How to Change Smoke Alarm Batteries

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Smoke alarms are literally life savers! Units that are powered by household power have backup batteries to allow the alarm to continue protection, even if the residence loses power. If the battery gets low, the unit informs you by “chirping.”

Although new ten-year battery-powered units are now becoming popular (due to developing lithium battery technology), the majority of homes still rely on AC household-powered units with battery backups.

These types of units are typically available in both photoelectric and ionization sensor types. You should have both in your home as photoelectric sensors typically respond faster to smoldering-type fires, and ionization sensors sense smoke from fast burning fires more efficiently. Because seconds count when a fire starts, the faster your alarms let you know of the danger, the better!

No matter the type, batteries provide reserve power should there be AC power failure. The batteries are typically 9V. The battery will typically have adequate power for 6 to 12 months. If not changed out timely, the alarm will emit a chirp about every 30 seconds. Our experience is that this seems to happen in the middle of the night!

Many put off the task of testing and replacing batteries because of a lack of how-to to easily do this task, or remembering to do it. Whether your units have front door or back of unit battery compartments, the change out is very easy with a little bit of know-how and no special tools (other than a cheap battery tester you can pick up online or at the hardware store).

Around the DirtFarmer household, we use the dates of time zone changes to remind us to either replace all the batteries, or test and replace the ones that are depleted. NO MORE MIDDLE-OF-THE-NIGHT CHIRPS!

There’s no need to call an electrician or to put up with irritating, hard-to-locate chirps, or worse yet (and very unsafe) disabling smoke detectors that are there to protect you. You can take care of it on your own; JUST DO IT YOURSELF!

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