ADEMCO Accord XPC - Soak test permanent fix for faulty sensor?

[Ossy]

Have had some trouble with our alarm at home, seemingly triggered by having our electricity meter swapped for a smart meter (not the cause) but presumably the period of power outage knacked something up.

No idea when the alarm was installed by the previous owners, it was an ADT alarm but has been out of contract and disconnected from the phone line for the last 3+ years.

Every time when setting it in night or full mode it was getting triggered by zone 3 (identified the sensor). I managed to reset the codes by pulling the fuse and disconnecting/reconnecting the battery so I could get into programming mode through the reset engineer code.

The only thing I could see in the manual that would deactivate the problem zone was by putting it into a soak test. Am I right in thinking the every time this sensor now triggers the alarm the 14 day counter for the soak test will reset so effectively indefinitely ignoring this zone? Or is there another way to do this?

Leading on from this, is it likely that this is a faulty sensor, and that it could (no guarantees) be remedied by replacing the sensor for a new one? I noticed in the process that another sensor might not be active at all so possible that it would also need to be replaced.

Or should I quite while ahead and get someone professional in to do the job (avoiding this option initially as planning to move in the near future, so temporary fix was enough for now).

Appreciate any help received. Haven't been on here for about 7 years but will try to stick around for a bit now I've re-discovered the wealth of information here, and try to give a bit back on the subjects I know about.

 

[Europlex]

quit

 

[secureiam]

back up battery is how old?
Have you checked the cables for damage after the smart meter was installed?

Smart meters put people out of work.
I wont have a smart meter, one because they aren't smart.
No end of issues after they have been installed for many, indeed I have know smart meters to be replaced with non smart meters due to the problems they cause, including sending data in the early hours and tripping out the whole electrics.

I would however recommend getting it checked properly if your struggling.

 

[Ossy]

Thanks for the useful response. No idea on age of backup battery (at least 3 years), but it holds enough power to keep the alarm running and sounding alarms while I've been working on it. Haven't inspected for damaged cables but the alarm panel is outside of the meter cupboard, but will double check.

I think (from more reading) i've found the way to reset the programming for the zones to deactivate the faulty sensor, so must be a more permanent solution. That's for another day, at least now we can set the alarm and I can go back to it when I have more time and patience.

Smart meter wasn't my choice, other half organised it to be installed while he was working from home, presumably without knowing they could be bad, which to be fair is same as me until now. Next stage is to look into that and work out why we're apparently using £45 of electricity over a weekend that we weren't at home..