What a night last night

[DavidB1126]

Well, yea like the title says.
The whole house (4 of us) got woken up at 3:30 (3:26 exactly) ish in the morning.
We fought there was a fire, but every one ran out of there rooms. We checked all floors all rooms and outside. Nothing. First I thought it was the house next door since there is no one living in it and they were doing some work on it earlier in the day.
Turned out we had a fire detector malfunction or low battery. And it was the one I'm my room, which I had this happen around 3 times before.

Apparently the ones in the second floor (my room) are all hard wired in, and these are the new ones we got installed around 3 years ago (10 year detectors I think?)

It was definitely malfunctioning as sometimes it would go off blinking red or green, or will turn off staying solid green.

Since they were hard wired in, once we unplugged it, the whole system in the house went off. Which we had to press the button on the malfunctioning one to stop the system. And then, I thought these ran on a 9v battery, but apparently they use a battery back up system with a battery in it. I guess it's like our phone batteries? Well we got the detector apart and disabled. And then we all didn't get back to bed til like 5. (These chirps are so loud and annoying. I like the fire alarms at school better.)

I always wonder why to they program it to malfunction in the middle of the night! We never had any day time ones. Always been in the middle of the night.

Since we couldn't get it to turn off for a while I kept saying throw a hammer at it.

Yep. That was my night.

 

[ahr43]

Glad you guys are o.k. and it was not the real deal. Put a "pass" check in the box for the monthly family fire drill.

 

[Xraycer]

I've had that happened on many occasions, and it seems to be mostly in the middle of the night My system is also hardwired and when one goes off, they all go off, so you have to find the "one". Which is a total pain in the arse when they're all blaring! However, my system allows me to disconnect the culprit, and once that's removed, the rest goes back to normal and stops blaring.
We have one particular one, because of its location, has a tendency to go off when we make something on the oven that requires high heat and tends to be smoky. Such as bacon.
Besides the alarms going off due to a depleting 9v back up battery, we've learn that insects can get inside these devices and trigger the alarm as well. One of the thing I do, beside checking the battery level, is to blow compressed air through the device. The one in my unfinished attic has the highest tendency to go off just because it's uninsulated. The back up battery depletes quicker due to the more extreme temperature. Nowadays, I'm pretty good about changing out all the back up batteries in the fall. At least half of the newer units also now has the built-in 10 year back up batteries. Knock on wood, it's been years, since the false alarms had been triggered.

 

[DavidB1126]

However, my system allows me to disconnect the culprit, and once that's removed, the rest goes back to normal and stops blaring.

Same case with ours.

I'll get another 3 pack of compressed air cans and keep one of them upstairs.

 

[Tunedfrog]

I just replaced all of mine a couple months ago I think. One was chirping and that drives me nuts.
Never been startled from one going off but ever hear a guitar fall from the hook next to your recliner when in a dead sleep?
It has a tendency to create a laundry problem.

 

[DavidB1126]

Never been startled from one going off but ever hear a guitar fall from the hook next to your recliner when in a dead sleep

Oooo I felt that. Feels like it hurt.

 

[Tunedfrog]

No, it didn't hit me but it did put a little nick in my guitar.
I sleep in my recliner because I can't breath laying down. It was in the middle of the night and
I honestly thought somebody was in the house.

 

[DavidB1126]

Turned out yes it was a spider that set it off. As my mom saw the spider on the detector this morning as we took it all off, disarmed it and left it in the bathroom.

 

[Jamr]

This has to be one of the worst case scenarios. I hate getting woke up by those pieces of crap, then not knowing where the dam problem is.
I have since bought sensors that talk and tell me where the problem is.
They obviously cost more but I think it is worth the extra money.

 

[F.R.S. Ninja_007]

Once we were cooking with a little too much heat and the smoke detector across the house went off, we just took out the batteries.

 

[DavidB1126]

Once we were cooking with a little too much heat and the smoke detector across the house went off, we just took out the batteries.

Sadly our ones are alll hardwired. And have a lithium ion battery in here like a cellphone. So we got it disabled by peeling the sticker and some other stuff. I kept telling them to chuck a hammer at it. They didn't listen.

 

[Xraycer]

Once we were cooking with a little too much heat and the smoke detector across the house went off, we just took out the batteries.

That doesn't work with the ones that are hardwired in and connected to each others. One goes off, and they ALL go off!

 

[DavidB1126]

That doesn't work with the ones that are hardwired in and connected to each others. One goes off, and they ALL go off!

Exactly.

 

[turbo27]

Hanford is closed, as well as Maine Med, schools, Post office, banks, and some gas stations. Even my hobby shop. Safe here at home. Lockdown, here.

 

[luke66]

Hanford is closed, as well as Maine Med, schools, Post office, banks, and some gas stations. Even my hobby shop. Safe here at home. Lockdown, here.

Why?!?

 

[9x19]

Modern day response to an age-old problem.

A nut-case with a gun.

 

[turbo27]

Yeah nut with a gun is right on the $. Not crazy about it for sure. . If he bangs on my door, it wont be for long.

 

[luke66]

we can trust guns. just not the people who use them. lol

 

[Xraycer]

A number of years ago, my area got an alert of a loose gunman. Some 30 something year old nut case was being evicted by his mother, so he pulled a gun on her. She jumped out a window and fled to a neighboring house, where 911 was called. The nut case took off into the woods, which was a couple of streets over from me.
My wife, was of course, very concerned, and I reassured her that if he came to our house, chances are he would be very out gunned and out ammo-ed. Being NH, more than half the homes are set up the very same way....well armed!
He was apprehended that same day, a few hours later without the discharging of any firearms.

 

[turbo27]

I have too many weapons to count here, But I have 3 of my favorites.