Re: Anyone here that's ever saw bad caps or...
I've actually replaced the alarm now. It was 9 years old and it seems it was due for renewal anyway. I didn't realise these things had a life expectancy and I suspect there are thousands of other people out there who don't know either.
I have two more of these alarms though and will be replacing them too so I will also inspect those to see if the caps in them have also gone or if it was a faulty alarm which caused it. There are 5 caps in each alarm and of the five in this unit three were bulging, one of them very...
GrumpyOldMan
Member
Last Activity: 03-14-2012, 08:27 AM
Joined: 11-15-2008
Location: Lancaster, UK.
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Re: Smoke alarm caps bad. Can anyone identify please?
Just one last note. When installing the new alarm (after my last post) I noticed that there is now a date stamped on which gives a date for replacement of the alarm. My particular one was manufactured in July 2008 and has a replacement date of July 2018. If only they'd done this before! Lol.
Ian.Leave a comment:
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Re: Smoke alarm caps bad. Can anyone identify please?
Don't panic, don't panic!! I HAVE bought a replacement smoke alarm. On reading up on this it seems that smoke alarms do indeed have a life expectancy of around 10 years and this one is 9 years old. But no-one ever told me that before and I bet there are thousands upon thousands of these things in use that are well over that and had these caps not gone I would never have thought about it. I had thought that the idea behind a capacitor backup alarm was so that there was NO maintenance necessary other than a regular testing. In...Leave a comment:
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Re: Smoke alarm caps bad. Can anyone identify please?
If I bought 15 from Farnell they would be £2.72 each + VAT (3.61 + vat for 1). I have 3 alarms so I would need 15. Still quite expensive though and they could possibly go again anyway.
Ian....Leave a comment:
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Re: Smoke alarm caps bad. Can anyone identify please?
Could I do that? Presumably it would have to be a 12v battery or would 9v do? What other changes, if any, would I need to make?
To be honest though I can get a direct replacement mains smoke alarm with battery backup for under £12.00 so it's probably worth doing that just to save all the hassle although I do relish a challenge! (A mains alarm with capacitor backup however is about £36.00, which is why I originally thought replacing the caps might be a good idea).
Cheers,
Ian....Leave a comment:
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Re: Smoke alarm caps bad. Can anyone identify please?
Yes, that is exactly what they are.
I've just priced them up though and it will cost less to buy some new alarms!
Thanks for everyones help and input though.
Ian.Leave a comment:
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Re: Anyone here that's ever saw bad caps or...
Oooops.
On closer inspection I found this.
Sorry. They were quite well hidden though!
Ian.Leave a comment:
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Re: Smoke alarm caps bad. Can anyone identify please?
Oooops.
On closer inspection I found this.
Sorry. They were quite well hidden though!
Ian.Leave a comment:
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Re: Anyone here that's ever saw bad caps or...
There are no other markings. I've shown all that there is. I wonder if this is so that they can't be replaced or tampered with by unauthorised people.
I think it will probably be safer just to replace the alarm. The capacitor ones aren't cheap though.
Thanks for your reply.
Ian.Leave a comment:
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Re: Smoke alarm caps bad. Can anyone identify please?
Very good point, thanks. That's the answer to my question 2. The alarms were fitted when we had the loft converted to a room and were part of the specifications for the local building regulations.
I am considering contacting the supplier though as I feel this is an important issue, not that they can do much about it I suppose.
I would still like to know what they are though if anyone can identify them. My brother in law IS a qualified electronics engineer so he could fit them for me. I will be giving it...Leave a comment:
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Re: Smoke alarm caps bad. Can anyone identify please?
Hello Stevo. Thanks for replying. Yes they are a T shape. I myself thought they looked a little like Panasonics but there are no real identification marks on them, just what you see in the pics. They are 9 years old by the way.
The one in the picture is the first one to go and is at the top of the house, that could mean it's in the coolest part of the house as it's just under the roof. But of course heat rises so maybe it's the warmest part of the house.
Cheers,
Ian....Leave a comment:
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Re: Anyone here that's ever saw bad caps or...
Hello,
I should have done a search for this because I have just posted about this very thing.
These are my smoke alarm caps:
Thankfully the alarm started beeping with its low charge warning but I was still surprised to find bad caps in something so important that lives could depend on them.
There are 5 in each unit on their own seperate PCB. I am in UK so using 230volts. If anyone could help identify them I would be very grateful.
Ian. Lancaster UK.Leave a comment:
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Smoke alarm caps bad. Can anyone identify please?
Hello all,
I have a problem with my mains wired smoke alarms. This is actually fairly worrying as our lives could depend on these! There are 5 capacitors in each alarm but they seem to have no proper identification on them. This may of course be to stop people replacing them instead of replacing the whole unit, a safety measure I guess. So my questions are 1) can anyone identify these for me? 2) is it safe for me to do so seeing as how important it is that these alarms work properly. I have replaced many caps over the last year or two and have a basic knowledge of electronics so it is not...
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