bearisgray

The first time I heard a smoke alarm was at night while I was dog sitting at my daughter's - it took me quite a while to figure out what I was hearing and where I was hearing it from. (Fortunately, it was just a low battery warning.)

The ones we have sound more "annoying" than "alarming" to me when they go off.

Just a suggestion:

Do a "test listen" so you - and everyone in your household - know what these alarms sound like -

and have a plan for what to do if there actually is a fire

for how to get out of your house if there is smoke or fire

- and where to meet up so you know if everyone is accounted for.

marge954

Oh yeah. The one in our bedroom seems to use batteries like they are free. I can't stand the chirp, chirp sound it makes when it goes to low battery so I keep batteries handy. I cook a lot and set the one in the living room off quite a bit DH can't hear squat so if the smoke alarm went off during night I'll have to grab him by the arm and drag him out.

Endora

Oh yes, ours (we have three in our home) are painfully piercing! Ouch!

We also have carbon monoxide alarms in our home, too, and they're even louder! One upstairs, one down.

lynnie

I live in a condo, we have fire alarm and smoke alarm tests 2 times a year. we just had it last Friday.

elnan

[QUOTE=bearisgray;7881864)

Do a "test listen" so you - and everyone in your household - know what these alarms sound like -

and have a plan for what to do if there actually is a fire
[/QUOTE]

About 20 years ago, we were visiting my Dad & stepmother in Arkansas. I was up in the wee hours of the morning making myself a cup of tea by light of an outside light shining through the kitchen window. I turned on the wrong burner and set a pot to smoking, which set off the alarm that was approx. 7 feet away from their bed where they were both in deep sleep with the bedroom door open. Down the hall about 20 feet away and behind a closed door was my husband. No one in that house stirred, but apparently the thief or thieves cutting across the yard next door close to that window I was getting light from, stirred so swiftly, they left a pile of stolen merchandise from a small shopping center nearby. The alarm was loud, very loud.

tessagin

Our alarm is loud enough the neighbors can hear it.

cjsews

Ours is a little too sensitive. One hot steamy day a couple weeks ago I opened the patio door and the darn thing went off. Now that's hot.

Chasing Hawk

Our smoke alarms are hard wired, just a battery back up.

I set the alarm off regularly in my sewing room when I iron.......so I do know what it sounds like.

M.Elizabeth

As one poster said, I also hate the chirp-chirp-chirp of the alarm when the battery is low. The alarm in our kitchen / den area goes off every year in the fall when the gas logs are lit for the first time. We vacuum, but apparently there is still a ton of dust that has collected on the logs. That alarm is quite loud, to be sure!

Kitsie

Yes, it sounds off when I boil water but not when I burn bacon!!