A false alarm is any alarm activation that turns out not to be a real emergency. False alarms are frustrating, and they carry a cost beyond the noise. A monitored alarm that trips by mistake can set off calls to you and your contacts, and it can lead to a police response that pulls officers away from real emergencies. Many cities and counties also have rules for repeated false alarms, so a pattern of them can turn into a bill. The good news is that false alarms tend to come from a familiar set of causes, and many of those are within a homeowner's control.
Most systems give you a window to disarm after you open an entry door and a window to leave after you arm. If your household is routinely rushing, fumbling with keys while the keypad beeps, the timing may not suit the way you come and go. Ask your alarm company whether the entry and exit delays can be adjusted for your doors rather than guessing at changes yourself.
Make sure everyone who uses the system knows where the keypad is, what the beeps mean and how much time they have. A family member who rarely arms the system is often the one who sets it off.
Each regular user should have their own code, and occasional users such as house sitters, cleaners or dog walkers should get a code of their own that you can remove when the arrangement ends. Shared codes make it hard to work out what went wrong.
Just as important is the verbal passcode or password your monitoring company uses to confirm that a caller is authorized. If the alarm goes off by accident, the monitoring team will usually call and ask for it. Anyone who might trip the alarm should know how to cancel it and what to say on that call.
Doors that do not latch, windows left slightly open and screen doors that rattle in the wind are familiar causes of false alarms. Before arming, walk the house and make sure everything protected by a sensor is fully shut. If a door does not latch reliably because the frame has shifted or the weatherstripping is worn, fix the door. The sensor is doing its job; the door is the problem.
Motion detectors respond to movement and heat in their field of view. Pets, helium balloons drifting across a room, and curtains or hanging decorations moving in the air from a vent can all trigger a detector that was not set up with them in mind.
If you have pets, tell your alarm company. Detector placement, sensitivity and the choice of detector all make a difference, and some households use a mode that leaves interior motion off while people or animals are moving around inside, arming motion only when the house is truly empty. Leave sensitivity adjustments to a technician rather than changing them yourself.
Low batteries in wireless sensors can cause trouble signals and erratic behavior. When the keypad reports a low battery or a trouble condition, deal with it promptly rather than silencing it and forgetting. Loose sensor magnets, dusty detectors and devices knocked out of alignment can all cause problems too.
Your alarm company can tell you how often to run a test and how to place the account in test mode beforehand, so that a check does not become a real dispatch.
Most panels offer more than one way to arm. An away mode typically arms everything, including interior motion. A stay or home mode typically arms the doors and windows but leaves interior motion off so people can move around inside. Arming in away mode and then walking into the kitchen for a glass of water is a common way to set off your own alarm. Learn which mode is which, and use the one that matches what is happening in the house.
Painting, remodeling, new windows and new doors can all affect sensors. Contractors may remove contacts, cover detectors with plastic or leave doors propped open. Before work starts, tell your alarm company and agree on how the system will be handled during the project. After the work is finished, have the affected sensors checked.
If the same zone keeps causing problems, that is a signal worth acting on. A company that installs and services systems can look at the cause rather than the symptom. Kingwood Alarm, which offers maintenance as well as installation, is one company to ask about that kind of follow-up.
Before you call, write down when each false alarm happened and which zone the panel reported. That record makes troubleshooting far easier, and it often points straight at a door, a window or a detector that needs attention.