Ei141 still beeps after battery replacement

[Safelincs]

Hi Suzanne

The cooking fumes would suggest Ionisation smoke alarms are fitted, so this would be expected, but I would say that the beeping is coincidental, and that the beeps from all alarms, with no green lights on any is showing a definite wiring issue – quite likely a large surge of power may have occurred previously and may have damaged the alarms.

I would suggest an electrician checks the wiring etc but if it was a surge then the wiring will be fine, and the problem is then in the alarms themselves.

If the wiring is fine would suggest that the alarms are investigated by Aico, the UK distribution alarm of Ei Electronics.

Harry

[Guest Graeme Brown]

Yeah. What a great system. I bought a new houses fitted with these alarms fitted and guess what?.... the battery indicator started beeping at 2am. Turn off the mains electricity, wake up the whole family and then can't get the cover off. Brilliant!

[Guest Yer ma]

Right I'm not a scientist of rockets here……..but how can my alarm be disconnected from the power supply and have the battery removed and yet still it is beeping at me every 40 or so seconds!!!

If there is no source of power at all………….how can that possibly be?

[Safelincs]

Hi Graeme, there is a helpful video showing you how to remove the smoke alarm head (you call it cover) of the Ei141. You ought to replace your battery ideally once a year rather than wait for the warning sound to start. As the battery voltage drops when the temperature is getting colder you are always likely to have the alarm beep a low battery warning at night when it is cooler.

Hi Yer ma,

I would bet you have another alarm (eg a CO alarm) in the same room that is low on battery. Please let me know should I be wrong!

Harry

[green-foam]

Right I'm not a scientist of rockets here……..but how can my alarm be disconnected from the power supply and have the battery removed and yet still it is beeping at me every 40 or so seconds!!!

If there is no source of power at all………….how can that possibly be?

As Harry says, and you (Yer ma) have said, it is not possible for a smoke alarm to make any noise for any reasonable length of time with out some sort of power supply.

I have to agree with Harry, you have another detector somewhere nearby (may not be a CO detector) that has a low battery. My personal favourite is one put in a drawer and never fitted, but still with battery installed. I have also heard of them being "put down" on the top of a cupboard, and forgotten until..............

[Guest seona mason-chadburn]

With battery replaced - unit hoovered - beeping continues - green light constant and red intermittent (every 10secs). What next to stop beeping every minute ? 85yr old parents die a death (+ cat) when I test after actions ?

Seona

[Elliot]

Harry

I have a similar problem to Seona, I have 3 x Ei141 smoke alarms, two of them work fine, constant green light and 1 x flash red light every 40 secs.

The third is bleeping - the time interval varies but can be as much as once every 15 secs to once a day. The red light is also flashing at irregular intervals, when silent, once every 40 secs, when playing up, can be every 10 to 15 secs. I have had the vacuum cleaner on it and thoroughly cleaned the side vents/slots - it seemed very clean before I started.

The sticker says replace 2018 - which suggests the heads are 6 years old (assuming a 10 year life span). The battery has been replaced with new Duracell. Can I still return this unit for inspection, even though it is 6 years old??

Thanks Elliot

[Safelincs]

Hi Elliot

I have checked with Aico and they are happy to check out your alarm for free

Kind Regards

Harry

[Elliot]

Harry

Thanks for that - I'll get if off in the post tomorrow. I'll send an accompanying letter explaining the problem.

regards

Elliot

[Guest MKP]

Can they take my alarms too please? I have 2 heads (replace 2019) which are doing the same thing...low battery beeping, replace battery, put back on ceiling, test then the low battery beeping continues. Have tried with 2 different new batteries so it isn't that!

Also (slightly off topic) - why do you have to turn the mains off to take the head off? Is this to do with the workings of the alarm? Or just for safety?

Thanks in advance

MKP

[Safelincs]

Hi MKP

It's certainly worth a chat with Aico. They are very knowledgeable and helpful!

The switching off is a safety precaution, as you could touch live wire if you were to push a screw driver into the connecting slots.

