House alarm goes off when power comes back on 

Thanks for the comment 👍

Thanks for the comment 👍

I'm glad the video helped Thanks for the comment 👍

Ultimate Handyman thank you for the video it helped on servicing my alarm myself rather than calling an engineer out.

You are welcome ;-)

I take it the system should recharge the battery when it is needed, but I do find it odd that the UK has not implemented some kind of nanny state law which says only licensed tradesmen are allowed to do this.

Yes, the transformer is supposed to charge the battery, but the battery stops holding charge after a few years. I'm sure that the UK will implement laws that will prevent anyone from doing any type of DIY in future. Thanks for the comment

Ultimate Handyman could you do a video on how to replace the battery in a external sounder please bud?

Thanks, yes summer is going to get here eventually. It was very cold last weekend though, I need some warm days as it's difficult making videos in the garage when it is cold. Thanks for the comment

Thanks Scott, I thought this battery would have lasted longer than it did, as I replaced the main house alarm battery 2 years before I installed the alarm in this video and the battery is still fine in that! I did get them at different places though, the battery in this alarm was from CPC online (2.2AH) and the battery in the house was bought from my local electrical shop (2.1AH). I'll remove the fuse that feeds mine later today to check that it takes over ;-) Thanks for the comment.

We had a power cut and my neighbours Alarm went off and my Alarm did not go off or if it did, I must be fast in a Deep sleep. My neighbours saying first we could hear Alarm and we could not switch the Alarm , keys on the keypad would not response. Neighbour rang me in the morning and was asking did you Alarm go off and I said not I am aware off, but as I was leaving for work I saw tamper light on. So the neighbour think it must my Alarm going off and not there’s. I also have the Auto Dialler speech, which calls me on my mobile and I did not get a phone call, I rang Texecom and told me you need to service your Alarm system, usually changing the battery, it needs to around 13volt to 14volt. The below I wrote to technical team. Hi TECH Support , Last week on Wednesday night, we had the Electric gone from the Main Grid, I don’t know how long, but my neighbour Alarm went off and all electricity went off for few minutes , as they messaged me and I said my Alarm did not go off nor my Electricity. However when I woke up I never noticed this, but when my wife into the kitchen the microwave and the Cooker timing clock was showing wrong time, it was showing 05:05am and it was around 09:30am on my mobile at the time she mentioned, so the electricity must of gone in my house as well. Next door neighbour was saying I am sure your alarm went off, but I said to her I did not hear the Alarm, but when I check the keypad it had Tamper light flashing on the remote keypad, so I reset it by pressing 12345 Eng code and reset. My main question, if the Alarm did go off, I never got a phone call on my Mobile and this is bit strange. When I fitted the Speech dialler I tested and it was all working fine for Dial and text, as I received the phone call and text and also the next caller as well. I am bit confused where my neighbour was saying I am sure your alarm was going off and I did not hear it or the electricity may have gone for a while and the tamper light came on, but may have not triggered the Alarm. I am dropping you guys email to see what are your thoughts. It is possible the outside sounder activated only, as the internal sounder would have required voltage to be on the control panel to activate it. When the power was restored, the tamper indication may be from the mains fail and no sounder may be from the battery not having been serviced or replaced recently. To assist, we suggest having the alarm serviced and the control panel battery checked and most likely replaced. For future reference, an alarm system should be serviced annually. A meter would normally be required to check the battery on load and it would be the current that is checked and not the voltage. A quick test would be to switch off the mains connection to the alarm panel and if the outside sounder sounds after a few moments, the control panel would require replacing, like for like. It is usually the battery needs changing after every 3 years or you start to see a sign , where sometimes it does not accept keypad response.

You are welcome. It's a very common problem! Thanks for the comment 👍

Thanks for the comment

Thanks for the comment ;-)

You can disable it completely by removing the fuse going to the alarm. There should be a FCU (fused connection unit), this will have a fuse that you can remove. If you remove the fuse, after the battery has lost it's charge completely, the alarm will no longer work. (you might have a battery in the external sounder, that might sound until the battery in that is depleted, normally about 20 minutes)

@@ultimatehandyman Thank you very much for taking the time to reply with a solution, along with the useful info on the external sounder. I'll be sure to try this during the daytime. Thanks again!

