A Beeping Dilemma. A widowed elderly neighbour came over half an hour ago to ask me to sort out her smoke alarm which she said was "beeping." She had the step stool ready for me and a spare battery, so I changed them over and tested it. Worked fine. Then we heard another quiet "beep." "Are you sure it's this one? Have you another?" "Yes, there's one upstairs." So I changed that one. We were talking for a bit on the first floor and then we heard another "beep." I said, "Have you anything else that could beep?" She thought for a bit and then realised she'd got a battery operated carbon monoxide detector, that her son had put on top of a window pelmet in a back room four years ago. So I changed the batteries in that which solved the problem. The batteries in the smoke alarms had been in for the same length of time, so it was worth changing them.
Oh those beeps are maddening. Mine always go off 2-3 o’clock in the morning…without fail. Such a piercing sound for the wee hours. But the craziest incident was the night that this played out and I discovered a smoke alarm that was just giving a warning that the battery was low. I changed the battery in that and the two other ones. Climbed back into bed and just as I was almost back to sleep…..BEEP. I got up and re-checked the smoke and CO alarms. No problem. I stayed up ten or so minutes, no beeping, so I went back to bed. BEEP. It elicited foul language this time. I told the Bride that I was not coming back to bed until I had it sorted. It took a long time, but finally it beeped again and I was near-by. It was the exhaust fan above the stove. It was time to change the filter.
We have a toaster, a kettle and a washing machine that have similar "beeps" and if you leave the fridge door slightly open, that beeps the same too.
That was very kind of you to investigate and help out your neighbour DHR. Those beeps upset my poochy Angus greatly- I think they hurt his ears. A couple weeks ago one of my alarms did they same at 2 AM. I have eleven in various locations, including three CMonoxide alarms and a water leak alarm. Angus knows he can't come up the steep stairs to the loft where the MBedroom is. By the time I got down the stairs, he was halfway up and upset. His plump poochy body takes up over most of the narrow stairs. I had to try to turn him around and/or back him up, while he only wanted to be comforted. Angus and I finally got down the stairs in one piece, and began to sort which one it was. Every beep made him more upset, and glued to my legs. Five beeps later I found the culprit. On a trip to the porch to get the ladder,....another beep. This time big brave Angus was tangled up in my legs and the legs of the step ladder that I was carrying in my arms. On the last beep, I was up the ladder and trying to take it down from the ceiling. By the time I removed it, Angus had two paws on the step ladder. A little coaxing had him get down. He sniffed and checked out the source of our aguish, and then needed ten minutes on the sofa to be assured the event was over. I think I finally got back to sleep around 3 am. The next day, EVERY battery was changed hahahaha. I did not want to got through that again.
What a challenge. Blimey. I found myself getting nervous, thinking that you were going to fall. You did a great job there, mate.
Thank you Sjoerd. In hind sight, I should have put him outside while I solved the problem. It would have helped his ears and kept me a little safer. Senses aren't always common at 2 am .
@Doghouse Riley great that you sorted that out for your neighbour. Sometimes with ours they still would beep after the battery had been changed,so had to buy a new one. Our dogs don't like the beeping either.
A few years ago the same neighbour had a problem with her central heating going off. She came over in tears late one Sunday evening, a few hours after she'd lost her heating. She'd been unable to contact either of her grown up kids. So I went over, looked at the boiler and realised what had happened. Her semi and the one next door have drives next to each other. Years before the neighbour of the other semi had errected a car port across both drives, which covered the whole of the drives for the length of the houses. But they still had a party fence between the drives. Her boiler had an exhaust vent in the side wall that exited into this area. Naturally, the space between the houses would act a bit like a wind tunnel when the wind was strong. This must have caused some back pressure on the boiler exhaust pipe, so the boiler had tripped out. I pressed the re-set button on the front of the boiler and the heating came back on. I showed her where it was in case it happened again. If it ever has, she's been able to re-set it herself.
The machine that annoys me most is the washing machine. It beeps three times at the conclusion of a programme. If you don't turn it off it beeps again after a couple of minutes, then again after two more minutes. If you still ignore it it must say to itself, "Sod it! No one's taking any notice, so I'll turn myself off!" One set of beeps would have been enough.
Riley, so good of you to help your neighbor like you do! It is nice to hear about it. Sjoerd, yes those beeping alarms, appliances can drive us all crazy! Melody, what a night for you ( and Angus!). When one of our alarms goes off ( invariably in the middle of the night), we run from alarm to alarm to figure out which one it is. It says which one but in such a garbled and high strung way, it is incomprehensible.
