Disconnecting alarm door sensor

[DamnNutella]

I am having new composite doors fitted and want to get rid of the current alarm sensors that are connected to my doors at moment. It’s an old alarm system that we don’t use or service so next time we decorate the sensors that are around the house will go too. Just had surveyor out to measure everything and he said we will need to get someone out to disconnect this.

Any ideas of who I can contact? Any advice?

Thanks

An alarm company local to you?

Is the alarm box itself on an individual circuit at the consumer unit? If so I’d be tempted to just flick the switch off that powers it and job done unless it’s got a battery backup? If not and wired into an existing circuit then an electrician would disconnect in a few minutes I’m sure. It is I imagine a pretty straight forward diy job, but of course with electricity and lack of knowledge don’t attempt something that you don’t have the skill set to do / risk death etc. Are the current sensors hard wired or battery?

I just opened this to check and the alarm is going off. No idea how to switch it off

Never mind. I remembered the code - so this answers the questions. I have a box like the one in picture - when opened it triggered the alarm. I assume this is its own fuse box?

I think there is a battery back up that doesn’t work properly because when we have a street power outage my alarm rings from the outside for about 20 minutes and then goes off. I’ve been told that if the battery works properly it wouldn’t do that

Yup so that orange box will be the battery and that looks ooooolldddddddd. I imagine it’s done for and you’ve confirmed as much by taking off the cover and shutting down the power. Can’t see any obvious feed from that photo but there must be an electrical wire connecting to something on the board. Again, do not go poking around if you don’t know what you’re looking for as with something that old there could be goodness knows what ‘surprises’ lurking behind. The red and black wires connect to the board from the battery and you may need to pull that from the board to have a look behind - should just be a connector that will pull off.

@NonmagicMike thank you! I’m going to call a few electricians to see if they can disconnect this for me. I can’t imagine it’s a big job / I definitely won’t be touching or disconnecting any of it!! I took the cover off to make sure this was part of the alarm and I sure got my confirmation!

A few years ago I had a decorator in to paint my hall. In the process, he asked me what the old wire was by the front door, it was loose and trailing a little. I thought it was from an old door bell which was no longer there so he just cut it and neatly painted the skirting board.

When my alarm was next serviced, the engineer asked me who had cut the wire connecting the door to the alarm system! When it was cut, the alarm did not go off although the little beep when the door was opened did stop.

We just agreed to leave it as it was, my house alarm works properly with the sensors in various rooms and is serviced every year. It does have a back up battery but I think that is only for if someone interferes with the actual alarm box to silence it.

Yours might be the same.

Yeah shouldn’t be a big job unless they uncover something weird. Disconnect and make safe. They should be able to get it done within the first hour call out charge.

Those two white dots are covers for the screws that hold it onto the door and frame.
The wire likely runs behind the piece of trim at the bottom of the doors.

In the interim waiting for the new doors, you could unscrew the sensors then use elastic bands to keep them together ( the same faces touching each other ) and continue to use the alarm if required.

Obviously, the door is no longer alarmed once you do this but they could be reinstated on the new door/frame.

@Ihateslugs that’s really interesting! I didn’t think of that. There are sensors in various parts of my house so if cutting the wire to the sensor on the door doesn’t affect the whole system I might still be able to use it when we’re away. We don’t use it when we’re home as we have a dog and it hasn’t been serviced in a long long time. I don’t declare it on insurance.

I will need to pay someone to do it for me as not taking any chances with it.

thank you

On the off chance that you are Manchester based, I can recommend Secure I Am.

We had similar as you; an alarm that we never used as the previous owners hadn’t left us the code or details of who had fitted it! The sensors in the patio door started to fail and the alarm would beep constantly. All the local alarm compnies that I contacted wouldn’t touch it as “it wasn’t one of theirs” but Wayne deactivated the entire alarm system for us very quickly and at a reasonable price.

@indigoemerald thank you. I‘m in South Yorkshire but good news is I just checked with my FIL as he had a similar system fitted 20 years ago and he has needed to get it fixed last year after a burglary. Sadly the burglars just ripped the unit off and cut through the wires. These systems are not really that great but if I get them out and it’s not too much, I’ll just get it serviced and continue using and hopefully they can just disconnect the door. It’s better than nothing I suppose. It never occurred to me that this would still work when the door sensor is disconnected so am glad I posted the question here.