Is it possible to turn off and stop using a Scantronic house alarm?

mark_cycling00

My new house has a house alarm which we don't use as we are almost always at home. It it is however always on, has power and I guess the sensors have batteries because now it is complaining that the batteries are low on power, and beeping every few days until I accept all the warning messages. I can't turn the main unit off at the power because then the alarm goes off.
I can't get to the sensor batteries because the sensors seem to be partially plastered into the walls. Also we were left with no manual for it, only the PIN by the previous owners who never used it either.

Is there a standard way to safely power the whole thing off? I can find generic PDF manuals online but they don't cover turning the whole thing off.


Many thanks

koalakoala

I got an electrician to disarm mine. Not sure what he did though!

cymruchris

If it's a decent spec system, the bell box will have a battery backup - so when power is disconnected it'll wail for a few hours. You can't just switch it off as it's designed not to be. (What use is a burglar alarm that can be disconnected by turning off a switch somewhere?) If you're not going to use it ever again, you could open the bell box and remove the battery (noting the cover will have an anti-tamper switch - so will blare as you undo the screws). If you want to keep it in good order for future use I'd get an alarm engineer out to decommission it until you want it back online. Are you planning any holidays?

Money_Grabber13579

I suspect it’s not the sensors which are complaining of low battery (if it’s a mains powered system, the sensors wouldn’t normally have batteries) but rather, it is the back up battery for the alarm system itself, to keep it powered in a power failure. They normally last about 5 years and my experience is that they are normally installed in a hot press or airing cupboard in a discrete box.

mark_cycling00

Thanks very much for replies!

I get 3 warnings about low batteries in all 3 zones. There's a main unit hidden in cupboard that in on mains but guess has battery too as it gets very loud if you disconnect it.

Currently we have a cat so when we go away neighbours pop in and out to feed it. 

But if it's a good system it might be worth keeping in good order. 

I have the number of the  who installed it so may get them to fix the problems.

Cheers 

DullGreyGuy

Our flat came with an old system with a failing backup battery, if there was ever a black/brown out it would trigger the alarm.

We'd already noted that the alarm dies after circa 5 minutes so just apologised to the neighbours one day in advance and pulled the fuse from the supply to the main box. Alarm went off, died after 5 minutes and never been back on since. If your alarm's battery is in better health you would need to get into it and disconnect the battery which is easy enough to do but will be have the alarm going off at the same time. 

Our neighbours were happy about it though as the former owners had gone away several times and power supply problems had tripped the alarm but power came back quickly so it went on for hours. 

Mutton_Geoff

Entering the engineers code will silence it. If there is no maintenance contract, the previous owners should have/know the code.

Even if you're in all the time, an alarm is useful at night (in part set mode) to protect rooms you don't sleep in but could get broken into.

Is your house really never empty even when you go on holidays or shopping?

horsewithnoname

mine had a main box which had a battery and a fuse, I took the fuse out and disconnected the battery. It went off for about 20 minutes, but that’s it now, it won’t go off again. 

My issue was that the battery was failing so it kept beeping ( mostly in the middle of the night 😬)

mark_cycling00

thanks. 
Either option is a compromise. I can probably disable it all but then we don't the option of having an alarm when we go away.
Or I pay £150 a year plus costs for a maintenance contract for a minimum of three years. 

Life's tough, i can't see us having 2+ week holidays in the Seychelles anytime soon. 

Mutton_Geoff

You don't need a maintenance contract, if you're not technically minded, a local alarm company will still come and do what you need for an hourly rate. It's a fairly easy job to take the lid off, disconnect the mains power, disconnect the positive battery connection but put a jumper lead to the hold off on the bell box whilst you work (usually the +12v AUX on the main circuit board) to keep it silent. Flash the NVM (non volatile memory) using the two pins/bridging cap and power up according to the manual (kick start pins, battery then mains).

The box will then have the default master user and engineer codes so you can change them back to something more secure. If you enter the engineers code, the alarm system will be "disabled" until you exit engineers mode which could be in an hour or a year. The Scantronic install manuals are easy to find on the web. It's a job I could do in 10 mins as I have an electronics background and am familiar with various alarm systems having installed my own but you may want to approach a local alarm firm on an hourly basis.