False Alarms and Device Handlers

[Dean_Smith]

Hi all,

I have a DWZWAVE2 sensor that I am using to monitor my Kiddie smoke alarms. It’s been installed for many months now and I have had zero false alarm notifications using the standard Z-Wave Door/Window Sensor included with ST.

Yesterday I changed the device handler to a Modified Z-Wave Door/Window Sensor for Smoke so I could have the doors unlock and the interior light come on in the event of a smoke detection. Handy, right? Well, last night at 230am, ST recorded a smoke alarm event which turned on the lights and unlocked the doors BUT there was no siren from the smoke alarms. Not only did this wake us up, but it made the wife VERY uneasy, almost to the point she wants the smart locks removed!

My question - is it possible that a device handler could be the culprit or was this just a really odd coincidence?

Thanks in advance!

[Mavrrick58 (Mavrrick)]

I have some non smart kiddie alarms in my house. One night they started going off every 15 or so mins all night. In finally took each one down and started checking them. Took a while and it was hard to pin down which one was starting the alarms. While this was all going on and i was trying to trouble shoot it i found some references to the alarms triggering falsely if one of two things happened. I believe one of the Alarms had low batteries so that alarm had it’s batteries replaced. The second thing was improper contact shorts because of dust could be the culprit. That triggered a need to essentially blow out the side of the detector. A can of compressed air could take care of this fairly well as to.

With that said the alarms were actually triggering in my case they were just false alarms. It could just be the device handler, but it can’t hurt to just check the batteries and blow a can of compressed air through each one to make sure those other known issues aren’t possibly occurring in your case.

[Dean_Smith]

Thanks Maverrick for the reply. I’ll give them a few shots of air just to be on the safe side but there was no audible alarm from the detectors. It’s possible I guess they could have ‘micro alarmed’ and triggered the sensor in such a short burst that they didn’t make the alarm sound. It’s just a heck of a coincidence that they false alarmed like that the same day I modified the handler!

Batteries are fresh, in the last 7 months and the units themselves were replaced just a couple years ago so I’d hope they have a few more years of life left in them!

[Mavrrick58 (Mavrrick)]

I don’t disagree that is strange. I would expect the alarm to trigger something audible even if it was momentary. It is possible that the other DTH has some sort of error handling designed to deal with a momentary blip that the other one doesn’t. My alarms did this just at around 8 months old so it doesn’t take long for dust to cause this false alarms if that is it.