Hello we built our home in 2012 and had wired door and window sensors installed as part of the build. No issues with them for over a decade, but over the last year we have started to get Alarm.com alerts stating that a door or window has been open for more than 30 minutes (we have an alert set up at this timeframe). However, the door or window is not open and I have to manually go and open and close it again until we get an alert that the door was closed.
So the question is do these wired sensors go bad after a certain period?
We have a Qolsys IQ Panel 2+ and a Qolsys IQ Hardwire 16F that we run all of the wired sensors into.
Yes, wired sensors can go bad. So can the wires and the Hardwire 16F. So you would need to troubleshoot to figure out which it is. Is the problem happening with multiple sensors or just one? If multiple, are they on the same loop (input on the 16-F)? Or different inputs?
Wired sensors can have defects or suffer wear and tear as anything else, but in the list of potential causes of issues, the internal failure of a hardwired door or window sensor is basically the last thing I would investigate. There are a number of more likely causes.
If the issue is that doors sometimes still report open even though they are closed there are a couple common possibilities.
While the sensor itself may not be the issue, its placement might be. If a sensor was already installed at the edge of its magnetic gap or with borderline alignment issues, a little shift from loose hinges or seasonal swelling can be enough to cause intermittent issues with the sensor being able to close.
Wires can corrode or otherwise get damaged and resistance on the circuit might be broderline. Check the resistance of the sensor circuit with a multimeter/ohmmeter.
If it is always that doors show open when closed and never the other way around this is less likely, but it could just be that the Hardwire 16F is just having trouble signaling to the panel in general. If the panel is missing some signals you would see this kind of behavior often, with sensors reporting the wrong status at times. Do you ever notice supervision (Offline) malfunctions for the Hardwire 16F or its zones?
In response to the questions, I do have resistors on the zones, but I have not checked the circuits with a multimeter as I don’t have one. As far as supervision malfunctions, I do not receive any of those types of alerts.
Since originally posting the question I looked back at my Alarm.com activity log and the issues seem to be with my front door and garage service door. Both doors have sensors that are built into the door. The windows seem to have been fixed by making sure the sensors are aligned.
The door issue happened again earlier today with the front door. I noticed the door was showing as Opened at 10:23 AM even though the door was not opened at that time. I went and opened and closed it multiple times, but it would not revert back to Closed. I then got the Sensor-Left-Open Alert after 30 minutes. Then without opening or closing it, the sensor reverted back to Closed and the Sensor-Left-Open Restoral alert came through at 12:08 PM. See activity in screenshot below.
I am thinking I should try replacing the sensors in the door, but am open to other perspectives. Thanks!
What kind of sensor is in the door? There may be a magnetic recessed sensor or a plunger style recessed sensor. Feel free to post a photo of the sensors and we can help identify. Magnetic sensors may be misaligned with the magnet, and old plunger sensors may not depress all the way to close the circuit.
I recommend picking up a cheap multimeter to anyone with wired sensor zones, it is invaluable when troubleshooting wired sensor circuits like this. They aren’t used often but are the only tool for the job.
