NFR Murphy's Law

[GloucesterWhite]

Why is it an unwritten rule in life that the batteries in smoke alarms give up at 3 a.m? You just lie there waiting for the next beep. 

[Holders]

Cole's Law is pickled cabbage in mayonnaise.

[toshes mate]

The smallest component, when unintentionally dropped on the floor, will become invisible in a subsequent search.

[WhiteJC]

The smallest component, when unintentionally dropped on the floor, will become invisible in a subsequent search.

I know for a fact tat the "carpet monster" feeds on any small item dropped

[bog]

Or you cannot find something until you stop looking for it.  :022:

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[filham]

The smoke alarms in my flat are fixed to the ceiling and it is not easy to remove the cover, particularly in the early hours which ,as stated , seems to be the default time for the battery to fail.

I often wonder if there are not more injuries caused by sleepy people trying to climb up to the alarms than there are by fires.

[Mince n Tatties]

Came home from shopping once and put it all away.
Couldn't find my reading glasses anywhere, searched high and low for an hour.
Wife went to make a cuppa and found them in beside the milk compartment.

[Ronnief]

My wife put her watch on the toilet cistern when she went for a shower. The watch slipped down the back of the cistern, do you think we can find it?  Sod's or Murphy's?

[Holders]

The smoke alarms in my flat are fixed to the ceiling and it is not easy to remove the cover, particularly in the early hours which ,as stated , seems to be the default time for the battery to fail.

I often wonder if there are not more injuries caused by sleepy people trying to climb up to the alarms than there are by fires.

Best to wire them into the mains.

[GloucesterWhite]

The smoke alarms in my flat are fixed to the ceiling and it is not easy to remove the cover, particularly in the early hours which ,as stated , seems to be the default time for the battery to fail.

I often wonder if there are not more injuries caused by sleepy people trying to climb up to the alarms than there are by fires.

Best to wire them into the mains.

They are wired to the mains, but there is a battery backup and that dies, causing the alarm to beep.

[filham]

The smoke alarms in my flat are fixed to the ceiling and it is not easy to remove the cover, particularly in the early hours which ,as stated , seems to be the default time for the battery to fail.

I often wonder if there are not more injuries caused by sleepy people trying to climb up to the alarms than there are by fires.

Best to wire them into the mains.

They are mains operated but I think the battery is there to cover power failure, which should mean it lasts for ever and always but it does need renewing every few years.

[Nero]

I thought Murphy's law was if Fulham had a good game the other team played poorly and if Liverpool had a good game they made the other team look poor

[I Ronic]

I'm just waiting for a certain person to point out, it's neither Murphy's or Sods fault but TK's

[H4usuallysitting]

You need to employ a director of batteries - and have a stats based method of purchasing batteries....try buying the batteries at the very last minute or buying batteries that haven't been used for a long time....loan some batteries

[sunburywhite]

Murphy's Law is a BBC television drama, produced by Tiger Aspect Productions for BBC Northern Ireland, starring James Nesbitt as an undercover police officer,

[Forever Fulham]

Spent several hours a night for 3 nights after getting home from work last week trying to fix the beeping in my wired ceiling smoke and CO detectors.  12 of those damn devices in my house.  Got the ladder, exchanged every battery with a fresh one.  Still beeping.  Unplugged the transformer, disconnected the big battery, flipped the circuit breaker in the box.  Next night, unplugged and removed and cleaned the detectors of any accumulated dust, doubled checked the polarity on the battery contacts, reinserted batteries, replugged and reinstalled everything, and still getting a beep every 15-45 seconds.  The beeps cycle throughout the house.  Removed the batteries, unplugged everything from ceiling.  Yesterday, wife called a guy who's coming out Monday to replace the detectors and plug-in wiring harnesses.  Apparently, these damn things have a normal working life of around 10 years, and they've been in place since 2003.   

[Southcoastffc]

A sort of Sod's Law joke:


A research scientist dropped a piece of buttered toast on the floor and was amazed to see that it landed butter-side up, thereby disproving the long-held theory that toast always lands butter-side down. Thinking that he might have made an important breakthrough that could lead to the rewriting of science textbooks, he took the slice of toast to a colleague for his observations.

"How could it be that when I dropped this slice of toast, it landed butter-side up when all previous knowledge suggests that the opposite should have occurred?"

"It's easy," said the colleague. "You must have buttered the wrong side."

[GloucesterWhite]

Spent several hours a night for 3 nights after getting home from work last week trying to fix the beeping in my wired ceiling smoke and CO detectors.  12 of those damn devices in my house.  Got the ladder, exchanged every battery with a fresh one.  Still beeping.  Unplugged the transformer, disconnected the big battery, flipped the circuit breaker in the box.  Next night, unplugged and removed and cleaned the detectors of any accumulated dust, doubled checked the polarity on the battery contacts, reinserted batteries, replugged and reinstalled everything, and still getting a beep every 15-45 seconds.  The beeps cycle throughout the house.  Removed the batteries, unplugged everything from ceiling.  Yesterday, wife called a guy who's coming out Monday to replace the detectors and plug-in wiring harnesses.  Apparently, these damn things have a normal working life of around 10 years, and they've been in place since 2003.   

Had the same problem. Found the solution on the internet. Unplug, remove the battery, then hold down the test button for 20 seconds. Apparently the alarms can hold residual power which starts them beeping again. Holding the test button down gets rid of it. Worked for me.

[Holders]

Spent several hours a night for 3 nights after getting home from work last week trying to fix the beeping in my wired ceiling smoke and CO detectors.  12 of those damn devices in my house.  Got the ladder, exchanged every battery with a fresh one.  Still beeping.  Unplugged the transformer, disconnected the big battery, flipped the circuit breaker in the box.  Next night, unplugged and removed and cleaned the detectors of any accumulated dust, doubled checked the polarity on the battery contacts, reinserted batteries, replugged and reinstalled everything, and still getting a beep every 15-45 seconds.  The beeps cycle throughout the house.  Removed the batteries, unplugged everything from ceiling.  Yesterday, wife called a guy who's coming out Monday to replace the detectors and plug-in wiring harnesses.  Apparently, these damn things have a normal working life of around 10 years, and they've been in place since 2003.   

I'm interested because I had a similar problem. I assume they're mains wired and all interconnected? Are they all beeping or just one?

Mine are mains wired and inter-connected but only one was beeping. It turned out to be crudded up with dust and not serviceable. All I had to do was change that one. If your problem is different I'd be interested to know what it turns out to be.

[Forever Fulham]

I tested each device after reinstalling with new batteries.  Press the test button which cycled the beeping throughout the house.  Did all that.  And STILL the beeping continued.  All of them are connected to in-ceiling wiring via a 3-pin plug.  You unplug the pin and you can remove the device (which I did).  Made a number of calls and learned the detectors have a usable lifespan.