# Beeping/Chirping Sound



## GrapeLivre (Apr 5, 2014)

My family and I keep hearing this beeping/chirping sound. It started last week. We checked the smoke alarms and CO detector. The sound is not from them. It sounds like it's coming from a hanging lighting fixture on the dining room ceiling. The sound does not change, but sometimes the volume does. It makes that sound when the light is off and even when the circuit breaker is off. 

We called out landlord, but he won't send anyone to look at it. He won't return our phone calls, either. We can't afford an electrician. He gets mad when the tenants keep contacting him. Other tenants have complained about him also.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you.


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## Gymschu (Dec 12, 2010)

I seriously doubt it's coming from a light fixture. It has to be a smoke alarm either in your apt or an adjoining apt.


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## Oso954 (Jun 23, 2012)

> We checked the smoke alarms and CO detector.


How did you check them ? 

When was the last time the batteries were changed ?


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## GrapeLivre (Apr 5, 2014)

I checked the smoke alarms. I'll be next to the alarms, and the noise sounds distant. I even removed the batteries and I still hear it. It doesn't seem like the noise is coming from them. 

I thought maybe the noise was from the wiring or something. I can't seem to find anything that's causing it. 

My next door neighbor says she doesn't hear anything.


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## Oso954 (Jun 23, 2012)

I have the problem of telling which smoke alarm is chirping. Don't know if its my hearing, the locations, or the particular pitch of my detectors. Best I can do is one end of the house or the other.

If yours are hard wired with battery backup, they will chirp without batteries.

With my hard wire/battery system, when one starts chirping, I change the batteries in all of them.

Beeping sounds in my house would be the washer or dryer. I hear those even when my wife does not.


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## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

Buried Smoke detector. Call your local Building codes dept. and state this, or the local Fire Marshall. I am sure that they would love to put a stop to the beeping, and charge your landlord for failure to maintain the system.


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## GrapeLivre (Apr 5, 2014)

The smoke detectors are about 2 months old, with the batteries they came with. I took out the batteries and I still heard the beeping. It's not hard wired. Someone from the city installed them for free. We threw out our old smoke detector. 

The CO detector is about 8 years old. I unplugged it and I still heard the beeping. So, it may not be that. I keep looking for something else that would cause it. I can't find anything. 

I'll contact the building codes dept. and fire dept. Hopefully they will help.


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## de-nagorg (Feb 23, 2014)

I vote for a Smoke detector that was overlooked by the installation crew, 

Could also be a stuck doorbell transformer, maybe.

ED


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## RocketGal (Mar 29, 2012)

If a spider walked across the sensor would that cause the detector to give out a short beep?


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## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

RocketGal said:


> If a spider walked across the sensor would that cause the detector to give out a short beep?


No it would not.


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## GrapeLivre (Apr 5, 2014)

Actually, the doorbell box is near where I hear the sound. However, our doorbell doesn't work. I can't find any extra smoke detectors.


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## iminaquagmire (Jul 10, 2010)

By chance is your oven on when you hear it? Took me weeks to figure out that the oven shelf expanding with heat would squeak against the side of the oven. There are lots of other possibilities like bad bearings in fans or ductwork flexing. As for a buried smoke detector, I've been on calls where they asked us to check them only to find out it was an old one they hadn't thrown out sitting on the shelf in the closet. Otherwise I don't know how you bury a smoke detector.


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## UpNorthEd (Apr 5, 2014)

I vote for smoke detector. They can be tricky


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## jmon (Nov 5, 2012)

GrapeLivre said:


> The smoke detectors are about 2 months old, with the batteries they came with. I took out the batteries and I still heard the beeping. It's not hard wired. Someone from the city installed them for free. We threw out our old smoke detector.
> 
> The CO detector is about 8 years old. I unplugged it and I still heard the beeping. So, it may not be that. I keep looking for something else that would cause it. I can't find anything.
> 
> I'll contact the building codes dept. and fire dept. Hopefully they will help.


Hopefully you will find the source of the beeping soon. 

