I was recently doing some home updates and had the breaker turned off that provides AC power to my alarm panel. The panel responded as expected and advised loss of AC power. After about 0.5 hour it advised of a low battery condition for the panel. I was surprised by short period of backup, but realized the panel has been in service for over 5 years, with no battery change, and doubtless has lost capacity.
Of course this battery replacement, or lack thereof, is my responsibility, but it might be a good idea to have some form of annual, or greater interval message to pop up on the screen as a reminder.
I replaced the battery with a new 2600 mAh, same chemistry. Oddly I did not find replacement batteries on the Surety storefront, but they are available elsewhere. I have not had an extended “power outage” since, but I assume all is well.
Of course this battery replacement, or lack thereof, is my responsibility, but it might be a good idea to have some form of annual, or greater interval message to pop up on the screen as a reminder.
That is a good idea to implement on the panel, and we would be happy to suggest this to the manufacturer as a feature on your behalf! It is not outside of the realm of possibility for a panel to roughly gauge battery health from the voltage drop when used.
Battery life will be heavily impacted by usage patterns and age, but replacing the battery every few years is never a bad idea in general.
What is the typical life span of a GC2 battery? How long should a new battery last during a power outage (so I can compare to mine)? Is there any way to test the battery with a multimeter? Thanks!
This is dependent on usage, but expect between three and five years you should notice significant capacity loss.
A new Batt2X battery should provide backup for roughly 24 hours, depending on usage.
You can test with a multimeter pretty easily to make sure the battery is at an appropriate voltage, but it won’t tell you much about the charge capacity. You can test the battery life though by pulling transformer power. A Batt1X has a battery life of about 6 hours. A Batt2X has a battery life of approximately 24 hours.