# Things that infuriate you well beyond their actual importance **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 4, 2024, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-infuriate-you-well-beyond-their-actual-importance/1006712 "2024-09-04T02:18:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 105
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-infuriate-you-well-beyond-their-actual-importance/1006712/2081 "2025-08-18T18:43:30Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > Well that is strange. I’ve literally never had that happen. Well, not with a smoke detector; it did happen once with a CO detector, which I think was like what @sunacres mentioned with the detector element getting used up. > > After I posted I recalled you mentioning having a wood stove and wondered if that might be the culprit, but I’m guessing that’s not it either. My grandparents apparently had a problem with their wood stove setting off the smoke detector, which just led them to get rid of the smoke detector. I’ve had it happen multiple times. The three detectors in succession within their first year, all from the same package, were apparently part of a bad batch (the store replaced them.) All the others were spread out over a number of years. This is an old farmhouse on an active farm and is inhabited by several cats, a dog, and the dust from woodpile and brought in from fields on my clothes; that may have something to do with it. If it were the wood stove, they’d go off a lot more often, as in pretty much continuously all winter. > [@Railer13](#): > > > [@enipla](#): > > > > Shouldn’t a 9v battery last 3-4 years with out being connect to anything stay good? > > Not in my house, they don’t. 2 years, max. Probably less. What brand, and what quality in that brand? Some of them are warranted for up to 10 years in storage. Some of them don’t say a word about it. > [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > > [@DrDeth](#): > > > > I suggest the new 10 year sealed units- they last ten year, then you buy more. No hunting for a 9v in the middle of the nite. > > I have several of those, and they were a life changer. No more balancing on ladders in the middle of the night to displace the batteries, no more false alarms, and no more buying a pack of 9V batteries each half year. Some of my false alarmers have been the 10 year sealed type. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-infuriate-you-well-beyond-their-actual-importance/1006712/2082 "2025-08-18T18:53:08Z")
> [@sunacres](#): > > Check the installation date on them. Installation : “On Ceiling” 🤦‍♂️ Just kidding, but I saw that somewhere. So I found the Installation date. It says this \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ They can’t be more than 5 years old. Unless they where in a warehouse for a long, long time. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-infuriate-you-well-beyond-their-actual-importance/1006712/2083 "2025-08-18T19:01:36Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > Not in my house, they don’t. 2 years, max. Probably less. Prompted me to get my muti-meter out. Batteries are good. My Smoke alarms are “First Alert” I’ve seen some bad designs in my 64 years, but this is really pushing the envelope. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-infuriate-you-well-beyond-their-actual-importance/1006712/2084 "2025-08-18T19:10:47Z")
What is the point of hard wiring these, if you still need a battery? (Looks for rigging axe). Some of them are 20 feet in the air. I bet more people have been hurt or killed falling of ladders than these things have saved. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-infuriate-you-well-beyond-their-actual-importance/1006712/2085 "2025-08-18T19:19:24Z")
I’ve got one: all-but-useless websites, especially for local businesses. A local business website really only needs to convey a few key pieces of information: their location (including their full address with city and state), hours of operation, and a way to contact them (such as a phone number and/or email address). For a restaurant, a menu with prices is also helpful. But it is infuriating to find that a local business leaves off one or more of these very basic things on their website. For example, websites that leave off their full address. Do these people not realize that their website is on the **World** **Wide** Web?! I’ve wasted more time trying to figure out if the website I am looking at is for the local business I’m trying to get info on, or a similarly named business in a different state located halfway across the county. And how hard is it to list your hours of operation? I’m sure they get annoyed at receiving phone calls from people asking what their hours are (assuming you can find a phone number), but why wouldn’t you put that on your website? And lastly, businesses that don’t keep their websites updated. I hate driving to a business only to find that they changed their hours but didn’t update the hours on their website. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-infuriate-you-well-beyond-their-actual-importance/1006712/2086 "2025-08-18T19:23:59Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > > [@enipla](#): > > > > Shouldn’t a 9v battery last 3-4 years with out being connect to anything stay good? > > Not in my house, they don’t. 2 years, max. Probably less. Wow. Just this weekend I was using my Black & Decker laser level/stud finder when hanging some new curtain rods for my wife. The case has a little slot for storing the 9v battery, so every time I use this device (which is not often) I take the battery out and put it back in the case when I’m done. I know I’ve had this thing for more than 10 years, and I’m still using the same 9v battery I’ve had from the beginning. And on the subject of curtains, my wife changes curtains about as often as other people change underwear. OK, that’s a slight exaggeration, but I swear every six months or so she’s buying new curtains for some room in the house, along with new rods, because why not? Except none of the mounting hardware ever matches the location of the screw holes from the previous rods, or she decides she wants them mounted further out from the edge of the window, or a few inches higher, or something. So some of our windows have three sets of screw holes or drywall anchors from all the different curtain rods that have been hung over the years. But she’s retired now and doesn’t have anything better to do, so I just play along like a good husband. