So the other night, I'm sleeping peacefully, and suddenly ... "beep".  What was that?  Hmm, probably nothing.  Or I dreamt it.  I'm drowsing and then again ... "beep".  What?  Oh, crap, it's a smoke detector.  And of course there's no fire, just a low battery.

At right: the culprit.

I'll be the 10 millionth person to note how bad the UX is on these things.  This particular detector is wired into the 110V house power, which was not interrupted, but it has a battery backup, and after I don't know five years the battery ran low, and so it beeps.

First problem, it beeps once a minute.  So you can't easily find it.  Why not beep like every 2 seconds?  This particular smoke detector was located within five feet of four other ones - I kid you not - and it was not easy to figure out which one needed a battery.

Second problem, a red LED blinks too, but only once a minute!  Why not just turn it on?

Third problem, after replacing the battery, it still beeps.  I'm not kidding took about three beeps for it to relax and realize the battery was no longer a problem.  Which I only figured out after changing the battery three times.

Fourth problem, there is a reset button.  It's actually a rocker button with two sides; one side is "reset", the other side is "test".  In the middle of the night who can tell the difference; I accidentally pushed "test", which caused all the wired smoke detectors in the house to sound an alarm.  Yeah.  The test was "successful".

Fifth problem, after investigation, I actually have four count 'em four different types of smoke detectors fire sensors!  There are the wired ones like the one which beeped, but also heat detectors, CO2 detectors, and an entirely separate set of smoke detectors which are battery powered [only] and which communicate via RF with the house alarm system.  WTF?

Anyway the battery is installed, the smoke detector is happy.  And all is well until the next time when I'm awakened... "beep".

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