Anyone have ADT home security system? (long)

[cinmell]

We just had ADT installed yesterday morning. We got motion detectors for the 1st floor and basement. The alarm and arming worked, but we were not monitored for the first night.

At 12:23 am the alarm goes off. According to the keypad there was motion in the basement. We figured it was a malfunction and went down to check it out and everything was fine, no broken windows, doors or locks. We are calling them today to have them check everything and possibly move a motion detector.

Have you ever had a false alarm (where you didn't trip the alarm)? Do you know what caused it? All we can think is the detector is directly facing the furnace and there's a little thing that moves and when the heat kicked on it was detected?? We were told it detects body heat and will not pick up tiny motions like a book falling or anything like that so we are just stretching with the furnace ideas. Any thoughts?

 

[shep]

Do you have a cat or a dog?
Our cat always triggered our motion sensor...

 

[cinmell]

No, we don't have any pets.

 

[pjlla]

I certainly wouldn't worry quite yet.... who know what I could be. I ended up calling the Fire department one time many years ago, because all of my smoke detectors were going off, they wouldn't stop, but I couldn't find anything. I was afraid that there was some electrical fire smoldering in the walls or something. Anyhow, it was nothing but the exhaust from my dryer causing lint to activate the basement detector.

We also had a false alarm in the middle of the night many months (perhaps even a year) after having our ADT installed. Scared many years off my life..... turns out that DH had neglected to shut the bulkhead to the basement at the end of the day, and hadn't shut the door at the bottom of the bulkhead tight. A breeze during the night opened the door and "ta-da" alarm goes off at 2 am!! But it was a scary few minutes until we figured it out.

So give it some time.... if you are still getting what you think are false alarms, have ADT come out and check the system........P

 

[pjlla]

BTW, unless they have significantly upgraded their motion sensor, they will sense ANY motion, not just body heat (???). If we leave helium balloons near a motion sensor and they move at all, it will set off the detector. ................P

 

[ckmommy]

We have an ADT system at our house, but did not put in the motion sensors. Our kids are up VERY early in the morning at would trip it daily. I would bet it is something tripping you motion sensor. Yoy said it was in your basement? I hate to say this, but it could be a mouse?? Good luck to you!

 

[cinmell]

I wasn't keene on motion detectors but my husband wanted them. Our daughter doesn't go downstairs on her own yet but we won't be able to have them on when she does.

Yuck, I hope it's not a mouse but I thought of that too. That would make me !

 

[believe]

Balloons, ceiling fans or anything moving can trigger the motion detector. We did have a false alarm...they said my house was in fire, while I was on vacation. I ironic part is that we did not have the fire portion installed on our alarm system, so I have no idea where that came from.

 

[WDWHound]

I used to work in this industry. In fact, your system may be monitored by software that I helped write. False alarms from motion detectors are very common, and yes, any movement will set off a motion detector. There are detectors that register body heat, but they are not commonly installed in homes (at least they weren't 10 years ago when I was writing monitoring software).

Believe: Regarding the unexplained false fire alarm, the odds are very good that the people who monitor your system have your account set up incorrectly. Many alarm systems don't report a specific type of alarm such as fire or motion, they simply say an alarm happeded on a certain device (usually called a zone). Your system sends this information to a monitoring center, which then looks up what kind of device was installed on that zone and passes that information on to an operator, along with phone numbers and instructions on how to deal with the alarm. If they screwed up while setting up your account, they may have entered the wrong type of alarms for one of your zones. I would call their service department and tell them what happened. They can send someone out to test the system and be sure that each zone is generating the proper instructions at the monitoring station when it alarms.

 

[cinmell]

An ADT tech is coming this afternoon, he swears it's a defective detector and the furnace has nothing to do with it. Yet, this is what the official ADT page notes:

Q: Why is my motion sensor falsing?
A: A motion detector may activate falsely due to improper installation of the device above a heater or furnace. Movement of objects such as balloons, blinds, and curtains within the range of a motion detector may also trigger an alarm activation. The motion detector may require relocation or adjustment by an ADT technician.

Oh well, I'm just glad it was a false alarm and it should (hopefully) be fixed today.

Thank you for your replies everyone, have a great day!

 

[jvas]

Who did you work for?

Originally posted by WDWHound
I used to work in this industry. In fact, your system may be monitored by software that I helped write. False alarms from motion detectors are very common, and yes, any movement will set off a motion detector. There are detectors that register body heat, but they are not commonly installed in homes (at least they weren't 10 years ago when I was writing monitoring software).

Believe: Regarding the unexplained false fire alarm, the odds are very good that the people who monitor your system have your account set up incorrectly. Many alarm systems don't report a specific type of alarm such as fire or motion, they simply say an alarm happeded on a certain device (usually called a zone). Your system sends this information to a monitoring center, which then looks up what kind of device was installed on that zone and passes that information on to an operator, along with phone numbers and instructions on how to deal with the alarm. If they screwed up while setting up your account, they may have entered the wrong type of alarms for one of your zones. I would call their service department and tell them what happened. They can send someone out to test the system and be sure that each zone is generating the proper instructions at the monitoring station when it alarms.

 

[Pin Wizard]

I have motion sensors but just set them when I leave the house...well, I used to. Now the dogs take care of the problem. LOL! But I can set the alarm when I'm home so the sensors aren't working. Would hate for them to go off every time the dogs moved!

 

[jvas]

Pin....you need PIR's with built it "pet immunity"
they have them in various "wieghts"

 

[Pin Wizard]

Originally posted by jvas
Pin....you need PIR's with built it "pet immunity"
they have them in various "wieghts"

Really! I'll have to keep that in mind for when I move. Thanks!!

 

[jvas]

Do you know what type of system you have?

 

[Pin Wizard]

I have no clue! I moved here in 1996 and had it installed then. So it's not the latest stuff.

 

[jvas]

K.....just curious......you can get a decent system for a couple of hundred bucks..........you can even go wireless....(lots of people are doing that now....)

 

[DVC-Don]

We put a ADT system in last November. But, we only have one motion detector in the second floor hallway. The first floor and basement windows use switches. We have an old Pug dog, but he can not get up the stairs to the second floor. The tech put the motion detector on the second floor upside down (on purpose) so that if the dog did get up there there is a foot or so of clear space near the floor. Should have seen the tech crawling around on the floor to test it. No false (or real) alarms yet.

 

[monarchsfan16]

Motion detectors are actually triggered by a shift in air currents, which happens when someone moves. Or at least that's what ADT told us when we had a false alarm. One of our motion detectors is in a corner next to the slider. It was a windy day, and the alarm went off right after we left for the weekend. We later found out that the seal was bad in the slider, which allowed the wind to get through. Because yours is near the furnace, the air changes when the furnace turns on and off were probably responsible for your alarm going off.