What kind of power source is my 23 y/o house alarms external ringer likely to contain, such that it still operates having had no maintanence in those 23 years?
Background: I had the alarm fitted when the house was built because I was working overseas and my wife was home alone. It had two annual inspections before the company that fitted it shut up shop due the the owner retiring. He sold his list of mainanence contracts to some other outfit and when the guy came to 'renew' the contract, he was one of those licked and suited high pressure sales people trying to up the ante every which way and demanding that I sign on the dotted line before he would leave. I had to get right up in his face and walk him out before he would shut up and leave. Needoless to say, I didn't sign.
I never took another mainanence contract; so the only thing that has been done beyond occasionally cleaning the sensors is replacing the SLA backup battery about every 6 or 7 years.
It has now started to become unreliable. Triggering randomly on a fairly regurlar basis and indicating one of the sensors was resposible when most time it is easy to prove that they could not have been. eg. It blames "front door open" when it obviously isn't -- my office is right next to the front door.
Upshot: we never use it and I'm fed up with being woken in teh middle of the night, so I want to disconnect it. The only thing stopping me is the external bell triggering when the mains power and battery are disconnected.
Hence the question above, and particularly, how long will the thing continue to ring for?
Background: I had the alarm fitted when the house was built because I was working overseas and my wife was home alone. It had two annual inspections before the company that fitted it shut up shop due the the owner retiring. He sold his list of mainanence contracts to some other outfit and when the guy came to 'renew' the contract, he was one of those licked and suited high pressure sales people trying to up the ante every which way and demanding that I sign on the dotted line before he would leave. I had to get right up in his face and walk him out before he would shut up and leave. Needoless to say, I didn't sign.
I never took another mainanence contract; so the only thing that has been done beyond occasionally cleaning the sensors is replacing the SLA backup battery about every 6 or 7 years.
It has now started to become unreliable. Triggering randomly on a fairly regurlar basis and indicating one of the sensors was resposible when most time it is easy to prove that they could not have been. eg. It blames "front door open" when it obviously isn't -- my office is right next to the front door.
Upshot: we never use it and I'm fed up with being woken in teh middle of the night, so I want to disconnect it. The only thing stopping me is the external bell triggering when the mains power and battery are disconnected.
Hence the question above, and particularly, how long will the thing continue to ring for?