Burglar alarm goes off randomly

mynamesnotdave

Hi,

I've just bought a house and we're having a weird problem - our burglar alarms goes off randomly as though it's been tampered with.
It went off this morning when a battery powered radio was switched on (it's aerial was near a window sensor) and it's also gone off when I've turned the washing machine on. It's also gone off when I've been nothing at all.
I'm assuming it's something to do with an electricity surge / electromagnetic charge or something but have no idea - I'm just guessing.
Does anyone know how I can get to the bottom of it without having to contact an alarm company?

Thanks,
Tom

spmc

I am no expert but when I had a problem with the alarm going off randomly with a tamper fault light showing I rang the technical support for the alarm manufacturer and was told it is almost always the tamper switch on the bell box outside. Apparently movement over time due to temperature changes can affect the connection. It was a case of removing the cover and bending the switch slightly to improve the contact. Solved the problem.

mynamesnotdave

That's actually very useful - I'll give it a go (when I find a ladder)

danlojo

We had a nightmare with ours when we moved in and it would go off at all times of the day. We cleaned out all of the sensors for cobwebs or spiders and the blummin thing still kept going off.

We did eventually get an alarm company out to look and the sensor in the attached garage was turned up too high and whenever someone walked past or a car went past or even the tree on the front lawn swayed it would trigger the alarm and that was through the closed door!!

Hope you get it sorted as its a nightmare for you and others on the street.

mynamesnotdave

Blimey, it won't be as bad as that - is definitely the tamper element of the alarm as it goes off even when the alarm is turned off.

jhe

does your interior alarm box tell you which sensor has been activated?

mynamesnotdave

jhe wrote: »

does your interior alarm box tell you which sensor has been activated?

The tamper light is lit

Myser

Is the window sensor a magnetic one (two parts) or a vibration-type (single unit)?