Santa's Friend Chimney Service

The Recent Time Change and Your Smoke Detectors


The recent time change for Daylight Savings was more than a reminder to set your clocks forward 1 hour. It was also a reminder that smoke detector batteries should be periodically changed. Advised to use our twice-yearly time changes to keep up with battery strength, homeowners tracking spring’s special occasions and tax return deadlines sometimes forget. Since it really is a good idea for home safety, we thought it worth bringing forward for new attention now that April Fool’s is past.

Smoke Alarms - Jackson MS - Santa's Friend Chimney

Why Bother Now?

Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors save lives, but not if their batteries are not good. In addition,  knowing their condition is not easy. If there is any uncertainty about a battery’s remaining life, it should not be in a smoke or gas detector. Remove it and put it in something less essential to safety, like an extra flashlight or a backup alarm clock.

Getting the last possible drop of juice out of every battery is not a great idea when the batteries are in life-saving alarms. All the statistics point to the costly dangers of undetected smoke and toxic gases, with high public awareness now of carbon monoxide in particular. Yet, those inexpensive batteries tend to be things about which we entrust too much confidence in both big-name and unknown brands.

Extend Lives Another Way

How many homeowners really check how many hours their batteries last or at what point their strength has diminished to unacceptable? More and more homeowners with a taste for short-term savings have switched to ‘house wine’ batteries, coming from who knows where. It is incredibly sad but true that spending a few more cents on each battery might save lives.

So, replace them sooner rather than later, and they can still be used in dozens of other common household items where if a battery dies it is literally not a matter of life and death. Children’s toys, gaming devices, phone bases, bike lights; there are any number of things that you can put used batteries into. Performing too important a function, your carbon monoxide and smoke detectors are not the place for them, so it really is time to change them.

By on April 5th, 2013 | Tagged with: Tags: , | Leave a Comment