Alarm Fault Finding

Basic Alarm Fault Finding

Like with any piece of equipment, every so often there can be little issues – here is our guide to Alarm fault finding to help you identify and solve any small issues that may arise.

Smoke or Heat Alarms

A smoke or heat alarm is sounding for no reason:

Find the alarm with the red light rapidly flashing. Press its ‘Hush’ button to silence. If that does not silence it, clean the alarm using a vacuum. Wait for 10 minutes and the issue should be resolved.
If RadioLINK+ is used, ensure the alarms have been House Coded together correctly. They may have been connected to a nearby system. Reset and House Code again.
If RadioLINK+ is used, ensure any old hard-wire interconnection wires have been removed.
Are there any cooking fumes or steam around? This could be the reason behind the alarm sounding. If so, it may be incorrectly sited or the wrong sensor type for the area.

Regular Single Beep from a smoke or heat alarm:

If the green power light is off check fuses and/or wiring.
If the alarm is a 140RC Series – slide the alarm off the base and change the battery.

Irregular Beep from a smoke or heat alarm:

Check the wiring and connections.
Fill in any gaps where cables enter the base so cold air does not enter.
Is there anything on the same circuit that could be causing electrical interference, e.g. a fluorescent light starter or a central heating pump?
Clean the alarms.

Carbon Monoxide Alarms

A Carbon Monoxide alarm is sounding:

There is likely to be Carbon Monoxide present. Turn off the appliance, open windows/doors and leave the property.
Ring the emergency number of the gas/fuel supplier.
Don’t enter the property until the alarm has stopped.
If the alarm contains AudioLINK – extract a report to identify the details of the incident.

Regular single beep from a Carbon Monoxide alarm:

Check the wiring and connections on mains powered alarms.
If the green light is off, check fuses.
Is there anything on the same circuit that could be causing electrical interference, e.g. a fluorescent light starter or a central heating pump?
If the alarm contains AudioLINK – extract a report to identify the details of the incident.

Alarm Interconnection

Alarms are not interconnecting (RadioLINK+ interconnect):

Press and hold the test button for 10 seconds.
Make sure the alarms have been House Coded together.
Make sure the earth cable has not been wired into the ‘IC’ terminal.
If High Voltage insulation tested, replace alarms/bases.
Check that the bases are facing the same direction to maximise signal strength between the aerials.

Alarms are not interconnecting (hard-wired interconnect):

Press and hold the test button for 10 seconds.
Check interconnecting cables are wired correctly.
Check there are no shorts on the wiring.
If the Live and Neutral have been mixed up, the alarms will have been damaged. Fix wiring and replace the alarm.

Test Button

The Test button is not working:

Press and hold the test button for 10 seconds.
Make sure the alarm is connected to the base.

Alarm Accessories

Alarm accessories are not working with all or some alarms:

Check that the alarms and accessories are compatible.
If RadioLINK+ is used – make sure it has been House Coded with all the alarms.
If hard-wired interconnected – make sure all the connections/wiring is in place between the alarms and the accessories.
Check the units are receiving power and all power switches are on.
Check the alarms themselves.

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