Before you begin. This procedure is general reference information, not professional advice. Equipment varies by manufacturer, model, and year. Always follow the documentation supplied with your equipment — where it differs from this page, follow the manufacturer. Verify that you have the tools, the working conditions, and the ability to do this task safely. If anything is unclear, if the equipment is damaged, or if the task exceeds your experience, stop and use a qualified professional. You are responsible for your own safety and for the outcome. This site accepts no liability for any loss, damage, or injury arising from the use of this information.
Specifications marked unverified could not be traced to a manufacturer source. Do not rely on them — obtain the value from your equipment documentation.
A smoke detector that chirps once a minute is almost always asking for a battery, and the change itself takes about two minutes. The part people skip is the date. Every smoke alarm carries a date of manufacture on its back label, and the U.S. Fire Administration says the whole unit has to go ten years from that date. A new battery does not reset that clock. So this page does the date check first and the battery second, because there is no point buying a battery for an alarm that is already finished.
What this page will not do is tell you which battery to buy. The batteries a given alarm accepts are listed by the company that made it, and NFPA is explicit that you use those and not a substitute, so that value is published here as an instruction to go and read your own label. The page also stops where the reach stops: it covers an alarm you can touch from the floor or from a stable step stool, and nothing higher. Hardwired alarms are covered as far as the backup battery and no further, because the mounting plate and everything behind it is an electrician's work.
DO NOT STAND ON A CHAIR OR ON A TABLE TO TOUCH THE ALARM.
You can fall and injure yourself. Use a stable step stool.
| Item | Note |
|---|---|
| Stable step stool | The step stool must have a wide base. |
| Flashlight optional | The label on the back of the alarm is small. |
| Pen and paper | Use these to record the date of manufacture. |
| New battery material | Use only a battery type that the manufacturer of the alarm specifies. |
Estimated 2 min
Estimated 3 min to 5 min
Source: Smoke Alarms · tier 1 · accessed 2026-07-29
No tier-1 source was found for this value. Take it from the documentation supplied with your equipment.
DO NOT REMOVE THE MOUNTING PLATE OF AN ALARM THAT HAS WIRES.
The wires behind the plate can give you an electric shock.
REPLACE AN ALARM THAT IS MORE THAN 10 YEARS OLD.
An old sensor can fail to sense smoke. A new battery does not correct this.
Estimated 4 min
Source: Smoke Alarms · tier 1 · accessed 2026-07-29
No tier-1 source was found for this value. Take it from the documentation supplied with your equipment.
INSTALL THE NEW BATTERY IMMEDIATELY.
An alarm without a battery cannot give a warning. This can kill the persons in the home.
USE ONLY A BATTERY TYPE THAT THE MANUFACTURER SPECIFIES.
A different battery can make the alarm fail.
Estimated 2 min to 3 min
Source: Smoke Alarms · tier 1 · accessed 2026-07-29
MOVE YOUR HEAD AWAY FROM THE ALARM BEFORE YOU PUSH THE TEST BUTTON.
The alarm makes a very loud sound.
Estimated 2 min
This page uses one term for each item and holds it throughout, as ASD-STE100 requires. Equipment sellers and other guides use the names below for the same parts.
Stop if you cannot touch the alarm when you stand on a stable step stool. Speak to your local fire department. Many fire departments do this work at no cost.
Stop if the alarm has wires. Do not remove the mounting plate. Do not disconnect the wires. A qualified electrician must do all work behind the mounting plate. NFPA gives the same instruction for the replacement of an alarm that has wires.
Stop if the alarm makes no sound after you install a new battery. Stop if the alarm continues to make a short sound after you install a new battery. This alarm is at the end of its life. Replace the alarm.
Because the chirp was probably never about the battery. NFPA's installation guide tells fire departments to replace on the spot any alarm that will not respond to a test after a fresh battery has gone in, and a chirp that survives a new battery is the same signal. Read the date of manufacture on the back label before you buy another battery. If it is ten or more years old, the alarm has reached the end of its life and no battery will fix it.
At least once a year, according to both the U.S. Fire Administration and CPSC, and that includes the backup battery inside a hardwired alarm. NFPA adds the other trigger: change it the moment the low-battery indicator starts sounding, whenever in the year that happens. Alarms sold with a sealed ten-year battery are the exception, because there is nothing in them to change; you replace the whole alarm instead.
The date of manufacture is printed on the label on the back of the alarm, which means taking it off its mounting plate to read it. Kidde's support documentation says the same thing about its own alarms: the date code is stamped on the back label. The date you bought it or the date it was installed is not the number that counts, because an alarm can sit in a warehouse for a year before it is sold. The U.S. Fire Administration counts the ten years from the manufacture date.
This page deliberately does not say. NFPA's guidance is that you fit only the batteries the alarm's own manufacturer lists as replacements, and that list is model-specific. It is usually printed inside the battery compartment and always in the manual. Buying a battery that merely fits is the failure mode this rule exists to prevent.
No. They detect completely different things and a smoke alarm will not warn you about carbon monoxide. CPSC notes that combination smoke and CO alarms are sold, so one unit on your ceiling may be doing both jobs, but you cannot assume it. Check the label on the front of the unit.
No, and the U.S. Fire Administration puts it bluntly: disabling a smoke alarm or removing the battery can be a deadly mistake. Open a window or a door, press the hush button if the alarm has one, and wave a towel near the alarm to clear the air. If it keeps happening, USFA's advice is to move the alarm several feet further from the kitchen rather than to silence it.
Every specification on this page is traced to one of these sources. Tier 1 is a manufacturer document, a published standard, or a government safety authority. See Standards for the full tiering rule.
Current version 1 · updated 2026-07-29 · next review due 2027-07-29
Corrections to this page are listed in the public corrections log. Reports that are credible and not yet verified are listed in the public errata register, and an open one renders above the step it concerns.
Found an error? A correction with a manufacturer source is applied and logged publicly. You can also write to corrections@fixchecklist.com.
Every step above carries its own report control, which tags the report with that step so a correction reaches the right place. For anything about the procedure as a whole — the order of the sections, a step that is missing, something that did not match your equipment — use this: report something about this whole procedure.