Is your beeping home alarm driving you mad?
In this post, we cover why your home alarm could be beeping and - more important to you - how you can stop it!
Once the underlying fault is fixed, the beeping will stop. If it carries on, contact an accredited alarm installer.
Tip: listen to the beep pattern. Quick beeps roughly a minute apart usually mean a mains power failure, while slower, intermittent beeps normally point to a low backup battery.
The first step is to identify the cause of the beeping, and the easiest way to do this is to check the manual.
A fault or indication guide will identify what's causing the beeping and what you need to do to stop it.
If you don't have a manual, or if there are multiple causes for the same beeping, then it's a process of elimination.
Occasionally switching off the alarm to allow the system to reset will work. Turn the power supply off at the source and completely power down the system. Then, wait up to a minute to turn it back on.
A common cause of beeping is low batteries. If any component of your system operates on batteries, replace them and then reset the alarm to allow the system to register the new batteries.
The controller often has a backup battery which may need replacing.
If all the batteries are okay, there may be a fault with an individual sensor. Since it can be tedious identifying which sensors need attention, you will need to call a professional to fix the system.
If the electricity supply to the alarm system is interrupted, the alarm will begin to operate on a backup battery, and for this reason, it begins beeping to let you know it is on "battery mode".
Most systems have an electrical plug, which may have been accidentally pulled out or turned off. It is important to check this first.
If the alarm is still plugged in, check the circuit breakers on your electrical box and your internal fuses.
If the issue is still unresolved, look for any visible wiring that appears damaged. This is the stage where a professional needs to be called.
If you have a monitored or wireless alarm, the beeping can be your system telling you it has lost its signal path - the connection it uses to talk to the outside world or to its own sensors. On monitored systems this is often a broken phone line or a dropped mobile network signal; on wireless systems it can be a sensor that has lost contact with the panel.
This has become more common as the old analogue phone network is switched off, so older monitored alarms that still signal over a landline can start reporting faults. Enter your user code to silence the beeping, then contact your alarm company if it keeps coming back. If you're weighing up your options, our guide to wired vs wireless burglar alarms explains the difference.
If you've worked through everything above and the beeping continues, make sure it's actually your intruder alarm and not a smoke alarm - a beeping smoke detector usually means a low battery, a build-up of dust, or a unit that has reached the end of its life.
Trying to diagnose and fix the problem on your own can do more harm than good. You may think you've solved the problem when, in reality, you have a faulty system that is putting your home and family at risk of a burglary.
For dependable protection, you should insist on NSI-approved or SSAIB-certificated installers to safeguard your home with high-quality, reliable systems.
Beat the burglars once and for all!!!
It's Blake's NSI Gold approval and SSAIB certification that allow us to pass our expertise on to homeowners like you. Put that together with decades of experience all over Essex and the South East and it's easy to see we're the best choice to protect your home and family!
We've made a quick quiz for you to learn what a burglar sees when he looks at your home. Click here or tap the image below to find out just how safe your house really is!
Prefer to talk it through? Request a call from an expert or call us on 01702 447800.
