E

euphoricmess

Hi

I recently had my house rebuilt, involved full rewiring etc. Now we are about to move in we need the final build certificate. Its been a while since the electrics were in etc, 10 months or so and they left saying all working fine, but left the electrics off.

Anyway, all is working, bar the mains smoke detectors. They work battery powered, and if you press the button and hold it they alarm to test working, but when you switch them on at the mains the two of them just constantly alarm.

We cannot get the building certificate without this and the electrician is saying it is likely to be something else and have we had other people in as it worked when he was last year.

There are two alarms in the house, and they both alarm when the mains is switched on, a type of loud cricket noise rather than that of it normally alarm. Both also Alarm when pressed.

Now with mains off but batteries in they may sometimes chirp once or twice.

Add to that he is not fit to work at the minute.

Any idea what the problem is? I have attached photos.

Many thanks
 

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Have you tried changing the batteries, with the power off for 10 months as you say, those alarms would have been working on battery back-up.

I don't recognise the ones you p[osted but it is worth a try.
 
i use these. as ^^ malcolm says, probably batteries. you need a small screwdriver to release the head and it slides off to one side. be careful when disconnecting batteries. i had 1 last week where it was so tight, it ripped the terminal out of the battery. you should have a leaflet showing how to remove the head.
 
Replaced batteries and they are still ok when mains switch not on, but alarm when mains switch arm. Alarm loud and continuous
 
could be one or both contaminated by dust. try removing each head in turn and see if fault can be traced to one or the other.
 
Tel seems to know these ones, but if the batteries are good, and there is main voltage to them then it looks like faulty head.

Is there definately 230 volts going to them? could try and see if there is dust in them, again not knowing these type directly, but others that I have worked on, do tend to play up and and give a false alarm if they are dusty or dirty.

Remove the head and blow them out. you could use lung power to just clear them.
 
Thanks both, there is progress.

When the one downstairs is off the mount, then i turn the mains on, the one upstairs alarms (still connecting to mains), then when I switch them arround, with the one downstairs installed correctly and the one upstairs off, no noise at all....

So I am assuming, (and im not stupid, but electrics is not my thing) that it is something to do with the one upstairs?

Any tests I can do before having to go out and buy another?
 
i reckon it's dust esp. if he's been rebuilt, dust covers left off. hairy assed builders making loads of dust. these units are £20 each inc. vat. buy 2 and swap the heads. no need to disturb wiring.
 
Dust covers were on, but may have been taken off or fallen off before carpet put down. Cant be certain as dont know where they went (the covers).... They are an Ei141...
 
Update, they make the odd beaping noise now they are attached but no electricity to them.

When the alarm is going, both are sounding and both are flashing red light and have green light on constant
 
Further investigation into it shows that if you replace either of the heads on the downstairs mains bracket they work fine when the mains is on. Either on the one upstairs and the alarm goes off.

Could the wiring be wrong on the second one?

Thanks
 
I was going to suggest that you check the polarity at both. Either check it yourself or get someone in to do it for you.
I use Aico alarms too and have never had any issues with them. I'm unfamiliar with the specific fault description you give, so why don't you ring Aico technical? You should have instructions which will have the number or check out their web site: Aico | Smoke, Heat & CO Alarms and Fire Barriers

BTW is the downstairs one in the hall near the kitchen door? If it is, then IMO you'd be better with an Ei146 there (optical alarm less prone to false alrms from cooking fumes)
 
Thanks to all that have helped so far.

I have spoken with the guys in technical support and they suggest it is faulty wiring or loose wiring to the one upstairs.

I am waiting to hear back from the electrician who did it, but as he did it a while back, and he did not install all the lights, and he seems to have some kind of injury that means he cant work, it looks like he is not going to do anything. However I am still waiting to see what happens from him before trying anything to complex with the wiring.

Just know if i try something then he comes he will just blame me when in fact its a fault he has made.

Thanks for all help, any further help is appreciated, you think writing the final bit of your PhD is stress enough, but its nice to have additions to top the stress levels up.

Thanks

G
 
One of my customers had a similar problem last week, the units had been in for about 3 years then the problem. A gentle vacuuming seems to have done the trick.
 
