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Wireless Security Battery Life / Low Battery notification

HSL
Advisor

 

Our old Brinks / ADT wired system was replaced by Telus / ADT wireless system on July 23 2020. Our system consists of: 2 smoke detectors, 1 CO (Carbon  Monoxide detector), 3 door sensors and 3 motion detectors.  We use both the IOS (Apple) and Web based apps for managing preferences, monitoring, and reporting.

 

Battery life and the apparent failure of the low battery notification system are a concern:

 

- Smoke detector 1 batteries failed 108 days after installation. There was no low battery notification in either the IOS app or the Web app and no record on either app of a low battery condition. The smoke detector itself started to chirp in the early morning and continued to chirp until it was disabled.

 

- The CO (Carbon Monoxide) detector battery failed 133 days after installation. Like the smoke detector there was no notification of a low battery condition and no low battery event was logged in either the IOS or the Web app. The CO detector also failed in the early morning and continued to chirp until it was disabled. Battery replacement was non trivial as the device requires a CR 123 A Lithium battery which was not in our standard household battery inventory. The battery itself had to be pried out of its socket with a screw driver.

 

- The batteries in smoke detector 2 were replaced on spec at the same time as the CO detector battery replacement.

 

- So far, none of the motion detector or door sensor batteries have required replacement. However, since the low battery notification process does not appear to be working I have no clear idea as to what their current status is or how they will respond to a battery failure.

 

The questions:

- what is the expected life expectancy of the batteries in the smoke detector, the CO detector, the motion detector, and the door sensor ?

- why does the low battery notification system fail to notify and fail to log the event?

 

 

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

MelH,

 

Thank you for your prompt response to my original posting. Unfortunately, messages to the address that you provided to me were never acknowledged or answered. A recent followup message to you appears to have been deleted.

 

To address my original questions I thought that the following might be useful to others:

 

  1. The devices are manufactured by Qolsys.  Their web page is at www.qolsys.com
  2. The smoke detector is a Qolsys "IQ Smoke QS5110-840" . Expected battery life is 3-5 years.
  3. The Carbon Monoxide detector is "IQ carbon QS5210-840" . Expected battery life is 5 years.
  4. The panel is an "IQ Panel" . A user guide may be found at 
    https://qolsys.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/IQ-Panel-2-User-Guide-2.5.1.pdf
  5. Current battery health may be found on the IQ Panel using the following navigation:
    - From the main panel screen - drag downwards
    - Select Settings / Select Status
    - Note the battery health of the listed devices under the "Battery" column
  6. There does not appear to be a way to test low battery notifications to a cell phone. However it is possible to add SMS (text message) notifications for those who manage their systems through the Alarm.com web page.
    - log on to your (Telus branded) Alarm.com web account. www.alarm.com
    - Navigate to Notifications / System Actions to Watch
    - Verify that the box "Verify that the battery is low on one of my devices" is ticked.
    - Scroll down to "Recipients". In my case I have listed an eMail address and two cell phones. My cell phones are listed by name, not phone number.
    - Click on the "Add" button. In addition to your listed devices you should also see an option listed as "SMS" followed by your cell phone number. Add the SMS number.
    - Save your settings and log out.
    - Log back in again to verify that your settings were saved correctly.

Do I know why the batteries on my detectors failed ? No.

Do  I know if the updated SMS settings for low battery notifications will work? No.

 

 

 

View solution in original post

5 REPLIES 5

MelH
TELUS Team Member
TELUS Team Member

Hey there, sorry to hear about the issues that you're experiencing.  I just sent you a PM so that we can make sure to follow up on this.  Thank you! 

MelH,

 

Thank you for your prompt response to my original posting. Unfortunately, messages to the address that you provided to me were never acknowledged or answered. A recent followup message to you appears to have been deleted.

 

To address my original questions I thought that the following might be useful to others:

 

  1. The devices are manufactured by Qolsys.  Their web page is at www.qolsys.com
  2. The smoke detector is a Qolsys "IQ Smoke QS5110-840" . Expected battery life is 3-5 years.
  3. The Carbon Monoxide detector is "IQ carbon QS5210-840" . Expected battery life is 5 years.
  4. The panel is an "IQ Panel" . A user guide may be found at 
    https://qolsys.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/IQ-Panel-2-User-Guide-2.5.1.pdf
  5. Current battery health may be found on the IQ Panel using the following navigation:
    - From the main panel screen - drag downwards
    - Select Settings / Select Status
    - Note the battery health of the listed devices under the "Battery" column
  6. There does not appear to be a way to test low battery notifications to a cell phone. However it is possible to add SMS (text message) notifications for those who manage their systems through the Alarm.com web page.
    - log on to your (Telus branded) Alarm.com web account. www.alarm.com
    - Navigate to Notifications / System Actions to Watch
    - Verify that the box "Verify that the battery is low on one of my devices" is ticked.
    - Scroll down to "Recipients". In my case I have listed an eMail address and two cell phones. My cell phones are listed by name, not phone number.
    - Click on the "Add" button. In addition to your listed devices you should also see an option listed as "SMS" followed by your cell phone number. Add the SMS number.
    - Save your settings and log out.
    - Log back in again to verify that your settings were saved correctly.

Do I know why the batteries on my detectors failed ? No.

Do  I know if the updated SMS settings for low battery notifications will work? No.

 

 

 

An addenda:

 

My posting required me to re-verify my eMail address before my message posting was accepted. This, despite my having successfully logged in to this account.

 

Once the message was posted .. my missing PM's from and to MelH have re-appeared. There was nothing in my PM folders until my eMail address was re-confirmed.

 

 

MelH
TELUS Team Member
TELUS Team Member

Hi HSL, I'm truly sorry for the delay in my response.  I sent you a follow up message last Friday  - should you still need assistance, please respond there and I'll be more than happy to have someone from the right team follow up with you directly.  Thank you so much for your patience! 

MelH,

 

Thank you for your response. I appreciate you reaching out.

 

As I now have a method, or possibly two, of anticipating battery failures on my system I am willing to call it a day for now. My objective is to avoid being woken up at 3 in the morning by a device deciding this would be a great time to chirp to my household about its dying battery.