Scantronic 9448+ internal alarm and tamper light

I moved into my house four years ago, which has the above alarm system. The vendor said that he'd never used the alarm and he had bought the house new in 1998, i.e. the house is now 13 years and I've not used the alarm either.

This afternoon I heard this strange noise and it turned out to be the internal alarm of the 9448+. The tamper light was also glowing. There's a wall fuse unit next to the alarm but when I opened it and removed the fuse it just kept on sounding. Thankfully I have the handbook but I couldn't find any way to fix things. Eventually the alarm stopped sounding but when I touched the side of the unit, it sounded again for about another ten minutes before stopping again. I don't want to tempt providence by touching the unit again so have left well alone!

I suspect the battery. I have no codes so I'm suspecting it's never been programmed. What I don't want is for the alarm to sound when I'm away from the house, especially if the outside alarm decides to sound also.

Anyone got any ideas about all of this?

Cheers, Martin.

You definitely need a new battery if it hasn't been used in 13 years, they only last about 5!!

this one would do fine:
http://www.e-fireandsecurity.co.uk/...ry-rechargeable-sealed-lead-acid-battery/p260

With regard to the tamper, have you had any new carpets recently? Any decorating? Knocked anything?

Is it the one with the onboard keypad on or the separate keypad? If it hasn't been programmed the default codes are 1234 for the user and 0 ENTER 7890 for the engineer.

The tamper could be to do with the battery failing, has been known. Or a low res from the bell return, as that could do with a new battery too.

josh451 said:

You definitely need a new battery if it hasn't been used in 13 years, they only last about 5!!

this one would do fine:
http://www.e-fireandsecurity.co.uk/...ry-rechargeable-sealed-lead-acid-battery/p260

With regard to the tamper, have you had any new carpets recently? Any decorating? Knocked anything?

Is it the one with the onboard keypad on or the separate keypad? If it hasn't been programmed the default codes are 1234 for the user and 0 ENTER 7890 for the engineer.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the replies. We did have some work done outside the house about a week ago: a builder was installing new soffits and fascia boards and the alarm is understandably close to that area - it could have been knocked I suppose albeit the problem occurred several days later.

How would I replace the battery - wouldn't I set the thing off if I opened it up? Also, I assume that in my removing the wall fuse, the battery kicked in, which presumably has some life left in it to keep on powering the green power and red tamper lights and also to continue sounding the internal alarm. I might add that things have been quiet since writing the original message!

This is probably a stupid question but worth mentioning anyway: the alarm is situated in a downstairs toilet. I had to remove a rather large spider from the room last night - is there any feasible chance that the hefty brute had got into the unit and set the thing off?

Regards, Martin.

Spider wouldn't have set a tamper alarm off.

Have you actually tried resetting the system? enter your code to reset or if you haven't got a code try 1234. It might get rid of the tamper light.

To change the battery, open panel, enter code to silence, remove old battery and replace with new one, screw panel lid back on and enter code to reset.

And watch the panel lid tamper spring, it likes to waltz about on its own

Excellent guidance. My 9448 has been acting up for a few days with random tones sounding and the anti-tamper light on. I was convinced that I had a fault in the anti-tamper circuit but couldn't find anything.

Yesterday the internal sounder started sounding continuously and I had to put it into engineer mode to stop it doing that. It then finally turned off and the external alarms started going.

It wouldn't have occurred to me to check the battery. However a quick test with a multimeter revealed a dead battery - about 7 years old - and a quick purchase of a replacement seems to have fixed the problem.

Who'd have though that the anti-tamper indicator would be a guide to a dead battery?

Thank you for the guidance. Spot on.

Knackered battery's make panels do all sorts of weird stuff lol

Change it for a Yuassa or Yucel that will do you for 4-5 years.