Smoke alarm went off in my apartment today. I have experience with them, but never even close to this loud. For the five or six seconds I was fully exposed (ears not plugged) during the evacuation (can't open a door without hands), the sound level was so high it felt like it was piercing my soul and caused me genuine pain. My ears are still slightly more full than usual, the ringing sounds are strange and a bit louder, and I felt a little off-balance. Though that part could be nerves.
I looked up the company that makes the alarms and tried the best I could to find the specific model. Of all the ones I looked up, this alarm does NOT have a dB rating. All of the other ones are claimed to be 85 dB, but even my partially deaf father agreed that that noise was far louder than 85 dB. I personally thought it had to be a minimum of 110 dB. Considering that the max noise level of an alarm is 120 dB I doubt that is far from reality.
Here is what (I think) the model is- (https://www.firstalert.com/product/hardwired-smoke-and-carbon-monoxide-alarm-with-battery-backup/) - although I cannot be certain because it doesn't look exactly like the ones in my apartment:
I looked up the company that makes the alarms and tried the best I could to find the specific model. Of all the ones I looked up, this alarm does NOT have a dB rating. All of the other ones are claimed to be 85 dB, but even my partially deaf father agreed that that noise was far louder than 85 dB. I personally thought it had to be a minimum of 110 dB. Considering that the max noise level of an alarm is 120 dB I doubt that is far from reality.
Here is what (I think) the model is- (https://www.firstalert.com/product/hardwired-smoke-and-carbon-monoxide-alarm-with-battery-backup/) - although I cannot be certain because it doesn't look exactly like the ones in my apartment:
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