Will try this, but how would i go about gently vacuuming.

Also, the head units both work fine downstairs, but not in the upstairs?
 
sounds to me like a crossed interconnection. remove head, then unclip cover over terminals. check that the same colours ( brown, black, grey ) are connected the same way round in both detectors. one detector will also have a T/E ( brown/blue) in L and N.
 
The instructions on my customers unit said hoover using a "soft brush head" but they didn't have one so I simply put the hoover "hose" near to the smoke alarm and let the suction do the job.

If this doesn't work, maybe you should get another sparky in - where are you based?
 
Is this something a none skilled person should attempt, or am i better waiting to get someone who has experience in doing this?

Obviously to void from liability if i chose to do it, it would be of my own doing and not what someone suggest yada yada

Based North Liverpool
 
as long as you islate before touching connections. first check if they are correct . it's just L - L, N - N, Link - Link.
 
If you have the instructions, taking off the detector part is straight forward.

Here's a picture of what you should see

View attachment 5011

The one downstairs, that i think is right looks just like that

The one upstairs has brown in brown, black with a thicker brown insulation in the middle one, and grey in the last one that should be blue. There is no blue wire upstairs at all

in the one downstairs there are two grey fat wires, that split into the relevent ones.

Upstairs there is not, there is only one fat wire that splits into the relevant ones.
 
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yes. its just that you have to make sure that the brow/black/grey are in the same order on both. the brown sleeve is to identify the black as a "live". the grey , strictly speaking shoud be sleeved blue. generally it's brown =L, black=link, grey=N.
 
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I have attached pictures. The first two are of the one downstairs, the second two are of the one upstairs.

Ignore the bad painting.... ;)

From the pics there may be a clear issue, but i dont want to prejudice your minds with it...
 

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i give up. are the grey and black the same way upstairs as down?
 
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that's what i thought from the pics. if so , he's not read my previuos posts.
 
Sorry I have read them, I just am wary of making any changes before i absolutely know what im doing.

I apologise if im coming across thick, im not, i just dont want to make any errors and am unsure of the affects any errors could cause.

So by that its clear the colour wires are not matching up.

So as I know the downstairs one works, im to change the one upstairs to match that of the one downstairs?
 
I'm guessing to say it's probably connected to the lighting circuit so make sure you isolate the circuit before you touch it.

Shame the installer didn't use "blue" sleeve on the "neutral" like they should have done
 
It has its own switch on the electricity fuse board thing, but before i try touching it i will turn whole switch board off. Is there anything else i have to do, earth myself or something?
 
Hum, no not really, if you turn the whole lot off, all you will then need is a small screw driver, and a good pair of steps.

I'd like to know how the original sparky could claim they worked ok!
 
As would I mate, I have the original electricity installation certificate because it was a complete rewire. Luckily everything else has been brill.

Thanks all for all your help, I will post the results soon
 
smokes must have been wired by a blonde on friday afternoon.
 
By a fiery ginger actually ;)

All done, all electrics back on, and alarms fitted, green lights on and working as they should.... for now.

Thanks to all those who helped, even if it was just simple pointing out errors etc, its much appreciated and saved a man, who is technically unemployed (writing up my thesis for PhD) an outlay to a new spark who could have charged me the world.....

Many thanks

Gareth
 
any spark worth his weight in donkey poo would have only charged a call-out fee, say £30 -£35. but, there are sharks out there would have turned it into a half day's work and charged over a ton. good job it wasn't a plumbing problem.LOL.
 
Haha, dont get me started, had some plumbing needing doing, basically sink washing machine and dish washer plumbed in, and a shower to be finished, glass surround to be put on and shower unit to be installed. Guy said a day rate and would take 4 days... I said, ok, as just needed doing, he said he was off on holiday so could he bring a mate, half the amount of days same rate.

I said no probs, turns out, guy he brings is a mate of a mate, he does shower in two hours and then gets the fella to hurry up, in total paid for one day as they were done by 12.....

The mate of the mate is now doing work for people I know, and doing a great job.... quick, talented and always in demand, the other guy if i rang up now he would be free to work tomorrow no doubt ;)
 

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Smoke alarm problems
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