It's time to change your smoke alarm battery

As we are approaching a time change due to daylight savings, it's time to change those smoke alarms batteries.

It is recommended that batteries be replaced in all residential smoke alarms every 6 months. This ensures that the smoke alarm will be able to alert you to a fire.

Smoke alarms do save lives and are very cheap and affordable - what is not affordable is a faulty smoke alarm that due to no maintenance may cost you or your loved one's life.

Maintenance is easy, just a simple monthly check. How to do this check is simple: you need to hold in the Test button for 2 or 3 seconds until you hear a sounding alarm.

If you are unable to reach, try using a broom or ladder. If you hear an intermittent chirping every few minutes, such as a short burst or single beep, it could mean one of two things. A: your battery is going flat or B: the detector is faulty.

An easy problem to fix: buy a new battery and replace the old one, if it continues to beep you have a faulty detector which needs replacing. A simple battery-operated smoke alarm is available from all supermarkets.

This goes for smoke alarms that have a constant supply of power too, which you will find in all new homes. Commonly the first thing to go in a fire is your power, so if your batteries are flat it may fail to warn you or your family. You will need an electrician to replace a hard-wired smoke alarm, as 240V power can be fatal.

It is also recommended that smoke alarms be replaced every 10 years, to ensure that they are still able to detect a fire early enough to be of use.

If you would like more information or have a question, contact us on Facebook, Twitter or by email. 

Smoke alarms do save lives!