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-infuriate-you-well-beyond-their-actual-importance/1006712/2087 "2025-08-18T19:52:38Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > This is an old farmhouse on an active farm and is inhabited by several cats, a dog, and the dust from woodpile and brought in from fields on my clothes; that may have something to do with it. As I understand it the photovoltic type of alarm is basically “looking” for particles in the air, so I would imagine an excess of dust could set them off. I wonder if the ionizing type would actually be a better choice in your specific situation. Unfortunately just based on the selection at my local Home Depot they might be harder to find nowadays. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-infuriate-you-well-beyond-their-actual-importance/1006712/2088 "2025-08-18T20:19:42Z")
It does seem odd to me, if that’s the reason, that it doesn’t happen even more often than it does. There are currently six smoke detectors and two carbon monoxide detectors; and for most of the nearly 40 years I’ve lived here there’ve been two or three smoke detectors and one carbon monoxide – and while false alarms happen often enough to infuriate me, aside from that one bad batch they’re still happening less than once a year. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-infuriate-you-well-beyond-their-actual-importance/1006712/2089 "2025-08-19T00:50:19Z")
> [@robby](#): > > I’ve got one: all-but-useless websites, especially for local businesses. > [@robby](#): > > For example, websites that leave off their full address. Do these people not realize that their website is on the **World** **Wide** Web?! I’ve wasted more time trying to figure out if the website I am looking at is for the local business I’m trying to get info on, or a similarly named business in a different state located halfway across the county. > > And how hard is it to list your hours of operation? I Yes, and for restaurants- menus! ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-infuriate-you-well-beyond-their-actual-importance/1006712/2090 "2025-08-19T01:09:19Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > … smoke detectors (you’re not supposed to just trash them, and they keep having the hazardous disposal days on Saturday mornings when I have to be at market) FWIW, I took some old smoke detectors (ionizing type) to my hazardous waste place and they refused to take them. They said that if they started collecting them and storing a large number of them together, it might result in hazardous levels of radiation. They told me to just dispose of them in my regular garbage, one at a time. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-infuriate-you-well-beyond-their-actual-importance/1006712/2091 "2025-08-19T10:59:49Z")
> [@robby](#): > > I’ve got one: all-but-useless websites, especially for local businesses. I have mentioned this before, possibly in this thread, but I have a pet peeve with websites of all types: **Put a date on it!** It is frustrating to sift through search results on some modern topic, reading news articles, only to find a reference to President Obama (as current president) or something else like that. So many blogs, news sites, editorial articles, opinion pieces, technical articles, and so forth do not include a clear date. Google helps by providing a means of filtering results by date, and I often use that, but many sites are either gaming the system or they haplessly cause a minor change to appear to Google as a fresh page, when it was written two years before the Pandemic. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-infuriate-you-well-beyond-their-actual-importance/1006712/2092 "2025-08-19T13:16:17Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > OK, that’s a slight exaggeration, but I swear every six months or so she’s buying new curtains for some room in the house, along with new rods, because why not? Except none of the mounting hardware ever matches the location of the screw holes from the previous rods, or she decides she wants them mounted further out from the edge of the window, or a few inches higher, or something I feel your pain. But it’s me as much as my Wife. We have a new home. Our previous home had a mix of vaulted ceilings and standard 8’ ceilings. The new home is all 10’ ceilings. No complaints (it’s great and a surprise to me), but my wife and I are both confused at the height of our art. She is short, I’m rather tall. The tall ceilings keep having us moving pictures up about 4 inches. A modern day “problem” that is not really a problem. I walk by something and say “Wait, that ain’t right” Too far from from the ceiling. But if I raise it, it’s too high for my wife. Whatever. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-infuriate-you-well-beyond-their-actual-importance/1006712/2093 "2025-08-19T15:20:59Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I suggest the new 10 year sealed units- they last ten year, then you buy more. No hunting for a 9v in the middle of the nite. Unless they’re beeping in the middle of the night because the 10 years is up, and there’s NO WAY TO STOP THE CHIRPING whatsoever, so you wind up taking them down, wrapping them in blankets, and putting them in the backyard so people can sleep. As opposed to the replaceable battery ones, where you can remove the battery to kill the chirping, then replace the battery at your leisure. