Cisternmiser - not working?

[David Hearn]

At work we've got a urinal which has a Cisternmiser Infrared unit fitted before the cistern. The offices were redeveloped and handed over to us in August, so everything is pretty new.

It used to work that as we walked into the toilet and turned on the light, the cistern flushed. I've no idea whether it was the light or the person which triggered the flush, although there is a standard circular PIR type dome on the front, and it says Infrared on the front.

Anyway, recently I've noticed the urinal is getting a bit smelly, and also noticed I've never noticed the urinal flush when I go in - been like this for a good few weeks.

There's a small push button on the top (well, the side as it appears to be mounted on its side) which when pressed does nothing.

It's too high to take a good look at, but I cannot see any wiring going to it, just the 15mm water feed which it is mounted on. There's also an inline valve which is partially open (which I believe hasn't been touched - it's even higher than the Cisternmiser!)

Does anyone know how these things work? Are they connected to the mains, or battery powered etc? I cannot see any wiring, so might it be battery? What might be the reason for it suddenly not working? I haven't checked whether there is any water getting to it (I'm just a software developer here, and without a ladder etc, I can't get to it). Could there be a solar panel under the PIR dome, or is that unlikely (I'm guessing so)? The room's light is turned off after use (we had a problem before at our old offices where Initial fitted a solar powered room deodoriser, not realising the loo's light was off most of the time!)

Any advice? I'm just trying to work out what's wrong, as everything takes ages to get fixed!

Thanks

David

[Sponix]

They have a battery inside. There should be an LED on the front which warns that the battery is going flat. Obviously if it's completely flat the LED will fail to light. The button should initiate a self-test sequence.

They say the battery *should* last up to three years. However, if the wash room is busy or cheap batteries are used it'd be considerably less than this. Maybe there's something like a hand dryer that gives off heat and is causing false triggering and thus flattening the battery prematurely?

sponix

[Sponix]

Forgot to mention, 4x 'AA' cells.

sponix

[Andy Hall]

Use the ladies?

[Sponix]

P1ss in the washbasin?

[David Hearn]

Brill - thanks for that - I'll get a chair or something and take a look. Nothing I can see which could set it off - 1 urinal, 2 sinks, a large mirror, self closing door and a sliding door to a loo.

I wasn't sure if it was a battery thing, or mains. LED on front is off. Could be they just put poor batteries in at the start.

Thanks again

D

[Harry Bloomfield]

David Hearn presented the following explanation :

Open the box and install a set of new good quality batteries.

[David Hearn]

Done that now, and all seems to be well again.

Unfortunately, I now seem to have got a name as being the company handyman. ;)

D

[Andy Hall]

Well it's better than bog cleaner. You were perilously close to that honour. :-)

[David Hearn]

Spoke too soon!

It seems to be flushing a lot now - far more often than it used to - practically constantly I understand, even when no-one is going in.

It fills the cistern, cistern flushes, and a shortly afterwards it turns off. But then turns on again and repeats

I've tried turning off the radiator in there but I think it's still doing it.

Any idea what the button on the top is there to do - doesn't seem to do anything - but it must be there for a reason!

We're on a meter too...

Thanks

D

[Andy Hall]

Well you've set yourself up now......

But there's a simple solution

[Sponix]

That explains why the battery went flat! :)

The button is supposed to initiate a self test sequence.

If you have eliminated att the potential trigger sources then it sounds like the unit is faulty.

sponix

[Sponix]