On Thursday, October 1, 2015 at 11:40:49 AM UTC-5, Don Y wrote:

Excessive chatter deleted.

On 10/1/2015 2:54 AM, ItsJoanNotJoann wrote:

The smoke alarms 'tweets' when the batteries needs to be changed.

We don't wait until it starts it's INCESSANT chirping. Do you
want to listen to it for an hour, day, week before you get around
to replacing the battery? Easier to be proactive and replace it
before it complains.

I change it immediately upon hearing it tweet.

We don't keep "spare batteries" (for anything) on hand.

Well, I do.

I suspect
this is true of many folks as it seems common for people to UNPLUG
their smoke detectors when they start chirping. Then, forget
to buy the battery and end up operating with no smoke detectors
in place (at least, we hear of homes lost to fire wherein the
smoke detectors had no batteries in them -- this seems like a
logical explanation of what transpired).

I don't suspect what other people do with their smoke alarms.
Not my business.

More chatter deleted.

Experience has taught us that *this* is what works best for us.
We don't "discover" the filter needs to be replaced and then
"discover" we don't have a replacement on hand. Instead, we
treat it like any other "scheduled maintenance" item and
replace it on *our* schedule (instead of *its* schedule) so
we always know when we will *need* replacements.

I don't "discover" the filter needs to be changed. Remember,
I said I write it on my calendar. Also, I DO keep spare
filters on hand, just like I keep spare batteries on hand
for the smoke detectors and those batteries are also used
for clocks and remotes.