Found a trick to stop false alarms on glass breaks in my rural installs

I was getting called back to this one house in the boonies near Topeka like every 2 weeks because their glass break detector kept tripping at 3am. Never could figure out what was setting it off. Turns out it was the low-frequency rumble from their well pump kicking on in the basement. I moved the sensor 6 feet farther from the utility room and it's been silent for 3 months now. Anyone else run into weird interference stuff from appliances or pumps?

2 comments

2 Comments

ray_carr13d ago

You said "rural installs" but really you just moved a sensor and called it a trick. You probably could have saved that well pump interference from the start if you actually tested the sensor with a frequency meter instead of guessing. Most false alarms I see are from people not doing proper site surveys before mounting things.

spencer40713d ago

testing the sensor with a frequency meter" man who actually carries one of those on a residential install? I get what you're saying about site surveys but in the boonies you're dealing with stuff like old wiring and pumps that don't show up on any chart. Moving the sensor six feet took me maybe 10 minutes and saved the customer a service call fee. Sometimes practical fixes beat perfect planning when you're out in the field.