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A friend asked me to look at these. she has 3 of these smoke alarms and one heat alarm. They are all fitted with a "sealed for life" 10 year battery and these particular alarms have a replace by date of October 2027 which suggests they should have another 5 years life or put it another way they are only half way through their designed life.
All 4 are chirping every 45 seconds indicating failed battery.
A bit of googling found this https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money...rer-admits-90-000-popular-devices-faulty.html
So it's a well known fault and the manufacturer says they are replacing them. So my first question is will Fire Angel try and wriggle out of a claim if the owner has lost the original purchase receipt (highly probable) or will they just accept they have failed before their "replace by" date?
Second question, if you press the test button, one of the LED's flashes but the alarms do not sound. The article above suggests the alarms will still work when chirping but the test button does not so what confidence do you have that they might actually work?
And now the fun bit. Saying a battery is "sealed for life" is like a red rag to a bull for me. So I investigated:
There are in fact 2 batteries. One in a plug in wireless module. Of the 4 I had, 2 of the wireless modules had what appear to be good batteries measuring the correct 3 volts, and the other 2 were well below 3V. Then opening up the main unit there is another 3V lithium battery under a plastic cover. Both these batteries COULD be replaced by anyone competent with a soldering iron if you so wished.
Now this is where it gets interesting. The one alarm I had opened, it's internal battery measured 3V i.e. okay. I put one of the wireless modules with a good 3V battery into it, and still it chirps and still it does not sound when you press the test button.
I suspect the battery failure story might be a smoke screen to avoid admitting a more serious fault with these units as this particular one that I opened up does not appear to have a failed battery yet it is showing the chirping every 45 seconds that says flat battery.
Thoughts please?
P.S I would not recommend these to anyone, it seems they cannot be trusted.
All 4 are chirping every 45 seconds indicating failed battery.
A bit of googling found this https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money...rer-admits-90-000-popular-devices-faulty.html
So it's a well known fault and the manufacturer says they are replacing them. So my first question is will Fire Angel try and wriggle out of a claim if the owner has lost the original purchase receipt (highly probable) or will they just accept they have failed before their "replace by" date?
Second question, if you press the test button, one of the LED's flashes but the alarms do not sound. The article above suggests the alarms will still work when chirping but the test button does not so what confidence do you have that they might actually work?
And now the fun bit. Saying a battery is "sealed for life" is like a red rag to a bull for me. So I investigated:
There are in fact 2 batteries. One in a plug in wireless module. Of the 4 I had, 2 of the wireless modules had what appear to be good batteries measuring the correct 3 volts, and the other 2 were well below 3V. Then opening up the main unit there is another 3V lithium battery under a plastic cover. Both these batteries COULD be replaced by anyone competent with a soldering iron if you so wished.
Now this is where it gets interesting. The one alarm I had opened, it's internal battery measured 3V i.e. okay. I put one of the wireless modules with a good 3V battery into it, and still it chirps and still it does not sound when you press the test button.
I suspect the battery failure story might be a smoke screen to avoid admitting a more serious fault with these units as this particular one that I opened up does not appear to have a failed battery yet it is showing the chirping every 45 seconds that says flat battery.
Thoughts please?
P.S I would not recommend these to anyone, it seems they cannot be trusted.