ADT Alarm users - Question?

[Hillbeans]

Hi -

We moved into our new house about a month ago and the previous owners had an ADT alarm system. After having the alarm go off one night and scaring us half to death, we contacted the sellers realtor and we got the old access code to turn off the alarm in case it happened again. ADT of course would not give us any kind of code since we were not the original customers who purchased the system.

Last night, during a brief power surge from a thunderstorm, the alarm made a series of chirps and DH and I were terrified the thing would go off again and scare us all out of our minds again.

Anyway, does anyone have a system and can you advise what if anything we need to do to disable this system? I know it is no longer "under service" with ADT. Do we just need to pay a chunk of money to have a tech come out and shut the whole thing down or is there just a battery somewhere I can switch?

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Brianne]

You should have a main alarm box in a closet or somewhere--you might be able to remove the battery & it could shut it off. Having said that, it didn't work for us so DH had to cut the wires behind the keypad to get it to stop chirping.

DH says that if you were to ever get a new service, they'd replace all of it anyway so there's no worry about damaging the equipment.

Not the neatest method but it was either that or sending me to a looney bin after hearing it chirping for a few days.

 

[hydster]

We have ADT so I grabbed my booklet from them to see what the chirps could be.

If it's just 1 short beep that occurs once every 40 seconds it means the battery is low at the transmitter. If it is low you should see on the keypad the word BAT. We've had power bumps and outages and ours hasn't ever done that. The only time we've heard chirps is when the battery is low.

With our system they installed a box inside my coat closet in my kitchen that has the battery and the wiring system in it. I don't know if taking the battery out will do anything or not to help your problem. The other thing was they plugged the system into an outlet in our master bedroom which is right off the kitchen. The tech told me not to unplug it but if you can find something plugged in that YOU didn't physically plug try unplugging it and taking the battery out of the system too.

I would suggest you call ADT and ask to speak with a manager. Tell them you bought the house with it already installed but you wish to have the service disconnected. If that doesn't work have the real estate agent call the previous owner *if possible* and ask them to call ADT to have them cancel that service for your home.

Also if you know the old code # all you need to do is to enter the code say 1234 and then hit the #1 and that will disarm the system.


Best of luck to you!

 

[Hillbeans]

Thank you both for your replies.

I think the system is an older version, there is no where on the unit that has any kind of digital wording.

There is a row of 6 green then red colored buttons in a vertical row on the left side, and then in the middle there are # 1-9 keys in blue and then on the right side there are buttons for the Police, fire, etc.

We do have the old code now (thank goodness) however I don't know why the unit keeps making random noises (and there is also a voice that speaks). I am afraid to even breath near the thing unfortunately it's on our downstairs hallway wall right at the bottom of the stairs, so we walk by it at least 10 times a day.

I think it would be best if we call ADT again and ask for a manager to help us out and let us know how we can turn the thing off for good.

Thanks!