Oddbean new post about login | logout rant: Why do smoke detectors behave the way they do? I get that you want the battery to be good and tell everyone when it needs to be replaced, but... a beep every 15-20seconds forever is not a good way to do this. It's long enough so you can't figure out where it's coming from. It _always_ starts in the middle of the night. How about a bright light? Or even a constant beep so you can easily track it down? Or even a light and beeps if it's longer than a day or two? Anything.
And yes, we had a smoke alarm do this at 1am this morning. In the vaulted ceiling part of the house, so I had to stumble out and get the big ladder from the shed outside in the rain and replace a dumb battery.
@bd76e7c7 It should (a) detect when it has say 10% left (b) beep while there is light present (c) allow you to shut it up with a button press (d) resume beeping with no shut up option when down to 5%. You need both. I have pulled one off the ceiling when it started making a fuss and would not stop.
@bd76e7c7 get hardwired ones if you do any renovation. Sealed units that are good for 10yrs. Of course you may have to change the connectors when you replace them after 10yr life.