Today's irritating modern consumer device is a smoke detector. It's one of the modern type which comes with a built in lithium battery which is claimed to last for ten years. I bought this one in May 2022 and it failed overnight, so it actually only lasted slightly over 4 years. Not impressive. The intermittent "replace the battery" peeping noise began to irritate our dogs which was even more annoying than it would have been if it just irritated us. I had of course kept the receipt and even the box that it came in because I just wasn't sure that this thing really would last ten years, so this morning I took it back to the shop and they gave me a new one. Can't complain about the customer service as they were very straightforward about it. I brought the old one home to take a look inside and it is of course about as boring as they always are. The CR123A lithium cell still measures 3 V, so I don't know what it was complaining about. Perhaps I'll find something else to use that cell for. (This uses an optical sensor so there's no amusing radioactivity. On the other hand, an older ionizing detector which I keep around reliably produces a reading on my geiger counter) #rookmelder #smokedetector #enshittification