External siren - can it be modified to be turned off manually from inside?

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scarletjim

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I hope I can explain this sufficiently as I'm not very technical...

We have an i-on30EXD alarm system - pretty standard stuff, keypad in the hallway, sensors in the rooms, some kind of internal siren somewhere, and a big much noisier external siren positioned near the roof, so accessible only by a big ladder. If I call the install company to come and do a service, is there any way that they will also be able to install a manual shut off for that external alarm, ideally wired into the bedroom that it sits outside?

You may wonder why we want this - well about 7 years ago our external siren had a malfunction of some kind, and upset the neighborhood for several hours before the insall company were able to come round and fix it. I think they replaced it, I can't remember exactly - but nevertheless, I'm conscious that if that ever happened again, especially if it was at night, that would be extremely annoying, so if I could have some kind of manual override in the bedroom the other side of that external wall, then I could avoid that ever happening again. I don't think it would be compromising our security in any way - someone would need to set off the alarm in order to get into that bedroom, and would have to know that there was a manual shut off and where it was etc.

I know some may say 'ask the installer', but I'd like to get any idea from anyone knowledgeable on here if possible, in case the installer tries to fob me off, or in case there are particular questions that I should ask them etc.

TIA :)
 
Is it an insurance approved job ….do you claim a discount or have to have an alarm for your insurance ?
 
sparkymarka said:
Is it an insurance approved job ….do you claim a discount or have to have an alarm for your insurance ?
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I have always done so previously, but I don't think it makes a huge difference to the premium, so if I'd be invalidating the insurance by doing this, I'd be happy to amend my insurance accordingly and pay a few pounds more.
 
Personally I wouldn't bother. I am not an alarm engineer but I would say that a malfumction of a sounder is not that common. Mine has been up for about 15 years and no problems. It has been 7 years since the failure of the last sounder so I wouldn't worry.
 
sparkymarka said:
Most modern bell boxes have a 15/20 cut off timer built in so it’s not an issue
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Aha that's interesting, I'll ask them about that I get them round to do a service (I don't have a service often by the way, doesn't seem to be much point, but I've not had one for years and will be a good opportunity to ask questions like this).
 
IF there is no timer for it and it does not have an internal battery then you can get a keyswitch fitted in the supply to it.
Or even if there is an internal battery a relay can be fitted inside it to disable both supplies and operated by a keyswitch.

That would allow the keyholder only to disable the external sounder should a fault occur again.

However, there are consequences of not having a working external sounder so it should not be done unless there is actually a fault.
 
You could cut the wire to the "speaker" and switch that on or off, would need to pass a wire through the wall though.

I actually contemplated doing that to ours.

It's not just the external box that can go wrong, nothing worse than a fault in the system at 2am waking the street up!. At least you could shut the siren off.
 
I have seen bell boxes that have the cut off behave strange, infestations or unwanted water or dodgy tamper issues with the panel

So not necessarily going off for 15 minutes and stopping but stop start regularly.

Only way to stop a sounder from sounding is to break the power to the sounder(piezo).

So your running a cable to the piezo with a secure switch inline so you could turn it off and on no matter if the panel is trying to activate or the bell self activating it can be turned off.

Obviously shouldn’t be in that position if it’s well installed and maintained.

If you pull 12V from the bell box then it should go off until cut off expires, however it can continue under some circumstances intermittantly until the bell boxes battery dies. So it technically hasn’t been running continuously longer than the cut off timer of 15/20minutes. But has been ringing over 15/20 minutes in an hour.
 
I had a fault that caused mine to sound repeatedly. The siren had the usual 20 minute cut off but kept getting triggered. Annoying the neighbours until the mender could come.

So I pulled the fuse from the panel power supply and eventually the battery ran down.

AFAIK it is quite unusual to have the 20 minute cutoff fail like that.
 

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mattylad said:
IF there is no timer for it and it does not have an internal battery then you can get a keyswitch fitted in the supply to it.
Or even if there is an internal battery a relay can be fitted inside it to disable both supplies and operated by a keyswitch.

That would allow the keyholder only to disable the external sounder should a fault occur again.

However, there are consequences of not having a working external sounder so it should not be done unless there is actually a fault.
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What consequences do you mean? I just won't claim any security discount on my insurance if that's what you mean... (?)

I think there is an internal battery, as I'm sure the guy said something about that when he was here years ago... I will ask him about your suggestion when he comes - I'd never have known to use terminology like 'relay' or 'keyswitch', so many thanks. :)
 
Thanks to all who have replied so far - at least 3 of you are basically saying the same thing I think, which is that it would be possible, and each of you have described it in a slightly different way, which will be a great help to me when i ask the installer about it, so thanks. :)
 
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