The bad news is, I nearly peed my sheets when it went of at 1:30 am and woke me from my blissful sleep.
It was as if an air horn was angrily sleeping next to me.
The other bad news is that I rent, I cannot reach the blasted thing, and the after-hours maintenance guy just called to say he was not coming over and that I should be able to take it down myself.
Back up plan now, ear plugs and hope. It is not doing the constant beeping thing like some I have encountered in the past…it just full fledged sounded the alarm for a couple of seconds. Why do they always do this after midnight and before 6 am? It is as if they KNOW.
It has been 30 minutes and no repeat so maybe it will only be every couple of hours or so.
Heres hoping these earplugs can block this and that there is no real fire tonight.
Oh, OF COURSE they know! I have never known one to do its “high-emergency run away now and wake up all neighbours” thing at, say, 8 pm or so.
As for getting it down by yourself, I have been known to kill one off by dragging a chair along and standing on chair to reach evil noise monster, and when it refused to go off, deactivating the damn thing entirely. Yeah , I know that is not the very best idea, but it did strike me as better than letting the thing wake lots of neighbours into a panic, and one can always set the alarm back properly the next day. If you found you had to do a thing like that, perhaps your landlord would understand that you did it not to damage property but so as not to harass other people with a false alarm.
The night I moved into my apartment (a few years back, not my present apartment although why I think you care is beyond me . . . )
Anyway, I went into the bedroom and shut the door and went to sleep. My parents slept on their AERO blow-up mattress in the “dining room”.
In the middle of the night, they heard the chirp, chirp, of a smoke detector that needs a new battery. They disconnected it, stuck it under the bathrrom sink, and still had to listen to it for 15 minutes or so.
Well battery is replaced and the ear plugs worked like a charm, so I did manage to sleep last night.
Celyn, I too have had a prior run in. Last apt (same here Eureka…dont know why you care but anywho…) Chirpping starts at 3 am on a work night and neither of my roomies hear it at all. I angrily dragged a chair over and managed to pull it down after a 5 minute struggle and a small electrical shock. It continued to beep and I did not want to face apt fines for want I longed to do to that plastic demon so I wrapped it in about 10 bath towels to at least muffle it and left it on the couch.
Next morning roomie 1 is making breakfast alone, and hears this faint muffled chirping. (NOW IT BOTHERS HER?) and upon finding the source decided that the new home for the towel wrapped offender is out on the patio table on the balcony.
Roomie number 3 wakes later and goes out for her first morning cigarette. Trying to relax and enjoy the balcony she suddenly hears the chirping towel mass on the table and decides the traveling detector will now reside in the balcony storage closet.
We lived the remainder of the year with a very quiet muffled chirp that is on the rare occasion that the planets (i.e. noisy neighbors) aligned and it was very quiet. The worlds most resiliant batteries ever, I tell you.
PS. If any of my loved ones ever reads this…we did still have one in each bedroom so we were not completely with out alarm in case of emergency.
I have never known one to do its “high-emergency run away now and wake up all neighbours” thing at, say, 8 pm or so.