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Comment by mynameisvlad | Hacker News Reader

Have you ever had your smoke detector do the low battery chirp? Because I will easily pay 6 times more to never hear that godawful sound ever again.

Especially when you have high ceilings, and the detector is the 120V AC kind and has no overly visible slot for a battery.

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I don't mind the chirps but I do often have huge problems finding out which fire alarm has a low battery - as some of our ceilings are (I think) 14ft going up and down a ladder multiple times isn't a lot of fun...

[A few years back our neighbouring apartment had a nasty fire - so I went out and bought a lot of fire alarms, fire blankets etc. - we weren't at much risk as our walls are about 1m thick sandstone. However, it did mean I ended up replacing all of the batteries in the "new" alarms at roughly the same time.]

My solution is to just go an replace them all. Much faster than trying to track down the one, especially in a 2 story house where the chirp echos and isn't repeated very often.

LOL Clearly I am not sensible enough to think of that elegant solution!

> Have you ever had your smoke detector do the low battery chirp? Because I will easily pay 6 times more to never hear that godawful sound ever again.

Or, you can pay $5 for a lithium battery that will last the life of the alarm. If it chirps, time to replace the smoke alarm.

(You did realize that smoke alarms should be replaced every ten years, right?)

whoa- any particular battery brand that works the best?

I don't know that one brand is that much better than another. But for something like a smoke detector, you'd probably feel better buying one of the big brands.

Just make sure they're lithium, non-rechargeable batteries, with an expiration date about 8 years in the future.

At their price point that is a pretty damn expensive convenience? How are they any different in requiring batter changes? At 129 I will just laugh it off as another appeals to people want others to think of them differently.

Nest is trying to market the same way as Apple does, they appeal to Vanity through different directions. Expecting people in the market segment to feed off each other.

The article says it pretty well. There are no horrible chirps, it'll alert you in a humane way that hey, your battery is low and you need to change it.

They've clearly found a problem (current alarms suck) and have made a solution. Just because you don't see the convenience doesn't mean other people don't, as is clear from the comments here. Once you get burned by regular smoke detectors in the middle of the night, you would pay good money for a product that actually fixes some of these issues.

> Have you ever had your smoke detector do the low battery chirp?

No. I change the batteries once a year.

My smoke alarm is connected to the mains electricity. No need for new batteries ever. Just a simple extension from the power outlets in the attic and down through the ceiling.

In the US, current fire codes require that hardwired smoke detectors also have a battery backup.

http://artisanelectric.net/blog/the-big-picture/how-old-are-...

http://www.nfpa.org/codes-and-standards/document-information...

They should still have a battery backup.

I have. I identify the detector and the batteries. It's not particularly hard.

As I said, some of them have no overly obvious battery compartment. Either it's on the backside, or internally and you have to unscrew it open. Not all have an obvious battery compartment.

And it's incredibly annoying when you have to climb onto a chair/table/whathaveyou because your ceilings are so high you can't naturally reach it.

The one in my last apartment even had a big button in the middle. I thought I might be able to press it in order to turn off the alarm temporarily. That was not a good idea.

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The one in my last apartment was electric, but I believe still had a backup battery. And still chirps like the devil if that goes out, but you can't even just remove it, because then it'll chirp at you for not having a backup battery in place. And there's no way that I know to turn that chirp off.

See how that might be annoying in the middle of the night with high ceilings in the first place, and no replacement battery available?

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