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jp1
9-16-20, 6:26pm
When we did the final walkthrough of our house yesterday I noticed that there is a smoke alarm all the way at the top of the vaulted ceiling over the staircase. It will take a handyman with a 25 foot ladder to change the battery. (We’re definitely not going to climb a ladder that tall nor do we have room to store such a big one purpose item. )

Is it really necessary to be all the way up there? I’m tempted to install one just above the flat hallway ceiling level in the staircase that could be accessed from a normal ladder in the upstairs hallway. We could have the painters unplug and remove the battery of this one this weekend.
JaneV2.0
9-16-20, 6:38pm
That's where one of mine is, too--along with a couple of can lights. Real practical.
You might check with your fire department for an alternate location.
Alan
9-16-20, 7:05pm
When we did the final walkthrough of our house yesterday I noticed that there is a smoke alarm all the way at the top of the vaulted ceiling over the staircase. It will take a handyman with a 25 foot ladder to change the battery. (We’re definitely not going to climb a ladder that tall nor do we have room to store such a big one purpose item.
Are you sure it isn't hard wired with a battery backup? Ours are and we've only had to change the backup batteries once in 25 years, and we only did it then because we were painting and decided to do it while we had it disconnected, they tested fine.
SteveinMN
9-16-20, 10:32pm
we've only had to change the backup batteries once in 25 years
My understanding was that smoke detectors had a useful life of about 10 years, hardwired or battery-powered.

bae?
Alan
9-16-20, 10:40pm
My understanding was that smoke detectors had a useful life of about 10 years, hardwired or battery-powered.

bae?
I set one of them off a few months ago during what may be best considered a "cooking misadventure". My understanding was that it worked perfectly.
jp1
9-17-20, 12:57am
Just got back from our new home. None of the smoke detectors are hard wired. we will be killing the one up in the stratosphere. We will also be buying 7 ten year units and putting them up over the next few weeks.
jp1
9-17-20, 12:58am
I set one of them off a few months ago during what may be best considered a "cooking misadventure". My understanding was that it worked perfectly.

A "dinner's done" alarm?
Tybee
9-17-20, 10:37am
Make sure to buy a carbon monoxide one, too.
Alan
9-17-20, 12:10pm
A "dinner's done" alarm?
More of a "It's time for takeout" notification.
Gardnr
9-17-20, 12:59pm
State dependent. Here, code is smoke alarm outside each bedroom. That's it.
jp1
9-17-20, 3:01pm
I looked up the code here and it's one alarm in the hall on each floor and one in each bedroom. Houses newer than 1992 have to be wired. Older ones have to be 10 year battery or wired. Since there's easy access I will probably also put one in the attic.

Since we have painters painting the stairway walls and removing the popcorn ceilings throughout the upstairs and will be up there on scaffolding anyway we will have them remove the unreachable one and will replace it with one in the hallway.