Alarm Angel

How to complete Alarm Angel

Smoke and CO detectors are the one household device that only matters when everything else has already gone wrong, and a surprising share of homes have at least one dead unit. Twenty minutes with a step stool and fresh batteries is the highest-return safety chore in the house.

1. Walk every room and count your detectors: one per floor, one inside or near each bedroom, and a CO detector near sleeping areas and fuel-burning appliances.
2. Press and hold the test button on each unit until the siren sounds at full volume; weak or silent means dead batteries or a dead unit.
3. Swap batteries in every unit at once, even those that passed, so they all age together.
4. Check the manufacture date printed on the back: smoke detectors expire around 10 years, CO detectors around 5-7. Replace expired units, not just their batteries.

Tips

• Vacuum the vents while you're up there; dust is a common cause of false alarms.
• A unit that still chirps after fresh batteries is at end of life — replace it.
• Tie the annual battery swap to a fixed date, like a clock change, so you never skip a year.

What counts as done

Every detector in your home has sounded a full-volume test alarm on fresh batteries and none is past its expiry date.