MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
We've moved house recently and the house has an alarm fitted which we have so far not used. Yesterday I was doing a job, switched off the power to the lighting circuit and forgot to switch it back on again. Three hours later the alarm went off. 'Low battery' on the display. We hurriedly found the code for it, entered it and it stopped but said 'SET'. Tried to switch off by entering the code again but no joy. As soon as we tripped one of the sensors by moving the alarm went off again and we couldn't get it to go off. I rang the installer (his sticker was on the panel) who initially tried to tell me that the previous owner had given us the wrong code. :0/
Once we'd established that that was unlikely he said that they mustn't have kept up with servicing it and we could book him to come round. He also told me how to isolate the alarm by taking the fuse out of the fused spur and then taking the positive lead off the lead acid battery.
I am assuming that the lead acid battery is a few years old and isn't holding loads of charge. If I get a new one (they are about a tenner online) and sling everything back together, am I right in thinking that there is no reason why the alarm shouldn't work fine again? I am a bit reluctant to pay the engineer £100 for a 'service' and reset if he's just going to change the battery.
It's a EuroSec CP8L alarm, btw.
I would guess for the sake of a tenner it's worth a try.
If nothing is faulty there's nothing to "service".
Had the same issue when we moved into our house. The battery was dead and in a power cut the alarm would sound.
Took the risk and disconneted the battery cover (trips alarm) and fitted new battery and used the code to reset at the panel. Job done.
I think the only issue is when there is an engineers code that needs to be entered after tampering with the fuse box, luckily ours must be the same as the standard code or there isn't one.
I'd try the battery first myself.
Did you answer "serviced alarm" on your house insurance form? 🙂
If you take the main alarm box battery out, it will sound the outside box siren/bell.
The alarm thinks it is being bypassed, so breaks the contact and starts the siren.
If the outside box battery is flat, then it wont sound when power to the main box is cut. The batteries for the siren box are sometimes not replaceable,unless you like soldering, they are usually soldered to the PCB, and it is far easier to just replace the complete box. Once the batteries are dead, the boxes tend to be corroded a lot too inside, so worth changing anyway.
As above, if you ditch the power, the outside sounder should go off, assuming the battery still works. Its been a requirement that they stop after 20 minutes since I worked in the industry in 1992.
As above, replace the battery or get the chap to do it. £100 isn't terrible but it depends what he charges for batteries. An old trick was to charge £50 upwards for a 7ahr 12v battery which be £15 anywhere else. No idea what lead acid batteries cost these days.
Worth noting a knackered battery can cause all sorts of grief, it's best to replace every 4 years.
Alarm Engineer Here - You should be able to just replace the battery and repower the system and reset it, aslong as it not been set to an engineer reset and you have the correct user code. Worst case senario is you have to power it back down again and the bell outside will ring for 15-20 mins depeding on the age of it.
Chris
Thanks everyone for your replies. I’m going to give it a go. 👍
I replaced the battery in my alarm with one from Toolstation - Yucel was the brand and not expensive. The size of the battery is important as they are usually quite a snug fit.
https://www.toolstation.com/search?q=Lead%20Acid%20Battery
A) Put on ear defenders
B) Get a ladder and cable cutters, turn off electricity
C) Get up and rip the bell box off the wall
D) Find and rip out the control box
E) Turn on electricity
F) Live a happier, more peaceful life without worrying about an alarm that is going to do nothing to deter ne’er-do-wells and just piss off your neighbours and you when it goes off for no reason other than a small ant has wandered past a sensor.
No, just do A, B and then snip the wires to the siren / flashy light.