The Chirp at Two in the Morning: Which Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm Jobs Are Yours

At two in the morning the chirp is one short sound every minute or so, and it is hard to tell which room it comes from. Before you climb anything, decide which part of this is yours. Testing, dusting, and swapping a battery are usually jobs a family member or a hired helper can do from a stepladder set on level floor. Replacing a unit that is wired into the ceiling, or working on the wiring itself, is a different job, and that is the line where you stop and call someone licensed.

Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.

Read the alarm before you touch it

Look at the back or side of each alarm for a manufacture date or an end-of-life date. Many units carry a sealed battery and a built-in lifespan, and they cannot be opened for a battery change. When the unit reaches the end of its life, the whole unit is replaced. If the chirp comes from a unit that is past its printed end-of-life, the answer is a new unit, not a new battery. Write down the printed dates for every alarm in the same notebook you keep for the house, so the next person knows what to check.

What you can do yourself

Press the test button on each alarm and listen for the full siren, not only a chirp. Replace the battery in a unit that takes one, using the battery type printed on the unit, and only in a unit that is still within its printed life. Wipe dust off the cover with a dry cloth. Confirm each alarm is still in the place the manufacturer's instructions show, which usually means a sleeping area and each level of the house. A hired helper can walk the test button through the house and note which units chirp or fail to sound, but should not be asked to climb to a ceiling mount or open a cover that has wires behind it.

When the job goes to someone licensed

Some alarms are hardwired into the house wiring and linked to each other, so when one sounds they all sound. If one of these is dead, the trouble may be the wiring, the connection, or the backup battery, and any work that touches the circuit is a job for a licensed electrician. Decide this before you start: if the fix means shutting off power at the panel, removing a fixture cover, or handling wires, the job is not yours. Ask the electrician to match the alarm type already in the house, so the new units talk to the rest, rather than installing a cheaper unit that does not link to the others.

Ask the fire department before you hire

Many local fire departments will answer questions about alarms, and some offer a home check or can name a service that installs them. Call your local department and ask two things: whether they check alarms in a home, and whether they can recommend someone who installs the hardwired kind. Ask whether a referral costs you anything. If someone gives you an answer, write down their name and what they said, and keep that note with the alarm dates.

Where this fits in her house

Check the alarm nearest her bed first, and put its test on your own calendar so it does not depend on memory. If she is hard of hearing, ask the installer or the fire department about alarms that flash or vibrate. That is a question to ask, not a claim about what she needs. For the wider list of people who can help in your area, see local help for keeping her home. For how this desk decides what it tells you, see how we write.

The short version: the test and the battery are yours or a helper's, the wiring and the ceiling mount belong to a licensed electrician, and an alarm past its printed life gets replaced whole.