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On Feb 7, 5:25 pm, "Jim Beaver" wrote:
I've got hard-wired smoke alarms in my house, installed by my building
contractor when the house was built four years ago. For reasons I'm not
certain of, there are two different type/brand alarms in place.

The alarms have started beeping, presumably because the back-up batteries
need changing. Problems, however:

1. Two of the alarms (of the same type/brand) beep three times in
succession, a couple of times a day. But I can't get them off the
ceiling!
I've tried everything I've ever known or could learn about smoke alarms
to
get them to unlatch, so I could change the batteries, but to no avail.
There is no marking anywhere I can find on the outside of the alarm to
give
me either instruction for opening or even the brand name. I've twisted,
turned, pried, and prodded them and cannot get them loose from the
ceiling
without pulling down the drywall.

2. Another of the alarms (different type/brand) comes off the ceiling
easily using standard techniques. However, as it turns out, this one
doesn't need to come off the ceiling for battery changes, as the battery
compartment opens from the accessible bottom/down side. I changed the
battery with ease. Several times. It won't stop giving me the
weak-battery
warning, no matter how carefully or how many times I replace the battery.
If there's something I'm doing wrong, short of replacing the whole alarm,
I'd like to know what it is.

I've put pictures of both type alarms (from various angles) on the
following
binary newsgroups on Usenet, under the same subject line as this message:
alt.binaries.pictures.misc and free.binaries.misc. The beige-ish photos
are
of the alarm in example number 2 above, and the grey-ish photos are of
the
unremovable alarms in example number 1 above. Can anyone identify these
(especially the grey-ish photos) or tell me how they are supposed to be
opened or removed from the ceiling? And can anyone suggest why changing
the
batteries in the alarm in the beige-ish photos doesn't stop the beeping?
(And yes, I'm certain of the polarity. It's clearly marked on the
alarm.)

Thanks.

Jim Beaver



I not sure I can help you with getting the ones off the ceiling but I
have had a go around with nonstop beeping ones.

I run into this before with the FireX Smoke/CO detectors.

As it turns out when changing the batteries you need to also unplug
the unit from the back or kill the circuit breaker supplying it while
the battery is out and leave it off for about one minute.

This allows it to reset.

Hope that helps.

Thanks. I'll give it a try.

Jim Beaver