Ask an Expert

My name is Tom Lopatosky. I'm the President of LOPCO Contracting (www.LopcoContracting.com) and I'm honored to have the opportunity to talk to you about home improvement on a monthly basis. I love answering your questions! Please send them to tom@LopcoContracting.com or call 401-270-2664. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this column!

How to Stop that Annoying Chirp from the Smoke Detector

If you have not had the pleasure of being woken up from a cozy sleep by a seemingly annoying chirp that you just can’t seem to initially recognize where it is coming from, let me assure you, you have no clue of the enjoyable experience you are missing (sarcasm thickly laid…)!

The chances are at some point in our lives we have all had to deal with some variation of this annoying sound.

Sometimes when we hear it, we know immediately what it is.

Other times (perhaps simply not thinking of it right away) it may take a bit for us to figure out where this specific noise is coming from.

I am not sure how, but I have known friends of mine that have just let this “beeping” persist for so long, it almost seems to become part of the fabric of their home, and they live with it, being totally oblivious to the irritating chirp that happens every few seconds (typically every 30 to 60 seconds depending on the model).

Again, I have no idea how this constant peep does not drive them absolutely bonkers, but for some reason, it does not!!

For me, even if I am at a complete stranger’s home, at the first sign of this infamous “chirp”, as polite as possible, I ask if the person whose presence I am in at the time, minds if I help them out to eliminate this dastardly distraction.

Call it my obsessive compulsiveness, this sound is one pet peeve though that bothers the heck out of me – which is probably what it is intended to do (rightly so!).

In any event, the reason why the smoke detector beeps like this, is to provide a warning that the battery inside of it needs to be changed.

Even a smoke detector that is hard-wired has a battery backup and at some point will need to have it switched to a new one.

Once the battery is changed, the smoke detector may continue to beep until its internal codes are cleared.

The way the battery is changed is usually two different ways…

First off, most smoke detectors these days take 9-volt batteries, though some do use AA batteries.

For a wide variety of reasons, it is probably a good idea to have some type of household battery storage place that you can draw from anytime you need a battery of any type.

If the smoke detector is a battery-only smoke detector, you would simply have to detach the bottom portion of the smoke detector, change out the battery with the appropriate size, and reconnect the smoke detector to its base.

For hard-wired smoke detectors, there is one extra step.

With hard-wired detectors, in the process of disconnecting the base, you will also have to unclip the portion of the smoke detector that is wired to its base and then reconnect it once the battery is swapped out.

The entire process should take less than 10 minutes (and that is including setting up the stepladder to reach it).

Clearly if you have a smoke detector that is located much higher up, the process will be a bit more involved.

In certain occasions, you may have to reach out for someone (family friend, handyman, contractor, etc.) to help out to access the smoke detector because of the height of its location.

The chirping from a smoke detector may indeed be one of the more maddening sounds that one might endure – definitely my opinion! – but as mentioned earlier, it is most likely meant to be that way in that it ultimately may motivate someone to change the battery out as quickly as they can to help better ensure a safe environment for all those in the household where the smoke detector happens to be installed.

About Tom Lopatosky

Tom Lopatosky has run his own RI-based painting and repair business since 1995; LOPCO Contracting – the "Personable, Particular Professionals" – specializes in exterior & interior painting and carpentry. Recently LOPCO Contracting was named ‘RI's Finest Painting Contracting Company’ by ShopInRI Magazine. In 2013, Tom was named “Humanitarian of the Year” by the Painting and Decorating Contractors of America (PDCA) and a “40 Under 40” award winner by Providence Business News. He is a member of both PCA (Painting Contractors Association) and RIBA (Rhode Island Builders Association). Tom has often had weekly ‘Home Improvement Tips’ that have aired on the radio on 630 WPRO AM and on television on WPRI 12. You can catch Tom LIVE on the radio EVERY Saturday, 2pm-3pm, on 630 WPRO AM (99.7 FM) during his weekly ProTalk Home Improvement Radio Show!