Harry

[Guest Anthony Quick]

After reading this thread I ordered a replacement head for my 10 year old Ei141...I just removed the old one and installed the new one and IT'S STILL BEEPING!!! Can anyone explain what I should do next (other than removing the base unit and throwing it in the trash!)

Anthony

[Guest Anthony]

And the beeps are definitely coming from the bases....I put both offending units in the garage hoping for some peace....but no joy

[Safelincs]

Hi Anthony, You have another alarm in the room somewhere. Have a look in cupboards etc to see if you have a smoke or CO alarm somewhere. The alarm base cannot beep

Harry

[Guest Anthony]

Yes, you are right...it's amazing how bad human ears are at determining direction of short high pitched chirps!

[Guest Nigel]

Replaced battery on an Ei 141 as on previous occasions but it still continued to beep. Closer look at the battery connection revealed the wire had corroded through so no connection to the new battery. Hope this helps someone in the future.

Nigel

[Guest Andrew]

Thanks for all the useful comments on this forum. I have 4 smoke alarms in the house and when 1 goes off they all follow (which I guess is normal), but for some reason when ANY of them go off, I have to go to one particular one to stop them beeping not the one which started beeping first. Is there a reason for this?

Also, with the 9V back up battery, should the charge in that diminish at all given it's "back up" status? I.e. How often should they be replaced? I look forward to your response.

[Guest Miriam]

Hi there - hope you can answer a stupid question for me!

This should be obvious (I know!), but if I switch the mains supply to the Ei141 smoke alarms / heat detectors off, and remove all the batteries from every alarm / detector in the house, there should be no beeping at all, surely, without a power supply?

Apologies, it seems logical to me, but I don't understand fully how these things work and are set up. :)

And actually your forum was very useful tonight - I've moved into a new house and saw an alarm flashing red every 40 seconds and was worried it would go off in the middle of the night. But I've now learnt that this is normal operation, I've just never seen it before! I've heard how loud the alarms are (when I was cooking recently!) so didn't want to be freaked out in the middle of the night without knowing what to do!

Kind regards

Miriam

[Tom Sutton]

You haven't said which type/model you are using if it is Ei 141check out the video for for some information.

[Guest Andrew]

Thanks Tom. That IS my model, but I'm trying to find out why when any of the 4 alarms go off in my house, I have to go to a particular one to disarm the alarm. Also, and this is just out of curiosity, I am trying to work out that given the 9V batteries are only there as "backup" why they still need to be replaced regularly unless there are frequent power outages.

[Tom Sutton]

If it is Alkaline battery in the Aico 140 Series they are designed to last up to 4 years in standby, search for denmans electrical wholesale then check out their downloads page on the fire and security you will find a Aico Brochure.

[Safelincs]

Hi Andrew

If a system detects a fire or some event (insects, for example) in one of its alarm, it usually can only be silenced as a complete system from the alarm that has detected the issue. This is a safety feature to ensure you investigate what is causing the issue in the room affected rather than just pressing the hush button in a different room and turning over to carry on sleeping.

Harry

[Safelincs]

Hi Miriam

I would say you have a different battery operated alarm in your room, maybe a CO alarm in one of your drawers?

Harry

[Tom Sutton]

Standby batteries have to meet a standard as recommended by BS 5839 part 6 which is,

“The capacity of the standby supply should be sufficient to power the smoke alarm(s) and any heat alarms in the quiescent mode for at least 72 h whilst giving an audible or visual warning of power supply failure, after which there should remain sufficient capacity to provide a fire warning for a further four minutes, in the absence of a fire, a fault warning for at least 24 h.”

Over time, batteries lose their capability to meet the above recommendation and there is a voltage drop which operates the low battery warning signal which requires you to change the battery, this should happen around the four year period.

[Guest Andrew]

Tom, thanks very much. That makes sense and the time period is about right.

Harry, thanks also for your explanation and that is what I thought should happen, however irrespective of which alarm is set off by smoke (usually the one in the kitchen), I can only silence the alarm by hitting the button on the alarm set up in the hallway. I found this quite weird as well! Could this be a fault in the system or perhaps a fault in how it was wired into the house (bought the house as a new build 10 years ago).

Thanks again for taking the time to answer

Andrew