My first smoke detector disaster at 2 AM last week

Honestly, I was dead asleep and the smoke detector in my hallway started chirping at 2 AM for a low battery. I ended up ripping it off the ceiling and throwing it in the freezer to muffle the sound, which worked but now I have to buy a new one. Has anyone else done something dumb just to get a few more hours of sleep?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_mary21d ago

Did you leave it in the freezer overnight? I did something similar a few years back when my car alarm started going off at 3 AM for no reason. I just unplugged the battery and threw a blanket over the whole dashboard to muffle it. Ended up having to take it to a shop the next day and felt like a fool explaining why the battery was sitting on my kitchen counter. The freezer trick for the smoke detector is actually kind of clever though, because the cold slows down the battery drain and quiets the chirp long enough to get some sleep. At least you didn't have to explain it to a mechanic.

williams.jenny21d ago

My buddy did the freezer trick with his smoke detector once and it actually froze the whole thing solid overnight. He forgot about it until his wife found it next to the frozen peas the next morning and thought he'd lost his mind. She made him buy a new one and he still catches crap about it at parties lol.

sarah_mason21d ago

Actually the cold thing slows down the chemical reaction in the battery, not really the drain rate itself. It just makes the chirping less frequent or quieter because the battery's output drops a bit in the cold. Still, hey, if it got you back to sleep that's what matters.