ADT burglar alarm problem - urgent

[RockCrushesLizard]

Hi all

We recently moved in to a house with an ADT burglar alarm system. We chose not to buy the £25 per month subscription to their service.

However I've come home tonight and there's an internal siren sounding, and a battery symbol flashing on the keypad.

ADT are refusing to do anything, because we didn't buy a contract, and have said it was the previous owners responsibility to decommission the alarm.

I can't get an electrician at this time without ££££,
So my question is how can I make the whining stop? I took the panel off, but don't know where to start...

Do you need a new battery somewhere e.g. on one of the door sensors? Have you had a power cut this afternoon - that can set things off?

Most alarms turn themselves off after about 20 minutes maximum.

Can you pay the £25 now over the phone and get the service set up then call in for assistance? It will probably cost at least £100 for an emergency call out. Failing that call an independent alarm company for an emergency call out - make sure they confirm they can sort out an ADT alarm.

We had an alarm that did this when we had a power cut. It was because it was battery and mains powered but when the battery died it was kept going by the mains until we had a power cut. The actual unit that needed the battery was not the panel but was a separate unit which was in our loft. Does yours have another component elsewhere which might need a battery?

Have you checked the ADT troubleshooting page? www.adt.com/help/faq/troubleshooting

Yes when ours did similar it was a low battery due to a series of power cuts. We called the company, paid the one-off subscription and they came out to service it, replacing a couple of sensors too. Nearly had to do it again a few weeks ago when I accidentally triggered the panic alarm and mislaid the reset key.

You can get independent alarm specialists to come out. You don't need to pay a subscription, just pay for works done. It sounds like the battery is dead. We never subscribed to a service when we moved to our current house (from new), we had to call someone out when the same thing happened to us after 10 years.

What sort is your alarm? You can find manuals for many over the net, which can help you trouble shoot.

Thanks for all your advice - I called a local alarm specialist as you advised, and he talked me through disconnecting the battery - no more siren!
He was very nice, and it cost nothing.
If only ADT had been that helpful - apparently I was going to have to pay £160 to get one of their people within 3-5 days!

That is good - get him to service the alarm annually. He sounds like a keeper!

ADT, Bargepole. £25/month is £300/year.

Mine is a regional independent. I pay £307 p.a. maintenance contract for a commercial-standard alarm with telecoms signalling and monitoring, which includes maintenance and two service calls per year, which are required to get police response. Battery and parts are included, as required. I bought the system from them outright.

So your costs are the same as ADT's PigletJohn unless I am misreading?

yes, for a commercial standard installation including police response with digital signalling and monitoring. Is that what ADT provide?

That's one of the services they provide. Not fully up to date on their current tarrifs but we're paying around £25 a month for all the same stuff.

Crappy response from them though for the OP - would have been far more sensible to be nice about it and hope to retain the business at a later date when the OP was over the initial cost of moving house and had time to breathe.

Yes, it would have been a similar annual cost and service to you PigletJohn, though batteries/parts aren't included.

I was mostly hacked off that they were so unhelpful, (and didn't ensure that the alarm was decommissioned at the end of the previous contract) when it was a very easy solution.

I'll be getting a new system from the local independent when I get through all the other bits on my to do list!

ADT are definitely on my never with a barge pole list now