Recently (day before yesterday) my home security system started beeping and had the “Trouble” state turned on. A quick google and a call to the number on the Alarm Monitor panel led to the possible conclusion that “battery” that is the backup in case of a power failure is probably in need of replacement.

Since it has been a while (the house was built in late ’97), the conclusion seemed very plausible and even a desired one (as opposed to whatever else it could have been).

The challenge now was:

1. Where is the said “battery”
2. Where do you find a replacement of the “battery”
   1. The only batteries I am familiar with are the AA, AAA, D, 9v. Watches and other special devices have custom batteries but I have not really had a need to do anything with them because I simply take those devices to someone to have it replaced. This time I was somewhat of “in a jam” 😦
3. How to replace the “battery”

Well . . . . it turns out the customer service person (with whom I don’t even have a service with) was very helpful and was able to give me enough clues as to where it “might” be. And it was. All I needed was a screw driver to open the panel and voila.

On the battery itself I was able to find the details of the battery and was quickly able to google where to possibly find a replacement. Most were on-line offers but I remembered “Batteries Plus” (funny that google did not show me that solution). I called them up yesterday and was able to confirm that they indeed had them in stock and was able to pick one up during “lunch”.

In my googling I already knew that the batter comes in 2 size terminals. Unfortunately I did not spend the extra time / effort to confirm exactly what size I would be needing. When I mentioned the terminal size he shrugged off and said that I could simply expand the pin that connects to use on the one he was selling me. Needless to say – he was wrong.

I found out about the wrong terminal size the hard way – by opening the panel and attempting to replace the battery. The good news here was that I knew there was another “Batteries Plus” close by and that they all were open till 8pm.

A quick run the store – again. Got the right battery with the right terminal size.

– manzoor