Tuesday, June 25, 2013

What's That Beep, Beep, Beep?

Sunday afternoon, Gerard was in our kitchen and heard a soft beeping noise.  I'm surprised he even heard it because usually his hearing isn't so good; however, this time he heard "beep, beep, beep" before I did.  It sounded like our smoke alarm detector needed batteries but wasn't coming from the one in our hallway downstairs or upstairs.  We started walking around the house trying to find what was making that annoying beeping noise.  We thought it might be our carbon monoxide detector so I reset that, but still heard "beep, beep, beep." It wasn't constant, but would beep a little bit and then stop for about 30 seconds, then start up again.

It sounded to me like it was coming from the basement so I went down there to investigate and the sound was louder.  Sure enough, I found a smoke detector in our drop ceiling down there that I had forgotten about.  It was the first time it beeped since we had it installed.  I unscrewed it and since we didn't have any 9-volt batteries on hand, Gerard made a trip to Rite-Aid to get one.

Getting it in wasn't easy!  Here we are both trying to change the battery.  It was stored inside a little door which I got open but then couldn't get the battery out.  Gerard managed to pop it out and I put in the new one but the beeping noise continued.  Here we were, both staring at the smoke alarm feeling helpless and stupid.  I kept saying, "I don't know what else to do, it is supposed to stop when we replace the battery!"

I took it out and reversed it, stuck it back in and still heard beeping.  I was so frustrated because I didn't know what else to do.  The beeping is supposed to stop when you change those batteries!  I tried again and realized I didn't have it in all the way.  Finally, after about what seemed a half hour of fussing around with it, quiet prevailed. 

Even Abby was annoyed by it and in a panicky state!  While Gerard went for the battery, I was going to take my car up to the repair shop but Abby wouldn't let me out.  She wanted out too if I was leaving.  Perhaps she thought the house was going to blow up or something. 

Don't you just hate the noise?

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5 comments:

Unknown said...

We pulled the battery from the detector in the hallway three weeks ago and still haven't gotten around to replacing it. I am impressed at how you took care of things right away!
Rosemary

Unknown said...

I do not like those noises that you cant find, but know you have to in order to get it to stop. Glad you found that one and it is over.

Sandee said...

Our Little Bit doesn't like that beeping either. Something that dogs just don't seem to tolerate well. She comes to me when she hears it and she knows I'll fix it.

Have a terrific day. Scritches to the babies. ☺

BeadedTail said...

Our pets don't like beeping noises either. Glad you were able to find the source of the beeps and got it fixed eventually!

Karen and Gerard said...

Rosemary: We really didn't have any choice but usually we do replace them right away. This one even kept on beeping though when we removed the battery!

Linda: It was funny how long it took us to find it though!

Sandee and Beaded Tail: At least this one was quieter than our other alarms are. Dogs hearing is very sensitive and I think they hear higher sounds better than we do too so it is probably even more annoying for them. Plus, Abby could tell we were both upset by it so that added to her stress. Our cats just stayed up in the den as far away as possible.

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