Trying to be proactive on changing Smoke/Heat detector batteries. It was working fine. Placed in test mode, changed the batteries. Left batteries out for over an hour, replaced, Green flashing light every 10 secs. No red flashes. about 3 hours go by and I get low batt on heat and smoke. Then it clears and is fine for about another 3 hours. Replaced batteries again, following above procedure. Same thing. Chirps, and iridates low batt. Using 2gig-GC3 panel. Thoughts??? Thanks in advance!
Is that actually an SMKT2? The 2gig-SMKT2-345 hasn’t been sold in quite a long time, a malfunction and beep may indicate that it is expired.
Check the replace by/expiration date on that sensor.
If it isn’t expired, what type/brand of batteries were used as the replacement? What is the date on those batteries?
It may be newer. The expiration date is in 2026.
Tried both Duracell and Energizer Lithium. Both tested new. Is there a process for clearing out the low batt notification on the GC3?
No there aren’t any steps to take on the panel, the sensor would update that status when it is resolved. The sensor looks like it has a tamper alert and general malfunction (signaling trouble) along with the low battery currently.
Do you have that sensor powered off right now?
If it is not intentionally powered off I would recommend double checking the polarity of the batteries.
So that we can best assist with instructions specific to the model, can you confirm if that is indeed the SMKT2 or if it is an SMKT3? If not certain could you show a photo of the device and its label?
Yeah, I’m not at the residence, but will be later. I left it unpowered. Hoping a good long period of no power would at least alleviate the 60 sec rule! Thanks Jason, I will touch base tomorrow.
Well, knock on wood.
Leaving the sensor unpowered for a day, verified good batteries, and rebooting the panel (not sure that had anything to do with it), seemed to have cured the low batt syndrome!
Thanks Jason for your ideas and questions!
Dave
Rebooting the panel will mask or resolve the issue depending on its nature.
If the problem is the sensor’s condition was actually resolved but it had trouble reaching the panel to update the status for whatever reason, a reboot will help clear that and it won’t return.
If the sensor is still in a state where the tamper and low battery are genuine then rebooting the panel will only make that go away temporarily. The status will return later.
The reboot just boots the system back up into a state where it is assumed there are no issues because no troubles have been sent to it yet.