Ditched wireless sensors after 3 false alarms in one night

Last month I swapped out a full residential system from wireless to hardwired. Customer had a new build in a suburban neighborhood and wanted the clean look of wireless. Kept getting false alarms from their garage motion sensor around 2am. After the third night I told them we had to run wires or I couldn't guarantee reliability. We pulled cat6 and 22/4 through the attic, took me about 6 hours total. The homeowner is happy now, no more barking dogs waking them up. Has anyone else had wireless sensors trigger from heat fluctuations or interference?

2 comments

2 Comments

lucas9722d ago

Did those garage sensors have any kind of pet immunity setting, or were they just standard PIR? I've seen some cheap ones that basically see a spiderweb as a person if the temp's just right.

milam422d ago

Third time's the charm, right? I've got a 24/7 commercial account with a similar issue, garage PIR was picking up heat from a water heater vent pipe that ran right near it. Swapped that sensor for a dual-tech model (PIR plus microwave) and it solved it, but honestly running wire was the better call in your case. Those cheap wireless sensors (looking at you, old Honeywell 5800s) are notorious for RF interference from things like baby monitors or even a strong nearby cell tower at night. If you ran cat6 you also future-proofed for Power over Ethernet on that camera you're probably gonna hang there next month.