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-infuriate-you-well-beyond-their-actual-importance/1006712/2094 "2025-08-19T15:35:24Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Unless they’re beeping in the middle of the night because the 10 years is up, and there’s NO WAY TO STOP THE CHIRPING whatsoever, so you wind up taking them down, wrapping them in blankets, and putting them in the backyard so people can sleep. My detectors have off switches for that case, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-infuriate-you-well-beyond-their-actual-importance/1006712/2095 "2025-08-19T15:42:41Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Unless they’re beeping in the middle of the night because the 10 years is up, and there’s NO WAY TO STOP THE CHIRPING whatsoever, so you wind up taking them down, wrapping them in blankets, and putting them in the backyard so people can sleep. Somewhere in the small print of the instructions, at least for mine, they tell you how to kill the thing. There’s a little tab (again at least on mine) that you have to pull out and break (probably requires some sort of tool, a screwdriver and/or pliers.) The detector will then be permanently broken and can’t be repaired. But at least it’ll be quiet. This setup, as near as I can tell, is because people who took the battery out to shut the thing up sometimes didn’t put it back in; and so then didn’t have a functioning smoke detector in the house. So (I think I posted this in the terrible-design thread), to prevent people from doing that, they made the batteries impossible to remove – with the undoubted (at least by me) result that all the people who wouldn’t have put a battery back in, plus some of those who would have, won’t replace the entire detector and so won’t have a functioning smoke detector in the house. > [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > My detectors have off switches for that case, IIRC. Off switches? or break-the-detector-forever switches? If the former: what brand? I’ll make a note for the next replacements. (Though they may have changed them by then.) ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-infuriate-you-well-beyond-their-actual-importance/1006712/2096 "2025-08-19T15:53:35Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Off switches? or break-the-detector-forever switches? Mine are of the 10 years cycle kind with unchangeable batteries, so when they beep they are done anyway and only good for recycling. > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > If the former: what brand? I’ll make a note for the next replacements. (Though they may have changed them by then.) I got them from Amazon Germany and only have their link, but maybe they’re available in the US too: > **[XINDUM Mini Smoke Detector Set of 3, Fire Alarm with 10-Year Battery, TÜV...](https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Detector-Rheinland-Certified-Flashing-Standalone/dp/B0C9X1FWDS)** > > XINDUM Mini Smoke Detector Set of 3, Fire Alarm with 10-Year Battery, TÜV Rheinland Certified Smoke Detector, No Flashing, Standalone, White : Amazon.de: DIY & Tools ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-infuriate-you-well-beyond-their-actual-importance/1006712/2097 "2025-08-19T15:59:40Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Mine are of the 10 years cycle kind with unchangeable batteries, so when they beep they are done anyway and only good for recycling Not if they’re beeping as a false alarm. Though, admittedly, if they won’t shut up and keep beeping as a false alarm they’re effectively done anyway, as they’re no longer good for telling whether or not the place is on fire. However, I’d like to be able to temporarily shut the thing off while I doublecheck whether there’s some cause I can do something about; the beeps drive me even crazier than they do most people and I can’t think at all while they’re going on, except about how to make it stop. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-infuriate-you-well-beyond-their-actual-importance/1006712/2098 "2025-08-19T16:05:56Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > > [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > > > Mine are of the 10 years cycle kind with unchangeable batteries, so when they beep they are done anyway and only good for recycling > > Not if they’re beeping as a false alarm. I’ve had three of them for over a year, and so far there were no false alarms, knock on wood. But you can switch them off and back on in any situation. And there are no flashing LEDs, the detectors I had before had a red LED flashing every 30 seconds to indicate they’re working correctly(!), how inane is that? They drove me crazy, especially in the bedroom. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-infuriate-you-well-beyond-their-actual-importance/1006712/2099 "2025-08-19T17:58:29Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > I’ve had three of them for over a year, and so far there were no false alarms, knock on wood. But you can switch them off and back on in any situation. When you say “off”, you really mean you can turn them off so they won’t detect anything until you turn them back on, correct? I’m utterly certain that wouldn’t pass USA regulations. You can’t even close the battery compartment (assuming you have replaceable batteries) without a battery in there, there’s no way they’d allow an “off” switch that you could easily forget to turn back on. The best we have is a “hush” button which is supposed to silence the alarm if you’ve determined there isn’t actually a fire. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-infuriate-you-well-beyond-their-actual-importance/1006712/2100 "2025-08-19T18:17:41Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > When you say “off”, you really mean you can turn them off so they won’t detect anything until you turn them back on, correct? I’m utterly certain that wouldn’t pass USA regulations. You can’t even close the battery compartment (assuming you have replaceable batteries) without a battery in there, there’s no way they’d allow an “off” switch that you could easily forget to turn back on. I just looked up the manual, and indeed they have a dedicated on/off switch. It’s here on page 8: > **[91WkWCjt5-L.pdf](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91WkWCjt5-L.pdf)** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-infuriate-you-well-beyond-their-actual-importance/1006712.md?page=104) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-infuriate-you-well-beyond-their-actual-importance/1006712.md?page=106)