Testing and Changing Your Smoke Alarm Batteries
If your detector is hardwired into your home's electrical system, replace the backup battery at least every 6 months and replace the smoke detector itself at least every 10 years.
Maintain your alarms
Test smoke alarms every month by pressing their test buttons. If your alarms use regular batteries, swap in fresh batteries at least once a year. A “chirping” sound means that it's time to change batteries. Because alarm sensors wear out, replace each alarm at least every 10 years.
Some First Alert or BRK alarm models run on a 9-volt battery or backup battery. The battery should be replaced once per year.
Duracell - CopperTop 9V Alkaline Batteries
They can also last for 5 years in storage. Another pro: these Duracell batteries do not contain mercury.
Do Duracell Batteries Really Last Longer Than Energizer? In a battery life test conducted using non-rechargeable C batteries from the two brands in a flashlight, Duracell outdid Energizer.
If you are looking for long-lasting 9V batteries, no other product will be as efficient as the Duracell Coppertop battery. It's engineered in a way that it can power most of the household items requiring a 9-volt input power supply.
Part 2 of 3: Installing a New Battery for Wired Detectors. Turn off power to your wired smoke detector. Wired smoke detectors are connected directly into the power supply of your house, which is sometimes also called the mains.
Taking the battery out of a smoke alarm will not make it stop beeping. Even after the battery has died, the detector maintains a residual charge that will keep the chirp going for at least seven days.
Your alarm manufacturer may have included a blinking red light to let you know it's time to test the alarm again. The Batteries are Low: Usually accompanied by a loud beep, a blinking red light could mean the batteries in the unit are low. Consider adding fresh batteries and running a test to make sure it's working.
Most use 9-volt alkaline (you know, those rectangular boxes with two prongs at the end?) but some use AA. It'll be specified in the battery compartments in your smoke alarms, so have a look to be sure.
Battery smoke detectors run solely on batteries. Hardwired smoke detectors run on electricity, but they also have a backup battery for power outages. When you hear a hard-wired smoke detector beeping, it means you need to replace its battery.
Newer smoke alarms keep some errors in the processor. The smoke alarm must clear errors after the battery is changed, but it might continue to chirp even after you change the batteries. This usually occurs in electrical powered smoke alarms with a battery backup.
The alarm may need to be replaced.
The smoke detector itself, and not its battery, might require replacement to stop smoke alarm warnings. Most manufacturers design their products to last for about 10 years. After a decade of service, some of the alarm's components may no longer function properly.
Most battery powered smoke detectors will beep for a minimum of 30 days before the battery dies. You'll know the battery is losing charge if you hear consistent beeping every 30 to 60 seconds.
To fix your smoke alarm from chirping pointlessly, first discharge the device, use the hush button, and reconnect all the cables. Next, you can try resetting the circuit breaker and your smoke alarm as well.
This battery characteristic can cause a smoke alarm to enter the low battery chirp mode when air temperatures drop. Most homes are the coolest between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. That's why the alarm may sound a low-battery chirp in the middle of the night, and then stop when the home warms up a few degrees.
Removing the battery from your smoke alarm won't set it off. It kills the power to the alarm and renders it useless, so you should only remove the battery when you're replacing it with a new one.
But most smoke detectors are instead designed to go off when their electrical current goes down. That's because smoke in the air will reduce the current. If your battery is dying, the current that's flowing through your sensor also goes down.
A. Lithium 9Vs aren't recommended for smoke detectors unless you follow a strict battery replacement schedule. Those batteries maintain a high voltage until the end of their usable life, so they provide a much shorter "low battery" warning to alert you that it's time to swap in a fresh one.
What type of battery lasts the longest? Duracell batteries were the longest lasting in this test. Now, this could vary based on which size of battery you are using. Duracell might have the best AA batteries (which were used in this test), while another brand could have longer lasting batteries of a different kind.