Smoke alarm - nobody moves

[wavesmax]

Bloody smoke alarms keep going off, it's just gone midnight and all 3 go off. I'm on mumsnet catching up and DH and 2 kids 9&15 are asleep. I leap out of bed searching for fire, smoke. The alarms stop. I shout to DH to check the house with me, by the time he's stumbled out of bed I've checked every room and socket in our 3 storey house. I check the kids who are all fast asleep. Then one of the alarms beeps once, I get DH to remove the battery, he goes back to bed.

I'm shocked that I'm the only one to move, in fact I flew out of bed. I'm sure I would of heard the alarm if I'd of been asleep.

AIBU to worry about the complete lack of reaction from my family in what could of been a life threatening emergency? I know it was published a few months ago that younger ears don't register the high frequencies so well, maybe this proves it. As for DH he must be deaf!

Hopefully that will be it now, I'm definitely buying 3 new batteries plus spares first thing tomorrow. Still have the 2 remaining alarms fitted and working so we are just about covered. To awake now to sleep.

Get one that screams in your voice “get the fuck up”. It work with children, untested on adults

We used to live in a massive old property that used to be a children’s home so had ‘proper’ industrial smoke alarms for commercial properties that are linked to the fire brigade. They once went off and I was the only one wandering around the house - there was 9 other people slept through it - including a fire engine pulling up outside! They recommend the ones that speak and say “fire, leave the building” as apparently that wakes you up!

Well you got up to check. Presumably if there was a fire you’d have then woken everyone and got out, so it’s not a massive issue really is it?

Children iften don't wake for alarms. Our alarm went off 3 times right outside our DC's bedrooms one night and neither stirred at all.
I then took part in a nationwide trial of a talking alarm. It said "wake up, wake up, the house is on fire". I put it right by my children's ears. One rolled over and went back to sleep the other dudn't stir at all (both aged under 8 at the time).
We now know if an alarm goes off in the night to go and get them. They will not wake.
I'm not sure what age they loose that deep sleep and can wake for alarms. I would have expected a quicker response from your DH though. I'm assuming if you yelled you'd found a fire in the house he'd have moved a bit quicker!

Lindy2 they’ve tested now with ones that talk using a recording of the mother, they apparently work pretty well.

www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/moms-voice-is-best-fire-alarm

Sorry, are we talking about the usual smoke alarms that sound like a banshee attempting to drown out a 747 being amplified through the PA system at Wembley? They are about 100 decibels and would wake the dead. I can't see how anyone could sleep through that din.

I mean you woke up, if there was a fire you'd have woken your family up and gone from there.

The fire alarm went off so much in my old house the kids would grab a tea towel and start wafting without so much as a glance up from their iPad. It never occurred to us for one second that there would be an actual fire

Same as car alarms really. When have you ever heard a car alarm and thought someone was actually being robbed?

I was awake checking out mumsnet, it didn't wake me. I like to think that it would. I tend to hear everything, I'm a bit of a worrier.

Feel like the battery in the other 2 will start to go any min.

It's well known that children don't register them when asleep, sadly it's why children often are the ones who don't escape, the voice ones work with children much better.

Our alarms are linked so if one goes off they all go off, but a flat battery does not set smoke alarms off it only beeps every minute or so. If all of them went off, some thing set one off, the beep afterwards was the the activated alarm resetting itself..

Also check your alarms are in date, the only last a few years!
Ours are mains with battery back up and go out of date in 2020

JustABetterPlayer that's really interesting. Our trial was just a pre recorded lady's voice. 90% waking up for their mother's voice is a really good rate.

This is something I have never considered but it has got me and DH talking about escape routes and testing fire alarms as we've been in our new house 3 months and the kids are on a different floor. I might look into one of those talking alarms.

Ours are wired up to the mains and sound exactly as fiddlesticks describes.

Dh once set them off at 4am with his deodorant and I jumped up immediately from a deep sleep thinking there was a fire. The dcs who are closer to the alarms didn't hear a thing. The alarms were going off for a couple of minutes and they didn't even stir, my ears were ringing for a good hour or so as I couldn't get back to sleep after the adrenaline. At least now I know we'd have to drag the dcs up and not expect them wake up if it was ever a real alarm.