Nothing to do with the beeping, as that's been covered pretty thouroughly, just some general information everyone knows but may be worth repeating; The date of manufacture is usually stamped on the back of your alarms. They are usually good for about 5-7 years depending on quality of the alarm and then should be replaced. Your new smoke detectors should be good to go unless they are defective. However, the CO detector, if it's over 8 years old, should be replaced. Just a suggestion/comment.


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## Daniel Holzman (Mar 10, 2009)

Could be in the next apartment. Smoke detector, CO detector, oven, cell phone, alarm clock, computer backup power supply, lots of things can chirp.


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## Gymschu (Dec 12, 2010)

It could also be a child's toy. I've worked in houses and would hear chirping, music, other strange sounds that ended up being a toy in a toy box stuck in the "on" position and the battery dying.


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## MTN REMODEL LLC (Sep 11, 2010)

Daniel Holzman said:


> Could be in the next apartment. Smoke detector, CO detector, oven, cell phone, alarm clock, computer backup power supply, lots of things can chirp.


Got to tell a related story, but not chirping.

Neighbor calls on Sunday afternoon after just getting home from the airport/vacation. They have a strange hum/buzzing in the home.

Go over there and start checking.... first think it's HA vents...they just turned back on heat, turn it off but hum/buzz is still there. It's veiled/muffled but can't locate it.

Check refrigerator and furnace but can't spot it. Turn off main breaker, but it's still humming.

Afraid it's a water leak, turn off water, and wait 15 minutes to make sure meter does not move any..... Nope....

It was in their luggage that they had dropped on the hardwood kitchen floor.

John claimed it was his electric razor, but it was in his wife's luggage. 

I discretely left before they opened the luggage.



(As far as chirping, is it regular timed like electronic or erratic... it is getting to be breeding season around here for our woodpeckers... we get them in our walls through wood siding)

Good luck


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## taylorjm (Apr 11, 2013)

I have had my smoke detectors beep in the middle of the night, and removed the batteries, only to have them keep chirping. Even just the battery powered ones. For some reason, there's enough residual power in the circuitry to keep them chirping for quite awhile. I took the whole smoke detector down, pulled the battery, only to have to get back up and and put it under the couch cushion so I couldn't hear the beeping.


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## UnclePhil (Mar 4, 2014)

I think it's the gymnasium on the third floor. 
The chirping sound of sneakers on the wood floor while playing basketball. 

Spooks

Boo


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## dmxtothemax (Oct 26, 2010)

An old redundant battery powered smoke alarm inside the roof cavity !
possiblly put there when the wired ones where instaled ?


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## GrapeLivre (Apr 5, 2014)

I feel stupid. It turns out there was a smoke alarm that I didn't know we had. I thought we threw all them out. So far, that sound stopped. 

I was worried it was electrical. We had problems with our electricity before. That same light kept dimming and blinking. The electrician said it was related to the circuit breaker. He said we should have it replaced. 

Thank you for the responses.


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## joed (Mar 13, 2005)

New smoke detector still in the box on the shelf in the closet?


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## UnclePhil (Mar 4, 2014)

GrapeLivre said:


> I feel stupid. It turns out there was a smoke alarm that I didn't know we had. I thought we threw all them out. So far, that sound stopped.


Ahhhhhhhh... Anticlimactic. 

:jester:


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## GrapeLivre (Apr 5, 2014)

joed said:


> New smoke detector still in the box on the shelf in the closet?


It was an old one in a basket under some papers. We took out the battery and threw it out.


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## Robpo (Mar 30, 2014)

Entertaining and informative, can't beat it.


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## de-nagorg (Feb 23, 2014)

AAH, reality is often less climaxical than any good detective story.:whistling2:

Glad that it was discovered.:yes:

ED


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## buddy builder (Jul 26, 2009)

change ALL batteries in ALL smoke detectors. if not that kill all power to the house. still hear it? look around good for any item that might not be connected to house in any way but has batteries. like and old toy, game, emergency light and radio kit. anything with a low battery warning.


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## buddy builder (Jul 26, 2009)

haha. just backtracked where you found your problem. a word of advice though. change all smoke detector batteries once a year whether they need it or not. a good idea is to change them when you put up your Christmas tree. usually stores have batteries on sale for Christmas anyway and lots of fires are in the winter months.


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## GrapeLivre (Apr 5, 2014)

Thank you for the responses.


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