Thursday, November 29, 2012

Over the Edge

Friday afternoon, about 4:45pm, just out of the blue, a very high pitched frequency sound started in my house. I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. I went through the whole house. I went to the basement, I stepped outside, I went to the garage, then I finally pinned it down to the kitchen, but couldn't figure out what it was. I hit the test button on the smoke detector. I pulled out the refrigerator so I could unplug it to see if that was it. I unplugged my lamp, I removed the twisty bulb in my lamp, I removed the batteries in my atomic clock, thinking maybe that was it. I pulled my HAIR!!!!! It just kept going on, and on, and on! It was driving me crazy, and it was about to push me over the edge! If I'd a had a confession to tell, I WOULD HAVE!

 

scream

 

I finally took this digital rain guage off the wall (photo shows it with new batteries).The batteries have been DEAD for a couple years. The sender part of this setup is out in the shed with dead batteries.  It has also been there for a couple years. So why was it emitting the high pitch?

xx

When I realized it was this thing, I took it outside and the sound followed me. I pulled the battery cover off, and the two AA batteries were corroded together. I lifted one end of the batteries away from the contacts and it stopped! PRAISE THE LORD! I pushed them back down, and the sound started again. WHEW! I seem to remember an episode on tv, but can't remember what show it was that someone was trying to stop a smoke detector from going off, even with the batteries out of it, and ended up taking a baseball bat to it, and it still squealed! I KNOW HOW THAT PERSON FELT!!!! 

Do you remember the show I am talking about? Has anything like this happened to you?

10 comments:

  1. I actually had that happen with a hardwired smoke detector. Pulled it down, removed the batteries and rest of the units in the house were still screaming. Ripped the one out of the basement, replaced the "bad" one and finally the screaming stopped. I was saying very bad words but the time it was all over.

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  2. That is frustrating until you figure out what it was! Glad you finally did; I bet you were glad when things were quiet again. I remember years ago when we still lived in Montana, my husband had left his pager at home. It went off and was vibrating and making a sound on the counter, but it would only do it for a few seconds then stop. I was working so it took me a few minutes to get to a stopping point to go and investigate and then found it, but it too was frustrating wondering what was making that sound!

    enjoy Thursday!

    betty

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  3. When we moved to our new home two years ago, the owners told us that our house was wired for a security system but it was never activated. However, there was a battery backup, and one day, it did just like you said. We could not figure out how to stop the screaming. We finally pulled the battery out of the unit, and it stopped. It was pretty nerve wracking.

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  4. When the boys were little, we had a vacuum toy, with batteries in it. If you pushed it around, it played music. When the batteries started dying, it would start to play, r=e=a=l=y s=l=o=w=l=y, when the boys were down for their naps. We called it the 'ghost' vacuum. It was the electronics, not the batteries that were the problem.

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  5. I'm picturing you with a baseball bat.... :) blessings, marlene

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  6. We had a fight with our smoke detector one time in the middle of the night,my husband ended up pulling out of the ceiling, which was not good since we were renting! LOL

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  7. Wow! I bet you are glad that is over. LOL!

    Have a wonderful and Blessed day
    Kristie

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  8. I've had that happen with a hardwired smoke detector...the unit was bad. Then there was the time a tenant called saying the smoke detector kept going off all the time and she had changed the batteries......Builder Bob went over and.....it was her alarm clock in the bedroom going off every 10 minutes.....she was embarrassed.

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  9. My brother heard a chirping in the house in late summer and started looking for the cricket. He bug bombed twice and still it chirped. It was one tough cricket. Eventually he figured out it was the low battery warning on smoke detector. Battery changed. Chirping stopped.

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  10. Glad you found the problem, because, yes, this would drive anyone around the bend. Years ago, we had one of those "singing" birthday candles that wouldn't shut off. We stomped on it, pounded it with a hammer, poured water over it. We finally put it in the outside garbage where we found it still singing the next morning.

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