Chubb Monitor Qx started warnings, the trouble LED always lit. The battery needed replacing.
Somethings in your house just keep working silently in the background. You eventually take them for granted, out of mind and out of sight. Such was my Chubb Monitor Qx security system, 452-4713, until the alarm started going off in the middle of the night, here in Toronto, Canada. It aurally called for attention. The trouble LED light remained lit, but with no station indicated. It turned out the battery was near dead. Once replaced it returned to its normal state of silence.
The Chubb Monitor Qx is a small pad type security monitor. Every so often it would sound a high pitched warning and the trouble LED would be lit. I would clear it and the problem would go away. Last night the warning went off seven times in the middle of the night. It needed attention.
The user manual is online from Chubb, but does not state much about the trouble LED. Do a “*23” + pin and see if it gives you a station code. Mine did not. Maybe one of the 8 stations need attention.
Downstairs I looked at the closed security box. Check that the phone line is firmly plugged into the phone outlet. Undo the cover. Check the three fuses with a multimeter to ensure continuity. All were Ok. The security system has a 12v 7ahr lead acid battery. This metered at 9v. I found my problem. Unfortunately for me there is no code from the Monitor Qx to tell me the battery is dying.
I got a new 12v 7aHr battery from my local electronics store for ~$12CAD, plugged it in, closed up the box and cleared the alarm. The trouble LED turned off, and all is back to normal.
Addendum May 23 2014 Steve, a poster, says that if you disconnect the battery for too long the alarm will reset itself and you will lose your settings. This is bad. An alternative to disconnecting the battery for a long period of time is to hook up a 12v DC power supply.
Hi
We have the same issue in Vancouver (alarm beeps with a low backup battery warning). Do you recall if you got the battery from Canadian Tire or similiar?
Regards
Blaine
[Don: Hey Blaine, Thanks for stopping in. No You can’t get this battery from Crappy Tire. I went to a local electronics store where they sell 12v lead acid batteries. They are about 6″l x 3″d x 4″h. Sometimes they use these for emergency light battery backups, the ones used in buildings. They should be about $20. Here in Toronto I went to Sayal Electronics. Maybe they have one in Vancouver? You can also try Princess Auto, or even Radio Shack (Do they even exist anymore?) The beeping is annoying and the manual says nothing about what to do to fix the problem. Good luck, and I’m glad someone can benefit from my blog.]
Hello,
I am experiencing the same issues as you’ve describe, however, I cannot locate my ‘closed security box’. Are you able to describe the appearance or possible location? Could you email a picture? Any help would be appreciated!!!
Thanks,
Mark
[Don: Hi Mark. My security box is a nondescript 8″w x 10″h x 3″d beige metal box in my furnace room, right beside my electrical panel. This box also requires access to a telephone line. All your security wires will converge to this box, so if you can find any of the window security wires, tracing them back will lead you to the security box.
The security box should be located in the furnace room, but could also be located in a utility closet as well. I hope this helps. May the beeping cease.]
Hi Don,
We had the same problem last year and are now having it again almost a year to the day. I know this because my husband ordered a battery last year—November 7th, 2011! For some reason that I can no longer recall, our beeping eventually went off. We ordered the new battery and because it had stopped beeping we never got around to installing the new battery.
I have two questions:
1. Do I have to turn anything off before I replace the battery? I.E. disconnect anything so that a) I don’t electrocute myself, and b) I don’t cause the alarm to go off? (My husband is at work…)
2. Do you think this could have anything to do with the time change? It happened at the exact same time last year—perhaps a coincidence?
thanks!
Kelly
[Don: Hi Kelly, and thanks for finding my blog. No, you cannot possibly electrocute yourself with the small security alarm battery. These batteries are pretty safe. It is a 12 volt battery rated at about 6 amp hours, far smaller than a car battery. There is nothing to turn off, even if you wanted to turn something off. You should not set off the alarm by simply changing the battery, but you should know the code anyway if you do trigger it.
I am certain that the change of day light saving time has nothing to do with your malfunctioning battery. Our system has not beeped at all during the recent time change. Your case is coincidental. Also note that the U.S. had changed the date for daylight saving time in 2007, and my alarm is far older than 2007. If your alarm is older than 6 years old any changes to DST could not affect your alarm.
I urge you to find a better place to buy your battery as the battery should last far longer than one year. Ours has been going for over two years without issue and I expect it to last another 2-3 years. These batteries are nicad and are recharged by the house current so they should never run down, except in the event of a power outage.
