Fire alarm sound/power question

[karansaraf]

Hi all,

I have fire alarms in my house that are mains connected with a backup 9v battery each.

The one in my kitchen is making a beeping sound reasonably frequently.

It's a very single, short, sharp, high pitched sound that beeps once every few minutes. Been going on for days.

Pressing the test button gives a normal test sound that you would expect.

Any idea why this is happening? It is connected to the mains (circuit breakers all in order) and as far as I know there is no reason for the 9v battery to be depleted as I've never had a power outage. The other fire alarms are all silent.



Thanks for your help.

 

[SFK]

Karanaraf,
Mains smoke alarms still deplete their backup batteries, and so the batteries on Mains Smoke alarms do need replacing.

Basically the mains smoke alarm is constantly monitoring the status of the battery to ensure the battery has enough charge to still work if there is a mains failure. And this monitoring does slowly drain the battery (although slower than for smoke alarms that only use batteries).

Replace the battery with a good quality battery (for this don't skimp on £land batteries) and the beep should stop. If it does not, then the smoke alarm is telling you it has reached the end of its life and the mains smoke alarm itself should be replaced with one of the same brand and model.

sfk

 

[eveares]

What SFK said. You will likley find that if you replace the battery, your problem will go away. Also replace the other smoke/heat alarm batteries in the process if their batteries are more than 12 months old.

 

[karansaraf]

Excellent, thanks for your advice, have ordered some Duracell ones!

 

[Jackrae]

I mark on the batteries the date installed and change them, as a matter of course, on, or about, the same date each year

 

[OwainDIYer]

I mark on the batteries the date installed and change them, as a matter of course, on, or about, the same date each year

I mark on the label on the smoke detector circuit on the consumer unit. Easier to see than getting on a chair and wiggling a smoke detector off the ceiling to look inside.

 

[securespark]

Smarty-pants!

 

[EFLImpudence]

Isn't that why they beep? So that you know when they need replacing.