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Friday, April 23rd, 2021 3:12 AM

Massive false alarm

Alarm went off this evening, waking us up. First trigger was a motion sensor, second trigger 1 minute later was an entry sensor, and third trigger 1 minute after that was our other motion sensor. No pets, motion and entry sensors still mounted, and the door the entry sensor was mounted to was solidly bolted. And no other sensors tripped and no break in.

Three sensors trigger, one minute apart? Has anyone seen anything like this

On the plus side, monitoring called while I was sweeping the house.

1.3K Messages

4 years ago

I've had motion sensors trigger nuisance alarms for no obvious reason but never an entry sensor, nor an occurence with multiple events as you relate. I have the older SS2 though.

Community Admin

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71 Messages

4 years ago

Hi @SimpliStuff,

We would love to investigate that false alarm further! Please give our Support team a call at 800-548-9508 so we can help.

Thanks!

- Harriet C.
SimpliSafe Home Security

9 Messages

Thanks Harriet.

I called and the CS rep was also unsure how this chain of events could have happened.  Signal strength from the base station to all sensors was at least good if not excellent...as was the WiFi connection.  She did say my cellular connection was lower than desirable and is sending out a new cellular module, but I'm not sure I see the relation.

But she was very nice, professional, and interested in helping, so cheers to her.

The issue did not reoccur last evening and I have set each of these sensors now to "secret alert" so I can see if there is an issue even without the alarm activated.  So far so good, but I will update.

Community Admin

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5.7K Messages

4 years ago

@SimpliStuff

That would be the next move - to put those sensors on Secret Alert for a couple of days as you investigate.

Just to get this out of the way, out of the three triggers that you mentioned, could the second two actually be just you moving through the house to disarm the alarm?

It does sound like you already know the common causes for Motion Sensor false alarms, i.e. sources of heat moving around the room. Entry Sensor false alarms are less common, and we do most often hear of it from pieces being accidentally knocked off, but also if the magnet is affected in some way.

But it's odd for three separate triggers (probably in different rooms) from multiple types of sensors to happen all at once.

- Johnny M.
SimpliSafe Home Security

4 Messages

4 years ago

I had a similar situation early this morning.   No one at the house, we are out of town, no heat or AC on, no pets.   About 5:35 am we get a motion sensor triggered, followed by a door entry sensor trigger.  Sensors are on different levels of the house, and not at all close.   Alarm goes off, of course, and SS calls me.  Police respond. 3 Cameras show nothing going on at the house.  It is not possible for the particular motion sensor to go off by itself if someone is moving in the house.  One camera is on the door that triggered.  Door is shut.   I shut off the system, then reset it in the away mode.  Everything reset fine.

Software glitch?  Just downloaded the new software last week or so.

197 Messages

4 years ago

It probably doesn't mean anything, but it looks like the first sensor to trigger in both alarms discussed above was the motion sensor.

1.3K Messages

4 years ago

Software glitch in a new version?

It would seem more plausible if the message board and or the call center were being flooded with similar occurrences. Of course, we can't see the call center logs but the board seems about normal.

1 Message

2 years ago

Tonight I had a smoke detector and motion sensors go off for no reason — while the system was disarmed. 

I’ve had a smoke detector glitch before, but never had alarms trigger while the house was disarmed… shouldnt even be possible? 

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Community Admin

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5.7K Messages

@mullinsadamec​ if any sensors are triggered, and during the alarm siren, other sensors are also activated. So that way, if there were any people in the house, they could potentially be tracked moving around. So that part is not unusual.

The initial trigger is the Smoke Detector, so we should troubleshoot that. The device works by detecting any particles that are passing through a chamber inside; so it could be triggered not just by smoke, but also water vapor, dust, or anything else small enough to get in there. So we do recommend, especially if you have the sensor placed in a dustier environment, to vacuum around the grills of the device, every couple of months. You also want to keep it away from any air vents, which could blow the particles directly into the sensor!

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