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9. Cleaning Your Alarm
WARNING:
Electrical shock hazard. Disconnect the AC
mains at the fuse box or circuit breaker powering the
alarm before following the cleaning instructions.
Clean your Alarm regularly, particularly in dusty ar-
eas. Use the narrow nozzle attachment of your vacuum
cleaner to remove dust, insects and cobwebs from the
sides and cover slots where the smoke or heat enters.
To clean the cover, wipe with a damp cloth. Dry cover
thoroughly with a lint free cloth. If the contamination
around the outer case indicates that the area is
particularly dirty, remove the alarm from the ceiling (See
“Removing the Existing Alarm” section on page 1).
WARNING: Do not paint your Alarm.
In certain circumstances even with regular cleaning, contamination can
build up in the smoke sensing chamber causing the alarm to sound or
fail. If this happens the alarm must be returned to us for
servicing or replacement. Contamination is beyond our control, it is
totally unpredictable and is considered normal wear and tear. For this
reason, contamination is not covered by the guarantee and a charge is
made for servicing such alarms.
10. Nuisance Alarms
Alarms caused by cooking fumes etc. can be readily
silenced by fanning the unit with a newspaper or similar.
On the Ei151EH units, simply press the hush button.
1. Check that the green mains power light is on. If it is
off the alarm has been powered from the cells and
the beeps indicate they are depleted. Reconnect the
mains, check fuse, circuit breakers and wiring. If
in doubt contact a qualified electrician. The beeps
should cease within 2 hours as the cells charge up.
2. Check that the hush button has not been pressed
inadvertently (Ei151EH only). This also causes
beeps every 40 seconds for up to 15 minutes. Press
the test button to cancel hush mode beeps.
3. The cells may be depleted. The beeps should cease
within 2 hours as they charge up. Fully charged, the
cells will provide up to 6 months back-up without
mains power.
4. On the Optical Smoke Alarms only (Ei156EH) if the
unit beeps and the red light does not flash at the
same time it indicates a problem with the smoke
chamber - see Cleaning the Smoke Alarm.
If all of the above possible causes of beeps have been
ruled out but the beeping has still persisted for over 2
hours with the green light on - the rechargeable cells
are probably defective. The smoke alarm must be
returned to us at one of the addresses on the back page
for examination and analysis.
Manual Testing
We recommend that the functioning of the rechargeable
cells is checked periodically (at least yearly) as follows:
1. Ensure that the alarm has been connected to the
mains, with green light on, for a least 2 days for the
cells to charge.
2. Turn off the mains power at the distribution board
and check that the green indicator light is extin-
guished. Do not remove the plug from the rear as
this will disconnect the cells.
3. Press the test button and ensure the horn sounds
loudly for 10 seconds.
4. Release the test button and watch it carefully for
one minute:
The red light behind the test button or on the
cover will flash at least once.
The unit must not give a beep which indicates
the battery is low.
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5. Turn on the mains supply at the distribution board
only if the unit passes all the above tests.
Note: If the mains is disconnected and the battery is
almost depleted the unit will beep every 40 seconds for
at least 72 hours. This is to remind you to re-connect
the mains supply. The unit will operate from the mains
alone, even with a fully depleted or a defective battery,
though it may not give sufficient warning of fire if the
mains supply is disconnected for any reason.
If there are any problems get a qualified electrician to
inspect the house wiring and connections to the alarms.
If there are still problems the smoke alarm must be
returned to us at one of the addresses on the back page
for examination and analysis.
1. Check that the openings in the black smoke sensing
chamber are not clogged by visually inspecting them
through the large openings around the edges of the
smoke alarms. If they are clogged (an extremely rare
occurance) the Smoke alarm must be replaced.
Other than the cleaning described above, no other
customer servicing of this product is required. Repairs,
when needed, must be performed by the manufacturer.
All alarms are prone to dust and insect ingress which
can cause false alarms or failure to alarm.
The latest design, materials and manufacturing techniques have been
used in the construction of the alarm to minimise the effects of
contamination. However it is impossible to completely eliminate the
effect of dust and insect contamination, and therefore, to prolong the
life of the alarm you must ensure that it is kept clean so that excess
dust does not build up. Any insects or cobwebs in the vicinity of the
alarm should be promptly removed.
If you experience persistent false alarms, in particular
locations, due to contamination of the smoke chamber
you could consider replacing optical smoke alarms with
ionisation smoke alarms. Ionisation type alarms are less
susceptible to dust than optical type alarms.
If, when the alarm goes off, there is no sign of smoke,
heat or noise to indicate that there is a fire, you should
get your family into a safe place before you start
investigating.
Check the house carefully in case there is a small fire
smouldering somewhere.
Check whether there is some source of smoke or fumes,
for example cooking fumes being drawn past the smoke
alarm by an extractor.
If there are frequent nuisance/false alarms it may be
necessary to re-locate the device away from the source
of the fumes.
If for some reason the alarm continues to sound without
smoke or heat being present (due to insect infestation
or contamination build-up for example) switching off the
mains power alone will not silence the alarm as it will
still be powered by the cells. Switch off the mains and
remove the plug from the rear of the alarm to disconnect
the cells. If cleaning the smoke alarm does not correct
the problem it can be returned to one of the addresses
on the back page for examination and analysis.
Hush Feature
The smoke alarms (Ei151EH only) have a hush button to
help you control nuisance false alarms.
