House alarm anxiety - will it go off again?

scottishblondie

I'm currently having some anxiety about the alarm at my old flat, which is currently rented out. The tenant called to say the alarm keeps going off at random intervals, so I went down to have a look. The battery in the alarm unit appears to have reached the end of its life, so a replacement is needed.

However, when I disconnected it the siren on the outside of the house began to sound so I quickly plugged it back in! After a lot of back and forth, I discovered that the engineer code didn't work so I couldn't disable the whole system. After discussion with the tenant we decided to disconnect the battery and wait out the siren in the outside box, so that they would be able to sleep through the night without the alarm going off. After 15 minutes the siren duly switched off.

I had assumed that after this it wouldn't sound again, but now I'm panicking that it will go off in the middle of the night! Can anyone reassure me that this won't happen? The alarm is an Accord XPS, fitted in 2002. I've already ordered a replacement battery from Toolstation to pick up in the morning, but I would really like to be able to sleep tonight without worrying.

Owain_Moneysaver

It shouldn't go off again, but it might ...

Two things you can try -

1. Reset the engineer code.

Disconnect mains and battery power up again mains first and push the star and hash buttons at the same time within 5 seconds of powering up this will default all codes enter 1234 this is the default user code to silence. 9090 is the default engineer code.all other programming will remain unchanged,to change 1234 which is user 1 enter 1234 8 1 then enter new code. engineer code 9090 8 0 then new code.
http://community.screwfix.com/threads/accord-xpc-alarm-panel-query.42597/

2. Fake the alarm hold-off voltage to the bell box by connecting a PP3 battery across the BELL+ and BELLTAMP- connections in the alarm.

More details here

http://www.innovatealarms.co.uk/pdfs/accord%20xpc%20install.pdf

scottishblondie

Cheers, I was just reading that installation PDF about how to reset the codes. Wish I'd had that when I was at the flat! Unfortunately my tenants don't speak english very well, and are not technical, or I would call them and suggest resetting the codes tonight. I might have a go at it tomorrow when I go round to put the new battery in. It might be a bit of a pain to accomplish as the box and the keypad are rather far apart!

I never had a manual or anything for the alarm, just the codes that the previous owner left for me, so I had no clue what to do really. Fortunately nothing ever went wrong with it while I was living there. I found the paperwork for the alarm installation stuffed inside the box when I opened it up to look for the battery, but there was only the "default" code noted and not whether or not it had been changed.

scottishblondie

A quick update for anyone interested. The alarm siren did not go off again. I obtained a replacement battery the next morning from Toolstation and was all set to go round and put in in that evening until the tenants changed their minds, said they were too busy and would call to arrange another time. I didn't hear from them for 2 weeks, when they called up and said the keypad had started beeping again. I've no idea how, as it was disconnected from the power and has no batteries of it's own.

Anyway, I went round and put the battery in and it's all back to normal now. I'll be following the procedure to reset the engineer's code at some point when I have someone capable to accompany me back to the property. Cheers for the advice, Owain!

cyclonebri1

You have learnt that the battery back up is for just a short period of time.
You don't have to supply the rentee with an alarm also.;)