Good luck and may your battery change be uneventful.]
Hi Don,
I live in Calgary. When I called in to Chubb Edwards they said they had to send out a technician to replace the battery. The cost is ridiculous!
Truck: $111.00
Fuel Surcharge: $22.50
Labor: minimum 30 mins @ $148/hr
Plus applicable parts
This is an outrageous amount for a 10 minute job. By the sounds of it, the above mentioned people on your blog were able to do it themselves. I’ve never had to do anything like this before. Is this a difficult thing to do? Do I just pull the wires from the battery, and inset them into the new one or is there something special I have to do?
I look forward to hearing from you – thank God there are good people out there like yourself that can give such information.
Sincerely,
David G
[Don: Hello David, I hope that you and Calgary are well. This was my first time with my alarm system as well, and yes, it was quite easy in my case. Find your alarm system and open the metal box. You will see a 12 volt battery. Remove the red and black connectors. Take the battery to an electronics store for a replacement battery with the same dimensions. Getting a larger sized battery might not fit into your metal case. Plug the red (+) connector into the “+” connector of the battery, and do the same to the “-” connector. Close the alarm case. The job is complete.
There was nothing else that had to be done, special or otherwise. The alarm went back to how it worked before, and I have not had any issues in the time since I posted this article. There is no further complexity than replacing your smoke alarm battery when it runs out.
Good luck and I am sure you will fix your alarm.]
Hi. I have the same alarm and have the exact same issues as you described. I tried the battery fix and thought I had it fixed until the continuous beep happened again last night.
We recently purchased our home and the alarm was already installed by the previous owners. We do not currently use the alarm, it is not monitored, and the trouble light has been on since we moved in. I tried to do the test (*42+code) but the system wouldn’t accept it. Then I tried the *46 + pin and found out that the previous owners had not given us the master password to the alarm. Turns out we have the secondary password. Do you have any idea how I can reset things and set up a new master password? I hope that if I can get that done, I may be able to digg further into the system to attempt to reset the trouble light (it’s been on since we got the house) and stop the continuous beep from happening.
Thanks for any help!
I also had the beeping trouble due to dead battery. Unfortunately for me, it happened at 11PM on a Friday night and was driving us nuts. The only way I could get it to quit was to take out the battery and unplug the main power. I was able to get a replacement battery and connect everything up on Monday or Tuesday.
Unfortunately, I discovered that the entire thing had reset itself. I was able to put back in the user PIN codes but it seems to have also forgotten how to call in to Chubb. So we have no monitoring. The user manual doesn’t cover this and the help line incredibly claims that they don’t have a programming/install manual. They are willing to send out a technician at enormous expense, however.
Moral: if your battery is dead, don’t unplug your alarm!
[Don: Hi Steve, this is good to know. I have never unplugged my alarm. An alternative to unplugging the battery would be to hook up a 12v DC power supply, like a wall wart, to tide you over until you can get a replacement battery. I just thought of this now, as it might be helpful to others. The Chubb documentation is sparse.]
Thanks for posting this. I contacted Chubb security to provide instructions on powering down the pin pad as we did not want to use their services any more. They provided labour cost on disconnections at ridiculous cost. I have located the box and remove the battery, however confused why the pin pad still has LED lights on ready and trouble. Does it take time to power down or is there another power source?
[Don: Hi Julia, The system is hooked up to the telephone system, which provides 12v power. The battery is only there as a backup power supply, in case of a power outage. You can try to disconnect the system from your telephone system. Don]
Thanks Don for your prompt response. By the the security box, I located a phone jack looking thing and unplug that just now and it seems like it did nothing. Earlier when the battery was on, I loosen that phone jack wire and it was beeping at high pitch trouble so I attached it back and then removed the battery. Now without the battery unplugging the phone jack no beeping sound but pin pad LEDs still on ready and trouble. I possibly have to go to the fuse box…however with an old house there are many wires and phone wires traveling here. Probably don’t want to touch what Bell put in for our LAN line phone.
If your “Trouble” light stays on, check the panel cover on the main box. That cover has contact points (springs, like a battery “-“ pole one sees when changing batteries in any device) that touch certain points on the surface of the “motherboard” inside. If those contacts are broken, the trouble light can come on (*42 + PIn =1j. Make sure the panel cover is properly secured. My panel cover was loose. I pressed it in. Trouble light went out.
My bad .. Probably happened when I swapped out the battery 😄😄. Should have checked things out earlier. But, it is what it is.