep...

Saturday came, and we went to an exercise class, had brunch, took the dog for a long walk (making sure she pooped IN OUR YARD before we set out) and then dinner at a friend's house... All in all a very nice day...

Soooo... at 3:05am, CHIRP!, CHIPR!, CHIRP!... It's the one in the hallway between our bedroom and the laundry room...

Go to the garage, get the ladder, batteries and proceed to change THAT one...

So much for a good night's sleep...

This morning, I changed all of the remaining detectors... I'm done for at least another year...

So here's the question... How do they always know to go off in the middle of the night?
Manufactured in China so there they go off in the day.
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Old 02-20-2022, 02:50 PM
Stu from NYC Stu from NYC is offline
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Guess we treat our smoke detectors better than some ours decided to go off at 7 am. Very considerate
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Old 02-20-2022, 08:25 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbie0723 View Post
Temperature related. Lowest temperature at night equals lowest battery voltage.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TedfromGA View Post
This is the correct answer.
Well, we have the thermostat set to the same temp all 24 hrs, so there's that...
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Old 02-20-2022, 08:26 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JGVillages View Post
Manufactured in China so there they go off in the day.
Now THIS is probably the correct answer!
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Old 02-21-2022, 06:20 AM
thevillages2013 thevillages2013 is offline
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Dogs tend to freak out when those darn things start chirping and God forbid the security alarm gets inadvertently set off
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Old 02-21-2022, 07:03 AM
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Originally Posted by thevillages2013 View Post
Dogs tend to freak out when those darn things start chirping and God forbid the security alarm gets inadvertently set off
Yup, my pup started shaking and refused to stay on her dog bed (at our feet) for the rest of the night. I had a 12 lb Schoodle permanently affixed to the crook of my legs for the rest of the night...
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Old 02-21-2022, 09:12 AM
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Why can't the warning be more constant? Several smoke alarms and when one dies you need to keep waiting to find which one is bad.
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Old 02-21-2022, 11:01 AM
dshoberg dshoberg is offline
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Replace all detectors after 8-10 years....3 chirps is a detector starting to die...says so on the back
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Old 02-21-2022, 11:30 AM
DonnaNi4os DonnaNi4os is offline
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Yes, they always seem to go off in the middle of the night. It is exactly why I make sure to change them twice a year. Since I started doing that I’ve had no more middle of the night chirps to wake me up. Doing it around the time we change the clocks makes it easy to remember. Incidentally, mine are interactive, meaning when you change one battery you must change them all or they will sound.
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