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Tuesday, April 13th, 2021 7:57 PM

Warning or Blocking putting into Home or Away if a sensor is open?

New user here.

When I go to put my system into "Home" or "Away" when it is currently off, and there is an open door sensor (e.g. I left a door open) there is no specific warning.

Example:  I left the back door open, on the keypad there was a message about this, I viewed it and dismissed it by going back.  Later, the door is still open and I go to put the system into Home mode and there is no warning that the door is open nor does it prevent me to going into home mode.  I assume that if the door was closed and then re-opened the alarm would trigger -- but in this case as long as the door stayed open the alarm would not go off?

Is there a way to force the system to not enable if a particular sensor is open?  Or at least for it to display a warning if I try to arm the system when a door is open?


Thanks!

Official Response

Community Admin

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5.7K Messages

4 years ago

Hey angelosarto, welcome to SimpliSafe!

Yes, the system will let you arm the alarm even if an Entry Sensor is open. This is intentional, so that you can leave windows or doors open (say, in the summertime when you want to let the breeze in) and still arm the rest of the system.

However, you should also be getting a voice prompt from the Base Station, warning you of that open sensor. But keep in mind that this will only happen if you haven't already cleared the warning message on the Keypad (since the system assumes you already know and don't want to hear about it!).

Right now, there's no option to change this feature.

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2 Messages

Bad intentions on SS. It happened to me. Armed the house “Away”, our Family went away for the weekend. The SS pad didn’t warn me the children’s windows were open. I found out when we got back home. 
In the normal security system, user would not be able to armed system if any of the sensors are open and given a CHOICE to bypass a particular open sensor/s before arming the system to HOME/AWAY.

I’m returning my system since there is solution to a dangerous situation.

2.2K Messages

4 years ago

I think I'd rather have 1 entry unprotected than ALL entry points...

You have to understand, if it refused to arm, that is no more notable than letting you know a sensor is open.  And will you always have the time to track down which sensor is open (or just misbehaving)?

This doesn't make any sense. Refusing to arm is notable - there's no beep. Flashing a message on the keypad that you otherwise never need to sit and look at is silent. There's no rational reason for this that holds up to typical usage, it's a simple design choice that should have been reversed years ago.

Simplisafe is purchased as a "security" experience, not a "convenience" experience, and should be optimized to security first, with as many convenience affordances as possible without compromising the main mission. This does not appear to be simplisafe's culture though, as evidenced by their customer support folks offering up boilerplate responses (seriously: just describing the way something works, in response to someone raising a serious issue with how it works, is kind of insulting. This should have been escalated years ago.)

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2 Messages

I absolutely agree.  My system « voice » is in another room so when I arm it, the tv is usually on and I can’t hear exactly

what it says.  I do always confirm that I have a text showing it is armed.  At the least, there should be a text that says X sensor is not armed.  

I am disappointed.  One of my doors didn’t catch and was left open all night.  I no longer feel very secure with this system.

4 Messages

8 months ago

definitely need to be able to choose / armed Home the other day / thought secure / find out garage door is up / needs to be user choice

Yep. This is still an issue, i left the garage door up the other day and somebody got away with $3300 in tools and parts overnight. System was still fully armed even when i got home hours later, totally happy, not a peep. (The camera in the garage caught a couple of seconds, but it's so slow to activate it didn't catch anything significant, and it's so loud when it opens the lens cover he just immediately heard it, looked up and turned it around.)

This is the last straw with simplisafe. It doesn't mesh so it scales poorly in longer houses (i constantly have sensors drop out) and then this crap that directly led to a loss. Not even an option? When i'm tapping the button as i get my kid and his stuff out the door for school, i'm not in a position to stand there and wait for readouts nor am

i inclined to unless i don't hear the arming beep. This is a terrible design choice, and that it's still a problem 3 years after even just this report shows simplisafe just cannot be trusted.

Simplisafe is made for apartments, and the cameras are made for maybe checking in on pets, that's about it.

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1 Message

8 months ago

When using the app to arm the system, is there a warning that a sensor is open?

Community Admin

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3.4K Messages

@blwinton​ If you arm your system while an Entry Sensor is open there will not be an in-app notification, but the Base Station will announce that a sensor is open.

We have submitted the request for an app notification to our dev team for their consideration. Once we hear more from them, we will provide an update in this thread.

4 Messages

When I bot SS -- I never even considered asking about this functionality / thought it was a foregone conclusion / had Stanley at our business for 12 years - sensor open - can't arm the system - go find the problem and fix it

if you send to the product development team - they will say "no" - send it to the product marketing people - they understand customer needs and wants

2 Messages

7 months ago

I don’t have time to wait for SS to decide to fix.  I am making appts for an installed system today.  I must be safe and if I don’t feel safe, I am wasting money.

4 Messages

7 months ago

must be something going on here behind the scenes for SS to fight this so hard // would have to guess 2 hours of coding puts the an optional switch in the system // would guess not more complaints because other folks haven't found out that the functionality is not there

Community Admin

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5.7K Messages

@vineyestate​ please comment on this thread. The more traffic we can get there, the more we can show our Product team that the request is important to our Community.

4 Messages

7 months ago

so ............................. since I now understand this weakness in your system I have gone from being a promoter of SS to advising against the system because it lacks this functionality

By the way - the base station volume isn't loud enough for me to hear its warning when I am in my car out in the street arming the system

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