Motion Sensor Does Not Work Consistently.

I have a group of motion sensors. One half I've had for five years and the other half for 3 years. I can honestly say I know the system well, I have installed in three separate homes on my own. The reports that are being made here are accurate. The motion sensors will work in test mode, however, regardless of how long you give them to get to ambient temperature, they are not reliable. I can walk by, walk up to them, wave my hand in front of them and pick them up and shake them and they will not go off.  Then I can turn around, cross the room again and again and nothing. Then I can turn the alarm off, put them through test mode again, have them pass test mode. Then turn test mode off, turn the alarm back on and purposely try to set them off again and they will go off.  Then I can wait twenty minutes and cross their path and they are no longer working again.  In my case at least, the sooner I try to set them off after I have put them through a test, the better they work. The longer I let them sit, the more unreliable they are.  And when they do go off, ten feet to fifteen feet is the limit of what they can detect period. Thirty feet is absolutely not true. This, I have tested over and over again when I can get them to work. Night vision seems to also be a pretty big no no for them. If you want them to work in a dark room you HAVE to have a nightlight or something that gives some light. If you do not - they will NOT sense there is a person there no matter how many times you walk past it.  This is just the truth unfortunately and SimpliSafe needs to face your motion sensors are not in any way reliable as a security system. I have cameras with a spotlight set up that give me a back up sense of security hooked up to Amazon Alexa that announces throughout the house there is a motion in a room. It also casts a light to "help' the SimpliSafe sensors pick up motion. Hopefully. I mean - hopefully - they will trigger the alarm for intruders and help save my life? But - you cannot trust them at all.  And this is not even the beginning of the problems or reasons why you cannot and should not trust the SimpliSafe system on its own. Their consistent disconnect to the dispatch center without your knowledge in the middle of the night is another. I had the alarm go off in the middle of the night and had to call dispatch and ask why they didn't call me. The alarm was still going off and was audible to the dispatch center from my bedroom. They said they couldn't see my alarm was going off in their system. My system, sitting right in front of the same window it's sat in front of for years, just conveniently decided to disconnect from dispatch the night the alarm went off. They said there was nothing they could do to help as the could not see it going off in their system. So I was stuck in my bedroom with my alarm going off, they couldn't see what triggered it, they would not offer to call the police and I had to deal with it on my own. They offered to transfer me to customer service (middle of the night remember - customer service is closed). I told them I couldn't believe they were trying to transfer me to customer service when I could be dealing with a break in and a very dangerous situation. Her reply was - I'm so sorry there is nothing we can do. I asked her to at least stay on the phone with me while I went through the house on my home to try and see what set it off. (Still going off mind you) She agreed to stay in the line and I went through to not be able to locate anything that would have caused it to go off. So I turned off the alarm - it now announced there was no connection to the dispatch center.  She told me that's what she needed to hear to know that that is why she couldn't see it going off in her system and why she couldn't help me. I asked her if she could hear it going off on the phone, she said she could and apologized again. I unplugged the system, plugged it back in and it reconnected to the dispatch center. However - the system never notified me it disconnected when I set it that night and went to bed (it's right beside my head folks) - so again - could have lost my life due to SimpliSafe just NOT being dependable. And I could call customer service but I'll just get what's being said here - you must wait for ambient room temperature. For as long as I've had this system - trust me I know nothing will be done about this. So, yes it is absolutely accurate that you should not put your life in the hands of this system.  I personally am going to save for a new more reliable system (I had another before that had far better motion detectors and never lost connection to dispatch??) and hope between the cameras and this system both in the meantime  I'm a little more protected. But SimpliSafe  should fix this versus making excuses with a product that is meant to save lives. If a system is malfunctioning - replace it like all the other companies do. Send a person out to test it for themselves and replace it like everyone else does  when you see your customer is not exaggerating but suffering from a malfunctioning product they cannot get help with.

