It’s a good habit to form. If you use battery-powered smoke detectors in your home or business, change the batteries each spring and fall as you turn your clocks forward or back when Daylight Saving Time starts and ends.

No, there’s nothing magical about doing these tasks at the same time – it’s just an excellent way to link the tasks in your memory and avoid having a dead smoke detector. The last thing you want is to find out your batteries are dead by having a fire in your home or office and the detector fails to warn you!

It’s recommended that the battery in every smoke detector be changed at least annually. If you didn’t change them at the last time change, then you definitely want to do so at the next change.

By the way, most of us have mobile devices whose clocks change automatically when the time changes. The challenge we face is to remember all of the other clocks that need to be changed manually. Here’s a few that we sometimes overlook:

Microwave/oven clocks

 

Coffeemaker clocks

 

 

Programmable thermostat clocks

 

 

Car radio clocks

 

 

Alarm clocks

 

 

Mantel clocks

 

 

Wristwatches (yes, some folks still wear them!)