Extremely quiet, medium high pitched ping, in one part of the house

https://www.reddit.com/r/RBI/comments/1if9tre/extremely_quiet_medium_high_pitched_ping_in_one/

created by oyapapoya on 01/02/2025 at 16:20 UTC

34 upvotes, 7 top-level comments (showing 7)

Hi all - I've seen other posts of similar nature, but I've investigated and eliminated most possible causes.

I was woken up by a very quiet pinging sound. It is a very similar frequency as a mobile slack notification. More of a rounded tone (think car door ajar but a single ping) than shrill (smoke detector).

I thought I was hallucinating the sound (some sort of slack anxiety - I am on call for work) but 1) I only hear it in one part of the house and 2) it happens are regular intervals of approx 30 seconds.

I live in an NYC brownstone. I do not hear the sound in the basement. I went to the landlords upstairs. I do hear it in a similar part of the house.

My neighbors on one side let me in. I did not hear it anywhere.

I listened outside in the area of the window of the room. Nothing.

There is a carbon monoxide detector in the room. I tested it. The sound is so shrill and loud I doubt that's it. I know what a low battery detector sound is like.

I have digital watches. I held them to each ear while closing the other. I know what their beeps sound like. Not those.

The only other time I've experienced something similar - where the sound is so faint it almost feels like it's coming from inside my ear - was when I was visiting my parents. They'd installed an anti pest device and I was the only one who could hear it. This ping is not like that was - just a short ping.

A bit at a loss and feel like I'm going crazy. A bit anxiety inducing.

Comments

Comment by Beard_o_Bees at 01/02/2025 at 17:40 UTC

12 upvotes, 1 direct replies

These are tough.

I had a similar experience that took me ~1 month to finally track it down. Mine was coming from the control board of a furnace.

It was so faint and somewhat irregular that I just couldn't get an accurate read on where it was. If I recall correctly, it was the battery change beep (for something like a CMOS battery).

If it's possible, you could try to - probably with the landlord's permission and/or help - start throwing breakers to see if you can isolate it that way. If it's a battery change beep, that might make it beep differently or louder.

If it's a device solely powered by batteries, I guess it'll eventually go away.

Comment by SLJ7 at 01/02/2025 at 17:23 UTC

3 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Unplug any headphones from your phone and record a voice memo. Can you hear it on the recording?

Comment by Lonelyinmyspacepod at 01/02/2025 at 17:46 UTC

2 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Try unplugging EVERYTHING. I can hear sounds like this from security cameras, TV's when they're off, cell phone chargers, fit bit chargers, etc. I would go room to room unplugging each thing and listening for it to stop, then you'll have your culprit.

Comment by olliegw at 01/02/2025 at 19:08 UTC

2 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Pings like that are super hard to track down, the reason being a lot of devices use a nice chime to let you know somethings going on, i had one years ago that ended up being my iPad

Comment by NectarineOk7758 at 02/02/2025 at 00:45 UTC

2 upvotes, 0 direct replies

I had a mystery ping happening. Turned out to be from an app I didn’t realize was open on my laptop.