You can touch the transformer as long as you don't go anywhere near the terminals, even then you should not be able to make contact with anything that is live- but best to warn people. Thanks for the comment John ;-)

If it's been doing that since day one they have either not installed a battery or forgotten to connect it. Fitting a battery as per this video, should mean that the next time there is a power cut your alarm will not sound ;-)

@@ultimatehandyman Thanks for getting back to me so quickly, I never even considered that there might not be a back-up battery installed/connected, but that would make sense. Either way, given the fact that it's been 20+ years since the alarm system was installed, I'd probably be best to buy a new battery anyway. I'll let you know how things go. Thanks again for all your help.

UPDATE:- I successfully managed to replace my PIR sensors thanks to the guidance of your helpful videos. Replacing the battery, however, is proving to be a different matter... Remember how you thought maybe the installers either hadn't connected it correctly or hadn't installed one at all. Well I finally opened up the control panel for the very first time since having the system installed and found it does have a battery installed, which visually seems to be installed correctly, but the contact points are very badly corroded, so much so that I know if I try to remove the spade connectors they'll just fall apart. Presumably the battery was working ok when it was first installed, which still doesn't explain why the alarm goes off every time the power is switched back on after a power cut. By the way, I've bought a new battery, but I think I also need to replace the red and black battery wires. Any advice on where I may be able to obtain these? I've tried looking on eBay, but it would help if I knew what I was looking for, such as the size/gauge of the wire. Alternatively, would it be ok for me to just snip off the corroded ends of the wires (after completely removing them, of course) and replace the spade connectors?

Absolutely. Thanks for the comment

Thanks for the comment

Probably the external sounder needs replacing. They get a lot of stick outside with the weather and often need replacing after 10 years or so. Thanks for the comment 👍

It sounds like your external siren has a back up battery, these are designed to sound when the power is cut completely (hold off circuit), which is why it goes off when the power is cut completely. If you replace the back up battery in the alarm panel- like in this video, you will be able to switch the electric off and the back up battery will ensure the hold off circuit works. Thanks for the comment

Thanks for the info, much appreciated !

Does the strobe light flash outside when the alarm is triggered?

@@ultimatehandyman No it doesn't flash when triggered. The green unlocked padlock light also doesn't not go out either to indicate the alarm is set when put in part-set mode. thanks

You can get them on ebay- fave.co/2kjkMLH Thanks for the comment

Sure, no problem Thanks for the comment 👍

The battery in the panel will enable the alarm to work during a power cut, however, if that battery is no longer working the alarm will not work until the mains power is restored. Hence with many alarms, the alarm will sound when the mains power is restored. Some systems also have a SCB (self-contained battery) in the alarm bell box (situated outside). In the event of a power cut, and if the main battery is not working, the SCB will sound the external sounder until either that battery is exhausted, or the power is restored 👍

It sounds like it's another keypad. The older Accenta panels had a built in keypad, so you could operate the alarm from the main panel, or the remote keypad. Sometimes people put a remote near the alarm panel for ease of use. I have 2 keypads for my garage alarm, one in the garage and one in my office- ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MU_n38qrJlg.html Thanks for the comment 👍

It also could be a speech dialler or auto dialler that calls the police/a phone number when the alarm goes off

Not sure, but would assume that it will still alarm when the power comes back on.

Yes the battery is constantly charged via the panel. Thanks for the comment 👍

Sorry, I don't normally touch aerials as a local guy installs them cheaper than I can buy the bits for. Thanks for the comment

Ultimate Handyman Hate it when that happens... They may be cheaper but they are rookies and potentially would not do half a good job as a professional like yourself would :)

When the alarm goes off, do any zone's illuminate, or perhaps the tamper light?

@@ultimatehandyman to be honest with u I left it on engineering mode as it just kept going of that i couldn't understand y, so rather than make a nuisance of myself, with the neighbours, over night, once i learnt from u the engineering route I was so relieved, have taken it back out ( of engineering mode ) now, & let u know once i have discovered that, it hasn't happened again yet, will check it out & let u know once it does, & a big thank u for coming back so fast i so appreciate this,

@@ultimatehandyman whilst I'm waiting for that 2 occur could i possibly ask have u a guidance vid on how to change the code on this system, I've had the same code the previous owners had in place, really could do with it changing it, hope u can help, many thanks 🤗

Voltage does not give much indication of how much capacity a battery has left, I have known batteries to read 12-13v but have no capacity left and struggle to supply the smallest of loads. Best way to check if your alarm battery is healthy is to switch off the mains, if the bellbox outside sounds and you can't stop it because the keypad has lost power, the battery in panel is knackered and needs replaced, if it doesn't sound and the system still has power then all is well. As rule of thumb your alarm battery should be replaced every 3 to 5 years, If you are unsure how old your alarm battery is then just replace it like for like, An alarm battery is only about £15, it will do no harm. Don't be like most of the fools out there who's alarms go off uncontrollably in a power cut because they couldn't be bothered to maintain their alarm.

