Wailing old house alarm

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › Wailing old house alarm

itxtme

1636 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 279

Subscriber

Topic # 96965 8-Feb-2012 11:12

I have a Chubb house alarm that we never use, however as part of the alarm are wired smoke alarms. For this reason (and resale) I am reluctant to pull it out. Normally having it is no problem however when the power goes out it starts wailing in the outside siren. Its not its normal powered wail, its more like a half effort. Nothing I can do will turn it off, the number pad etc. has no power so I cant put in our number to stop it.

I have on one occasion had to come home to try stop it after hours of wailing. I tried everything to stop it. Got up in the roof and found the alarm box, tried to pull the siren cables, tried to remove the small auxiliary battery. Nothing worked, thankfully the power came back on. However I need to make sure that never happens again. Imagine a 3am power cut. The neighbours would not be happy.

So the questions for any experts/enthusiasts/knowledge holders

1) Why does it wail even without power on (mains off) and the auxiallry battery removed?

2) Whats the best way to deal with this, short of cutting the horn wires outside?

I can take a photo of the box inside the roof if need be.

Cheers

ZollyMonsta

2689 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 225

Trusted

Reply # 578621 8-Feb-2012 11:43

It wouldnt somehow be getting a small amount of power from the phone line? I think this is in the region of 5 volts?

Does it have a phone line attached to it currently?

Check out my LPFM Radio Station at www.thecheese.co.nz

TechSol

258 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 8

Technical Solutions Aust

Reply # 578622 8-Feb-2012 11:44

It's wailing because the outside siren is battery backed-up --- so when the power is off it thinks it is disconnected and starts wailing.

Firstly - your battery backup in the alarm box is obviously toast, or your alarm would still work in a power failure (for a few hours at least)

secondly the battery backup in the siren is semi-toast, hence the half effort wail.

your choices are: 1) Pull the alarm (which you don't want to do because of the smokes)
2) Replace the outside siren with a newer one without the battery backup (these are fairly cheap)
3) replace the battery backup inside the alarm panel so that the alarm continues to function in a power failure. Assuming everything is fairly standard I would recommend a typical alarm type sealed lead acid battery of twelve volts, 7AH capacity - but you would need the check that.

Cheers,

itxtme

1636 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 279

Subscriber

Reply # 578636 8-Feb-2012 11:55

Thanks for the advice guys, will look into those options

ZollyMonsta

2689 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 225

Trusted

Reply # 578646 8-Feb-2012 12:14

Didnt even realise older external sirens had their own battery backup! How odd!

Check out my LPFM Radio Station at www.thecheese.co.nz

TechSol

258 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 8

Technical Solutions Aust

Reply # 578671 8-Feb-2012 13:02

ZollyMonsta: Didnt even realise older external sirens had their own battery backup! How odd!

Yeh it was to stop you cutting the cables and robbing the place....

xpd

Chief Trash Bandit
9208 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1463

Mod Emeritus

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

Reply # 578691 8-Feb-2012 13:34

Evilg: It's wailing because the outside siren is battery backed-up --- so when the power is off it thinks it is disconnected and starts wailing.

THis :)

Had the same thing... even tho I removed all other power connections etc, the external siren had a half dead battery.... drove us up the wall and couldnt get to it.

XPD / Gavin / DemiseNZ

Server : i3-3240 @ 3.40GHz 16GB RAM Win 10 Pro Workstation : i5-3570K @ 3.40GHz 16GB RAM Win 10 Pro Console : Xbox One

https://www.xpd.co.nz - Games, geeks, and more.

webwat

1984 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 133

Trusted

Reply # 579292 9-Feb-2012 14:15

Yeah happened to me once, so at 2am I'm pulling sirens out of the wall to snip the wires. Cant remember how we handled the outdoor siren but I think it was a case of removing it completely with a jimmy bar. Landlord never knew the alarm code anyway.

Qualified in business, certified in fibre, stuck in copper, have to keep going ^_^

tchart

1497 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 191

Trusted

Reply # 579324 9-Feb-2012 15:55

Ours does this for one of two reasons; the wireless sensors are running low on (9V) batteries or the backup battery in the panel (box in the cupboard) is buggered.

Recently replaced the backup battery as the alarm was going off at crazy hours. I had to hunt around but Jaycar was the cheapest by a long shot - $40 vs $80+ from Repco, Supercheap etc. They are normally a sealed lead acid battery (12V and around 7AH).

The craziest thing was the panel had a tamper switch on it so when I opened it to switch the battery the alarm wne toff again - I wasnt expecting that!

Good luck.