Honeywell CO detector.

[Gramaisc]

I've just been called to one of these going off, supplied by British Gas.

It turned out to just be its 'end of life' signal, but there was no way to remove the battery and the copious instructions make no absolutely mention of how to turn it off, short of improvising with a hammer.

However, if you have one that does this, there is a secret hidden switch that will stop it beeping all night. On the base there is a small opening, push the end of a key in there and move a small tab a few millimetres and the noise will cease.

They could mention this in the instructions, but I suppose that they don't think that we could cope with the advanced technology.

 

[Withnail]

I spent one of the most infuriating periods of my life dealing with one of these feckers.

Not entirely sure that it was exactly one of ^those actual feckers but it was of its kind.

It turned out to just be its 'end of life' signal,..

Maddeningly the unit in question, on its course to death, emitted a signal that was just within the range of 'normal' hearing. This turned out to be entirely without the range of daytime 'normal', within that of just-turned-in-to-bed, night-time hearing.

Trouble was that it emitted its call for help so infrequently, that once it had alerted you to its plight, it fell silent for just long enough for you, in your i-just-want-to-go-to-sleep mindset to not let that almost inaudible 'bleep' worry you overmuch. Even when you did pay it some attention, the length of time between 'bleeps' made you look like some paranoid conspiracy theorist wondering whether the FBI were about to come in through the >WINDOW or the <DOOR!

I, obviously, eventually tracked it down, but it took something of a concerted effort to do so - one would have thought that something, let's face it, as equally important as a smoke alarm would be 'screaming' at you to do the decent thing.

For the life of me i can't remember whether i actually changed them for something a bit more 'screamier' - one suspects i chose the path of least resistance - but it did make me wonder why, if we have gas coming into our houses, we might be a bit more blasé about it.

 

[Gramaisc]

As it had a Do Not bin symbol on it,

I suggested to the unfortunate owner that we might initially bury it in the garden to try to reduce the truly appalling noise level, but digging holes in the garden at 11pm can attract unwanted attention. So, I persevered and found the secret means to silence it.

I suspect that she's safe from being gassed by her balanced flue boiler in the meantime.

 

[Lucy]

Interestingly, or not, the end of life is just a set period of time, but this doesn't mean it functions that long. We had a company presenting to us at work about it.

 

[bpelectric]

I would advise you all when purchasing CO or Smoke alarms to check the dates on the unit as the best only last 7 yrs max

The cheaper ones maybe 3 yrs if your lucky

And I noticed the date on Mr G's offending item was 2011 so well past its date

 

[Gramaisc]

I would advise you all when purchasing CO or Smoke alarms to check the dates on the unit as the best only last 7 yrs max

The cheaper ones maybe 3 yrs if your lucky

And I noticed the date on Mr G's offending item was 2011 so well past its date

That's just a sample picture - the offending one lasted exactly its six and a half programmed years before the end-of-life alarm went off incessantly.

What really annoyed me was the unnecessary obstruction of the means of silencing it.

 

[bpelectric]

That's to do with BS EN 50291 so you cant just render the thing silent

 

[Gramaisc]

That's to do with BS EN 50291 so you cant just render the thing silent

Ah, but you can, they just choose not to tell you how. The switch is there, if you can guess correctly. What the bloody hell is some poor old dear meant to do with it when it starts doing that in the middle of the night?

 

[bpelectric]

Exactly but there made to a spec to comply with regs Not our regs BTW blooby EU regs

 

[Gramaisc]

Exactly but there made to a spec to comply with regs Not our regs BTW blooby EU regs

Would an independent BS really allow it to have a silence button?

..and the Kidde one that I have in my house, also made to 50291, makes it a very simple job to just pop the batteries out to silence it..

 

[bpelectric]

From what I've read so far allowing access to remove / replace a battery complies with BS and also a test / silence button / switch also

 

[Gramaisc]

Indeed, my Kidde one is silenceable by simply removing the batteries, as anybody might guess, even without having access to the instructions it came with years ago, and without even having to get it off the wall, as the battery case is at the front.

The Honeywell one is just stupid, careless design.

The Honeywell does have a five-minute silence period available, should an alarm occur, but that's not much use if it's going to spuriously go off all night.

 

[bpelectric]

You might be interested to know that Smoke alarms must now be linked and mains operated to comply with building regs

You don't need a dedicated circuit from the distribution board they can be wired into an existing lighting circuit and a 3 core cable run between them all

 

[Gramaisc]

You might be interested to know that Smoke alarms must now be linked and mains operated to comply with building regs

You don't need a dedicated circuit from the distribution board they can be wired into an existing lighting circuit and a 3 core cable run between them all

Would you not need four core for the link?

 

[bpelectric]

No mate use 3 core and earth flat 2 cores for the live and neutral the 3rd core is the signal

 

[Gramaisc]

Are we at cross-purposes? I suspect that your '3 core & earth' above is what I originally meant by 'four core', i.e., the extra signal wire - your use of just 'three core' first made me wonder.

 

[bpelectric]

Yes mate sorry we never mention earth as its a known you have to carry one
One other thing don't forget to put Blue markings on the Grey wire tape or.... sleeve is the preferred method

 

[bpelectric]

One other change ......if the kitchen / cooking area can't be shut off from the rest of the accommodation you'll need to fit a Heat sensor in that area.

There's a few changes come in with the new 3rd Amendment But just PM if your unsure about any thing as I've got the new regs

 

[Gramaisc]

Yes mate sorry we never mention earth as its a known you have to carry one
One other thing don't forget to put Blue markings on the Grey wire tape or.... sleeve is the preferred method

Screwfix seem to use 'four-core' and 'three-core & earth' for the same situation - which is fair enough, I suppose, but not mentioning the earth seems risky.

 

[bpelectric]

Chatting on here I can see your point mate