The way I indicate a battery that’s out of date is leave it in the panel for a few hours then take it out and check with a multi meter and if the voltage drops quite quickly then the battery is obviously not working as it should. Hope that’s helpful!

Thanks for the comment

Thanks, yes I don't think people realise how bad it is when their alarm goes off for no reason, especially as any burglars casing the joint will know that their back up battery is not working! Thanks for the comment

No idea, sorry. Is there no indication of why the alarm goes off, such as tamper or a particular zone being indicated?

I'm afraid you need the code, If you don't know the code you can remove the internal battery and switch off the power to the alarm, although the external sounder might sound until the internal battery in the bell box is flat. If you find the manual online, it should tell you how to reset the alarm to it's default status. Thanks for the comment 👍

Are any tamper lights illuminated?

Yes, most modern bell boxes have a self contained battery and hold off circuit (in case the power is cut completely, or the cable is cut going to the bell box) Thanks for the comment

I don't have any alarm system in my home, it's not a council house. I live in the countryside and nobody ever really goes up here to what's the point.

It sounds like you need a new battery. Once you replace it, you should be able to silence the alarm by inputting your 4 digit code, you might need to press the reset button X The alarm will stay in tamper mode until you close the cover, once the cover is closed, you should be able to press reset, sometimes twice X X Then the alarm should be back to normal

@@ultimatehandyman ok, thanks for reply. The battery works because as soon as reconnect it, the alarms sounds outside again.

@@ultimatehandyman Hello again, I was able to reset using my code as you advised. It was all a bit of a panic on Saturday night when it was waking the whole street up. I have a new problem now. The alarm will not set ! Instead of the slow timed beeps, I get shorter, quicker beeps and the alarm does not set. Any idea? Thanks in advance.

@@davidboardman1566 Not sure, normally if there is a problem with the alarm there will be a visual indication (such as an illuminated LED)

It could be several things causing it. The best option is to check the panel, it should tell you which zone is causing the alarm to trip. If it is the same zone each time, you have a problem with the sensor or the wiring on that zone. You can link omit the zone on the panel when setting the alarm, this should stop it from waking you at night. If this work it is worth checking the sensor, and perhaps replace it, then you don't need to omit it each time you set the alarm.

Ultimate Handyman ok thanks for the help 🍻🍻

Thanks for the tip, I was going to cover this in a future video. I always wear hearing protection when doing anything with my alarm as it is connected to a 120DB master blaster. Thanks for the comment

Not a problem, you might also be aware that if you remove the cover from the sounder it will still sound even if the panel is in engineer, hearing protection is a must as its pretty loud when you are right next to the bloody thing lol :~) stay safe

Thanks, it's about 15 years since I replaced a battery in a external sounder, so that would have caught me out for sure! Thanks for reminding me ;-)

It could be a few things depending on the make and model of the alarm. Are you sure that the mains power has been restored? If it has, try pressing the reset button a few times. If that does not work try inputting your code number. If nothing at all is working, then perhaps a fuse has blown? 👍

The engineers code can only be used when the alarm is unset. Thanks for the comment

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Thanks Wayne ;-)

Not sure what the problem is. I would start by checking any fuses in the main panel.

It will do. The bell box has a external battery and hold off circuit. When the power is cut to the bell box it will alarm until power is restored. Replacing the battery in the alarm panel will fix it ;-)

@@ultimatehandyman that's what I thought, though the alarm stops after about 20 minutes

@@yeety1208 The battery in the external sounder will probably have run flat after 20 minutes, that's why it stops. I think they design the battery in the external sounder to last for 20 minutes then it does not create a noise nuisance, if you can't silence it.

It will be fine, as long as it fits in the panel. The larger the AH, the longer the charge will last. Thanks for the comment

@@ultimatehandyman Thanks for the reply appreciate it. Solved the problem.

I have this installed- ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jeDe9IDaXy4.html

@@ultimatehandyman I meant the ventcroft in door speaker on ebay

Thanks for the comment