How to Change the Batteries in Your Smoke Detector

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Tim Gipson and I want to show you how to change a battery in your smoke detector. Now this is something that you should do at least every six months. And to make sure that you have fresh batteries in there. Now the first thing we want to do is we want to get our stepladder and we want to make sure that we position it properly. And a lot of the stepladders, these older type have this shelf, and you want to make sure this shelf is down because it's for extra security. So once your stepladder is positioned and you know it's sturdy, then go ahead and climb up. Now with these smoke detectors, they come off with a twist, counter clockwise about a quarter of a turn. And then there is a connector up in here, has a little tab and you just simply pull up on that, and that'll release the smoke detector. Inside the smoke detectors there is a door that you can just flip up with your finger, and that will expose a nine volt battery. And then simply from this point we can detach the battery and it helps to - when you're trying to get these batteries out - these terminals can be kind of tight so if you just rock it back and forth a little bit like that, it'll come off pretty good. And then of course snapping them back in goes on a lot easier than it comes off. And stow the battery back inside, close the compartment. Now you notice that there's a red circle here. So you notice that when we open the door that red circle comes up, so when you close this door you want to make sure that that red circle is fully depressed, and that way that you know that your battery is in properly. Now on your connector, these are spaced in such a way that there's only one way you can put it back on. So you will clip this back on, you'll want to align the tabs, quarter turn back, and we're done. And it's also important to make sure you have a test button here and once you replace the batteries to go ahead and test your smoke detectors. So I'm Tim Gipson and that's how you replace a battery on a smoke detector."