The chirping of the smoke detector in the guest room was annoying. I had just changed out the batteries. It should not be chirping.
I did my due diligence. I rechecked the battery. I tested it. I reviewed a YouTube video on trouble shooting a chirping smoke detector. The result? More chirping!
I came up with a solution. I closed the door. With the door closed the chirping was undetectable. Problem solved? Well at least in the short term.
I did a deeper dive on combating chirping smoke alarms. I found that it is highly recommended that they be changed out after ten years. Ours were on year thirteen. Updating would be the best course of action.
I ordered new smoke detectors. I had our neighborhood handy man, Jim, over to change them out. When he had changed out the ‘defective’ one, he said to me, “I don’t think the chirping came from the smoke detector. It’s coming from the closet.”
Soon after the words escaped his mouth, the chirp happened. And it WAS coming from the closet. Now I really had a mystery.
I slid the closet door open. I removed the giant stuffed bear. I pulled out some pillows stored there. I adjusted the toy containers that were stacked on a shelf. I was tracing the chirp.
I found it! The culprit was a discarded carbon monoxide detector. The battery was losing charge. The chirp was letting us know. We had a double win. New and updated smoke detectors, and chirping silenced.
I learned several things from this.
We make assumptions when problem-solving. When I heard the chirp I assumed it was the smoke detector. What else could it be? That is what smoke detectors do on occasion. They chirp.
Acting on assumptions, even wrong ones, can still lead to learning. I learned several ways of dealing with chirping detectors. I also discovered that we needed updated smoke detectors. I didn’t even know smoke detectors had a shelf life.
New perspective on problems can shed much needed insight. Jim had a different perspective on the chirp. Not being focused solely on the smoke detector allowed him to hear differently.
Sometimes our problem is not our problem.
The best solutions are found when the problem is properly identified
Take the batteries out of discarded carbon monoxide detectors