replacing House Alarm battery?

bofarr01

Hi,
Our house alarm is displaying "Low battery" - the alarm company have graciously agreed to come sort it out 'whenever they're free'! Rather than wait for them, I'd like to fix it myself - is this advisable? If so, questions:

Where exactly is the battery located?
What kind of battery is it?
Is it straightforward to do?

thanks,
B

Alun

They're usually lead-acid batteries ... not that easy to get hold of I would imagine. Anyway, unless the battery is quite old I'd be inclined to suspect the charging circuitry instead.

Also the batteries are usually situated inside the alarm box, so taking it apart yourself would set off the tamper alarm. Not a problem if you have the engineer's code to put it into maintenance mode, but a PITA otherwise.

Borzoi

bofarr01 wrote:

Where exactly is the battery located?
What kind of battery is it?
Is it straightforward to do?
B

Usually it's in the bell box - cheap enough yokes €10-20

Alun

Borzoi wrote:

Usually it's in the bell box - cheap enough yokes €10-20

Hmmm .... mine (ADT) is definitely in the box housing the alarm circuitry up in the attic. I don't have a bell box, only a dummy as it's a monitored system.

fiacha

when was the last time you got the system serviced ? the engineer will usually replace an old battery as part of a service. i think ours was replaced after 3-4 years.

the battery will be in the control unit (in the hotpress/attic/under stairs etc) and you will need the engineer code to stop the alarm going off when you take off the front panel. if you can live with the noise, i think you'll be able to reset the alarm as normal once the front panel is back on (or just hold down the tamper switch while you swap the battery)

the battery is 12volt (i think) and the size will depend on the dimensions of the control unit. the sealed rechargable lead acid batteries are available from maplin / peats etc.
i think you'd be better off arranging a full service, and they'll give all the sensors/pirs etc the once over while the're at it.

Jnealon

Most of the facts have already been covered. If you have had any power cuts the battery will just need to recharge so the low battery warning will just clear. Another thing might be that the positive terminal battery might have oxidised if the panel is in a damp location eg hotpress or utlilty. Failing that your best bet is to remove the battery and bring it to your local alarm or electrical wholesaler and ask for same. The battery is located in the control unit, not in the bellbox (although there is a smaller one in the bellbox but your panel has no way of measuring it's voltage etc) and when you open it you will get a tamper alarm. All alarm panels have a 12V DC battery in them but the physical size of the panel will determine the physical size of the battery. Your battery will more than likely be either a 7 ah or a 2 ah, 7 ah being the bigger one. Maplin will charge you 3 times the price compared to your wholesaler

Lex Luthor

Batteries normally 12V units.

Usually located in the main circuit box.

When you open it, it will set off the alarm, so have your code ready.

If you get the alarm type from the main box and go to any alarm retailer, they should provide you with one easy. I always get my stuff from Best Alarms on Sundrive Rd., Kimmage.

Changing the battery is straight forward.

RicardoSmith

I replaced mine and it didn't fix the error. I suspect the charging circuit of mine. Its annoying because the alarm goes off now when you kill the power, or theres a power cut.

The alarm is a few years old, and I no longer have a service agreement with the original alarm company. I've asked the alarm company for the engineers code to disable it but they won't give it to me. Because I've no service agreement.

I plan to replace the alarm with a DIY one eventually. One that I can trouble shoot myself.

Jnealon

Measure the voltage across the battery leads, if there is none check the fuse. They are usually a 3 amp 20mm fuse

Bobby04

RicardoSmith wrote:

. I've asked the alarm company for the engineers code to disable it but they won't give it to me. Because I've no service agreement.

Most probably because they use the same engineer code for all systems they've installed, and if they give you the code, they'd effectively be giving you access to many other customers' premises.
As stated, check the battery fuse, located on the main PCB in the control box. Whoever mentioned the bellbox outside must be taking the p***

lomb

just buy a panel cost about 180 i think harkness bros at red cow. it comes with instructions and u can set ur own engineer code. brand is aritech. they also do batteries and sensors. a battery is 12 euro and sensors are 10.

also they are nice to deal with.

RicardoSmith

Thanks for the info guys. I'll have to check it all out in the new year.

Red Alert

if it goes off when the power goes that means you've also got a bellbox battery.

EDIT: to bobby above, AFAIK the engineer code cannot actually arm/disarm/reset the system from an armed state so there should be no problem getting hold of the engineer code. I used to know what the ADT one was but i can't remember.