First off, this may or may not be legal, but seeing as this is in my own place of residence and it's bothering me a lot, I figured I'd ask.
I live in an apartment complex near my college. I have 2 smoke detectors in the living room/kitchen area and 1 in each of the 3 bedrooms.
In addition, there is a Simplex TrueAlert horn/strobe device on the living room wall. It is one of the loudest alarms I have ever heard, and it is completely unnecessary considering the smoke detectors are plenty loud on their own.
I have bad anxiety when it comes to anticipation of loud, unexpected noises and it's at the point where I'm not completely relaxed when I'm sitting in my own apartment living room anymore, because it could go off literally any time and the noise is god awful.
here's a picture of the alarm on the wall for reference:
Anyways I was wondering if there's anything I can put over the speaker grille to muffle the noise a little bit. My living room is pretty small so the noise has nowhere to go and is awfully loud.
Best Answer
No. Your safety is worth more than you feeling anxiety. You have smoke alarms for your apartment but this one looks like it is hooked up to the building. Meaning if there were a fire somewhere else in the building you would be notified via this alarm.
You may think that this alarm is extremely loud if you are standing next to it but what if you are in the shower with a radio on? In college I had a similar alarm and showered right through a drill and had no idea. Also these alarms should go off maybe a couple of times a year so your anxiety should be only messed with for a few minutes a year at most.
If this doesn't convince you, then maybe saying that tampering with fire alarms is illegal and could be grounds to have you evicted.