Cheap batteries and smoke detectors

maninthestreet

My experience of 'cheap brand' alkaline batteries is that they are good value for money, even if they don't last quite as long as well known brands such as Duracell - just avoid those batteries that are either zinc carbon / zinc chloride, or do not even state the technology they use.

stevemLS

MarkBargain wrote: »

http://batteryshowdown.com/static/images/mah_large_200mA.png

Even better, go for Low Self Discharge (LSD) Ni-Mh rechargeable batteries with good capacity.

I've just had to change mine and it says DO NOT USE RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES

System

PasturesNew wrote: »

My house is (new) hard-wired.... but they still have batteries in them ...and the s0ddin first one started beeping....I put up with it 4 days or so before I HAD to do something about it. Being hard-wired, I'd not expected batteries too - and when you try to take it off the ceiling ... it's (scarily) hard-wired.

So, having thought about it for some days, tried to work out how to loosen it, tried to work out how to do the changeover on this model, got the ladder ready, realised you have to turn the power off etc etc .... I was lucky enough to get a neighbour give me a hand (he could get it off the ceiling, I could get it back on).

Lovely .... silence....for another 2 weeks until the next one kicked off.

Not sure how they expect grannies to be doing this up ladders!

The reason why wired smoke detectors have batteries is simple. If there is an electric fault which trips the electrics, if a fire starts, you will be able to hear the alarm!

Also why does the battery start to beep low battery in the middle of the night?

Regarding batteries, I bought some Duracell batteries and none of them had any power. Bought 4 AAAs for my battery alarm clock. It needs 3 and tried every single combo and there was no power at all. Got my money back.

kwikbreaks

maninthestreet wrote: »

My experience of 'cheap brand' alkaline batteries is that they are good value for money, even if they don't last quite as long as well known brands such as Duracell.

Yes - I've been using pound shop 5 or 6 for £1 alkalines for ages with no problems. They often are recognisable brands too such as Kodak or Polaroid. Well at least those are the names on them....

shaun_from_Africa

stevemLS wrote: »

I've just had to change mine and it says DO NOT USE RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES

This is because just about all rechargeable are 1.2V as opposed to zinc carbon and alkaline cells which are rated at 1.5V
If the smoke detector is designed to be operated with a pair of cells giving 3V and for the low voltage warning to start at somewhere around the 2V mark, it's wouldn't take too long for the rechargables to drop to this.


1.5V rechargeable cells are available (Lithium polymer) but they are quite expensive and as they are new technology, may not be too reliable.

r2015

So far its taken you 3 days to think about getting better batteries ???

Why do I always have to explain things in very simple terms.

Old Duracell AA batteries ran down as indicated by smoke detector making a chirruping sound.

I replaced these batteries with cheap alkaline batteries, which had a use by date of Dec 2018, from a discount store.

After 3 days smoke detector started chirruping again.

Removed newly installed batteries and replaced them with 4 times the cost Duracell batteries.

Smoke detector seems to be behaving itself so far.

Ectophile

ScarletMarble wrote: »

Also why does the battery start to beep low battery in the middle of the night?

Because it's cooler at night. When batteries are failing, warming them up helps. The end result is that the alarm starts chirping in the early hours of the morning when the heating is off.

st999

It might not be the batteries.


I got new heating installed and one of the radiators in the hall is directly below the smoke detector.


I replaced the batteries 3 times in the past 2 months also thinking it was because I was using cheap batteries.


I ended up throwing the smoke detector in the bin because I thought it was faulty.


Could being above a radiator cause this?

Johno100

r2015 wrote: »

Why do I always have to explain things in very simple terms.

Old Duracell AA batteries ran down as indicated by smoke detector making a chirruping sound.

I replaced these batteries with cheap alkaline batteries, which had a use by date of Dec 2018, from a discount store.

After 3 days smoke detector started chirruping again.

Removed newly installed batteries and replaced them with 4 times the cost Duracell batteries.

Smoke detector seems to be behaving itself so far.

Well you have obviously got some faulty batteries. Even the cheapest properly functioning zinc-carbon batteries won't go flat within 3 days in a low-drain device like a smoke detector.

A blanket statement that cheap batteries and smoke detectors don't go together is neither useful, accurate or MSE.

r2015

A blanket statement that cheap batteries and smoke detectors don't go together is neither useful, accurate or MSE.

This is the vent board, I was venting.