elmdene prima 300

[CR Alarms]

Hi all, long time no see, I have removed a few prima's recently mainly the old 200 and 300's, sadly obsolete haven't got a bad word to say about them, except maybe the soldered on board batteries were a bit of a pain to replace, other than that very loud with a bright strobe you can actually see and cool comfort leds, Only question I have is regarding the total current draw on these? I have measured a few and highest reading I got on one was approaching 700ma!, the others were around the 500 600ma ma mark, Was the prima 200/300 ever this power hungry?, or is it likely the on board batteries have become faulty over the years to draw this amount of current?, Is this the reason they were replaced with the prima 500  to keep the draw down.

Just curious, thanks

[CR Alarms]

Also, have any of you tried the elmdene elm300? It uses the same pcb as the prima 200/300, its a great scb internal sounder which only draws 80ma, it claims to be only 100db but I can assure you its much louder, in fact just as loud as the old 200 300 prima, only difference is current draw. 

My question is was the elmdene prima 200 and 300 every that power hungry? I measured the draw on old stock and some were approaching 700 ma, the rest were around the high 500 early 600ma mark. Or did they always draw that much current in alarm? mind you panels back then could support much more current, scantronic 9600 springs to mind, not like todays panels that shut down on a 10ma overload. 

let me know your opinions,

thanks