6 months of false alarms before I caught my own mistake

I kept getting calls from customers about their motion detectors going off at 3am for no reason. After the 4th call from the same house in Tulsa I went back to check the wiring myself. Turned out I had been mounting the sensors too close to the HVAC vents right where the air blows out. The warm air moving past the sensor was enough to trigger it every time the furnace kicked on at night. Took me a whole evening of staring at the manual to finally see the 3 foot minimum distance from vents that I had skipped. Has anyone else had a basic install rule bite them after years of doing it the wrong way?

2 comments

2 Comments

fiona7376d ago

lol I once spent 3 months blaming a customer's cat for setting off their alarm before I realized I wired the thing backwards. Classic.

taylor_mitchell806d ago

Oh man, I feel that. Your mileage may vary but I've definitely chased phantom issues for way too long only to find some bonehead mistake I made at the start. Nothing like blaming the cat for your own wiring screwup.