Quite a few earlier posts in other sections have mentioned the curse of 9V smoke alarms bleeping and being blamed on the alarm panel.

Here's a similar story that's probably best put down to experience.

It started with a phone call from an elederly couple, the conversation went something like this:

Customer: There something wrong with our alarm, it keeps bleeping.

Me: What sort of bleep is it?

C: Well about very minute there's a high pitched beep.

M: That sounds like your smoke alarm rather than the burglar alarm, have you checked the batteries?

C: It's definitely the burglar alarm, anyway we only changed the batteries on the smoke detector a couple of months ago.

<Bleep>

M: Well it certainly sounds like the smoke alarm. Please could you try taking the battery out and we'll see if it stops.

C: <Grumbling> Ok, but I'm telling you it's the alarm. Right I've taken the battery out of the smoke detector

<Wait>

<Bleep>

C: See I told you it was the alarm!

M: Ok put the battery back in the smoke detector, I'll come round.

(I know full well that the panel they have never makes a sound like this but don't see what else I can do.)

Arriving at the house it's not long before we hear the bleep. The customers almost seem pleased: "see I told you there was a problem!"

I now spend the next 10 minutes waiting for each bleep and taking a step nearer to the source each time. Eventually we arrive in the kitchen, <beep> .

M: Is that a Carbon Monoxide detector next to the boiler?

C: Yes, the man from the gas board said we needed one.

M: Well it looks like the battery is in need of replacement!

Sure enough changing the battery stops the bleeping!

Sometimes you just can't win them all.

Nowadays I always try to encourage people to have a 12V smoke detector fitted as part of their alarm system. Almost everyone has suffered the beeping in the middle of the night as the battery runs down and when I explain how it won't go into alarm every time they grill some bacon they can usually see what a good idea it is.

Of course I don't usually tell them that by throwing out their chepo 9V B&Q detector they are probably also saving me a call out at some god forsaken hour!

MarkP

yep that has happend to me as well

only thing was the 2 hour drive to the job

11pm at night and the customer refused to pay the call out fee.

I had a similar call out, and the customer was not happy about paying the call-out fee - especially given that she decided not to take out a maintenance contract, so her call out was heftier than usual...

Managed to reach a compromise by replacing the battery in the smoke detector for her - and charging her £10 for the battery ON TOP of the call out. And she was happy with that?!?

Been there, done that several times too. There are some people in this world who I would not trust with the remote control to a TV, let alone install an alarm system for them. If they don't want to pay the call out, I'll find something to change next visit!!

yep this has happened to me. They forgot about the smoke detector still in packet in cupboard took ages to trace it

Baz