I have a group of motion sensors. One half I've had for five years and the other half for 3 years. I can honestly say I know the system well, I have installed in three separate homes on my own. The reports that are being made here are accurate. The motion sensors will work in test mode, however, regardless of how long you give them to get to ambient temperature, they are not reliable. I can walk by, walk up to them, wave my hand in front of them and pick them up and shake them and they will not go off.  Then I can turn around, cross the room again and again and nothing. Then I can turn the alarm off, put them through test mode again, have them pass test mode. Then turn test mode off, turn the alarm back on and purposely try to set them off again and they will go off.  Then I can wait twenty minutes and cross their path and they are no longer working again.  In my case at least, the sooner I try to set them off after I have put them through a test, the better they work. The longer I let them sit, the more unreliable they are.  And when they do go off, ten feet to fifteen feet is the limit of what they can detect period. Thirty feet is absolutely not true. This, I have tested over and over again when I can get them to work. Night vision seems to also be a pretty big no no for them. If you want them to work in a dark room you HAVE to have a nightlight or something that gives some light. If you do not - they will NOT sense there is a person there no matter how many times you walk past it.  This is just the truth unfortunately and SimpliSafe needs to face your motion sensors are not in any way reliable as a security system. I have cameras with a spotlight set up that give me a back up sense of security hooked up to Amazon Alexa that announces throughout the house there is a motion in a room. It also casts a light to "help' the SimpliSafe sensors pick up motion. Hopefully. I mean - hopefully - they will trigger the alarm for intruders and help save my life? But - you cannot trust them at all.  And this is not even the beginning of the problems or reasons why you cannot and should not trust the SimpliSafe system on its own. Their consistent disconnect to the dispatch center without your knowledge in the middle of the night is another. I had the alarm go off in the middle of the night and had to call dispatch and ask why they didn't call me. The alarm was still going off and was audible to the dispatch center from my bedroom. They said they couldn't see my alarm was going off in their system. My system, sitting right in front of the same window it's sat in front of for years, just conveniently decided to disconnect from dispatch the night the alarm went off. They said there was nothing they could do to help as the could not see it going off in their system. So I was stuck in my bedroom with my alarm going off, they couldn't see what triggered it, they would not offer to call the police and I had to deal with it on my own. They offered to transfer me to customer service (middle of the night remember - customer service is closed). I told them I couldn't believe they were trying to transfer me to customer service when I could be dealing with a break in and a very dangerous situation. Her reply was - I'm so sorry there is nothing we can do. I asked her to at least stay on the phone with me while I went through the house on my home to try and see what set it off. (Still going off mind you) She agreed to stay in the line and I went through to not be able to locate anything that would have caused it to go off. So I turned off the alarm - it now announced there was no connection to the dispatch center.  She told me that's what she needed to hear to know that that is why she couldn't see it going off in her system and why she couldn't help me. I asked her if she could hear it going off on the phone, she said she could and apologized again. I unplugged the system, plugged it back in and it reconnected to the dispatch center. However - the system never notified me it disconnected when I set it that night and went to bed (it's right beside my head folks) - so again - could have lost my life due to SimpliSafe just NOT being dependable. And I could call customer service but I'll just get what's being said here - you must wait for ambient room temperature. For as long as I've had this system - trust me I know nothing will be done about this. So, yes it is absolutely accurate that you should not put your life in the hands of this system.  I personally am going to save for a new more reliable system (I had another before that had far better motion detectors and never lost connection to dispatch??) and hope between the cameras and this system both in the meantime  I'm a little more protected. But SimpliSafe  should fix this versus making excuses with a product that is meant to save lives. If a system is malfunctioning - replace it like all the other companies do. Send a person out to test it for themselves and replace it like everyone else does  when you see your customer is not exaggerating but suffering from a malfunctioning product they cannot get help with.

We have the same problem.        

Our camera is positioned in an unheated mudroom, pointing out toward the driveway.  Used to be very sensitive, would activate with any motion in the driveway or even in the road, 100 ft away. Now, it doesn't activate even when you walk across the porch toward the camera and wave your hand 2 feet in front of the camera.

So your explanation doesn't add up. If it's a heat-sensitivity issue, why did the camera used to work correctly, and no longer does?

Thanks in advance,
Mark

Johhny M.,

I'm having similar issues.  I have 3 indoor cams set up.  Mudroom, Family Room, Living Room.  When "Home" is activated, the Mudroom Camera picks up motion and sends me a message.  However, Living Room and Family Room doesn't detect anything even when I'm walking around.  I checked and the settings are all the same.  In other words, my mudroom camera does what I want it to but the other 2 don't.

Thanks,
Neil