I have a glass break sensor that keeps alarming falsely. It doesn’t do it every night, but it has 3 times in the past 3 months. How can I minimize this from happening, as it causes the intrusion alarm to go off, and wakes everyone up in the middle of the night. I have noticed that it only happens when it is cold outside (between 68-73 inside).
Happy to help!
Records indicate that the false alarm(s) are in relation to a sensor tamper and are likely related to how the sensor is mounted or the position of the tamper switch.
In order to better assist you, what is the model of the Glass Break in question?
You will want to verify that the sensor is mounted correctly and that the tamper switch is not obstructed or broken and operating as it should. Depending on the model there can be more than one tamper switch. For example On the Honeywell there are two, one on the mounting plate and one under the cover. The 2GIG sensor only has a tamper under the cover.
Hi Tyler. The glass break sensor is the Honeywell model 5853. For mounting, I am not using a screw and anchor, but instead using 2 3M strips against the wall. I have another 5853 in the kitchen that is mounted the exact same way that hasn’t had issues, which is why I’m confused as to why this one is causing an issue and not the other.
The mounting method may not be having an effect, but it is indeed a tamper alarm which is occurring in each alarm from the glass break detector we can view. I also see a couple other tamper troubles from that sensor while the system is disarmed, which would not result in an alarm.
Have you recently replaced batteries or moved the detector? Be sure the cover is snapped fully into place. The tamper switch on the front of the device is depressed by the front cover.
If you open the cover does the panel report a tamper? When you close it does the tamper go away?
I took the sensor down last night and confirmed just by moving the cover ever so slightly the tamper switch went off. I tried bending the sensor up slightly to allow it more ability to flex if it were somehow expanding/contracting for whatever reason. No issues last night, but I will probably monitor a week or so. I disabled the reports and supervised options and also removed them from bypass for now.
I took the sensor down last night and confirmed just by moving the cover ever so slightly the tamper switch went off.
Yes, that probably just indicates the tamper switch is too sensitive. Physically bending it up just a bit should help keep it from throwing a tamper.
Note that disabling reports will make it so that sensor does not send signals to ADC or the CS, but it still can cause a local alarm, triggering the siren.
If you want to monitor it remotely and not have the possibility of local siren going off, reports should be enabled and the Sensor Type should be changed to (23) No Response Type.