False Alarm from Qolsys Window Contact Tamper

Support
21

The sensor, and the batteries, are about five years old. I’m at the recommended time for battery replacement (although Qolsys says this sensor’s batteries last us to eight years), but wouldn’t think this would be related to battery level.

The internal tamper switch doesn’t stick at all or have any indications of damage.

I put the sensor in Group 25 to avoid being awaken with a false alarm, and will order a replacement, but this doesn’t resolve the bigger issue that these sensors obviously have a problem and it seems Qolsys doesn’t have any interest addressing it. Without the ability to stop all sensors from generating an alarm during tamper I’m left with a security system prone to false alarms, which is a really annoying thing to live with.

Any other recommendations of how to address this?

22

The sensor, and the batteries, are about five years old. I’m at the recommended time for battery replacement (although Qolsys says this sensor’s batteries last us to eight years), but wouldn’t think this would be related to battery level

QS1135-840 batteries are good for 5 years according to Qolsys

Low battery level shouldnt cause a tamper on this sensor, but batteries should be replaced every 5 years or as needed based on low level alerts.

There are no technical service bulletins from Qolsys regarding a DW Mini tamper issue. However, I have reached out for confirmation. If i hear anything postive I will follow up here.

Are you getting the tamper all the time, or intermittently?

Any other recommendations of how to address this?

Replace the battery and monitor. Consider deleting from programming and re-adding. If the tamper continues, replace the sensor.

Has the issue occured on sensors that are all around the same age/purchased at the same time?

23

The false tamper is intermittent. On this sensor it has only occured twice.

I have about 20 of these sensors and all but one were purchased at the same time, around 5 years ago. I had this same issue with one other sensor, and that occured about two years ago. I disposed of that sensor and replaced it with a new one.

It’d be really nice if Qolsys would add an “ignore sensor tamper” setting to the panel. I get that the tamper switch is supposed to be a security mechanism, but in this case I’d gladly forego the tamper notifications to avoid the false alarms.

24

I had this same issue with one other sensor, and that occured about two years ago. I disposed of that sensor and replaced it with a new one.

Have you experienced issues with the new one?

25

Yet again last night I was woken by a false alarm due to a false tamper from another Qolsys QS1135-840 IQ Mini-S sensor. The is the third sensor I’ve had fail this way and it’s incredibly frustrating. Not just that Qolsys fails provide any remediation or mitigation, but that they won’t even acknowledge there’s a problem. Tamper disable per sensor at the panel would be a simple software solution. It’s obvious from this thread that this is not an isolated incident. My failure rate on these sensors is approaching 15%.

Has there been any update from Qolsys?

26

Could you open up the one that tampered and show a photo of the back plate where it is attached to the wall?

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Thanks, I wanted to be sure the rear tamper break-away was intact. When you close that sensor, can you provide a photo of the sensor from the side, roughly?

Is it firmly sealed or does it have some wiggle room when closed?

29

Interesting. I get tampers here and there, and sometimes during armed state…but never causes an alarm? Maybe mine is broken.

By the way, I can’t tell from the photo, but the bigger part of the sensor should be placed on the part of the door/window that does not move (to avoid excess vibration, which may cause tampers or tamper prone states), and I would align it more centered. I find that helps (or solves the tamper for the door/window contacts). But, then again, I sometimes get tampers from sensors that don’t move like water and motion sensors.

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It is firmly sealed when closed.

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I wish mine were like yours and a tamper didn’t cause an alarm. What panel do you have? I searched for an option to disable tamper induced alarms in the panel setting and never found anything. A couple years ago when I asked here I was told such a setting didn’t exist, at least not for my panel (IQ Panel 2). I sure wish they would add that as an option.

32

Tampers will result in alarms if the panel is armed at the time. Does the window have any play or vibration? It is generally better to put the sensor portion on the outer frame not the window. If you swap those, do you experience similar issues?

33

There is no play or vibration in the window. The house is relatively new and the windows are tight and rigid.

I appreciate the suggestions, but to me it seems obvious the problem here is that the sensors are defective. If you haven’t recently, can you reach out to Qolsys and ask if they can provide any information regarding this issue?

And is it possible to request that a setting be added to allow tamper to be disabled (or alarms as a result of a tamper)? There are practical cases for this, including mine. I’m so frustrated with this issue and the lack of support or acknowledgment from Qolsys that I’m about ready to tear this system out. An alarm system is useless when you can no longer trust it.

34

I am happy to help, and I understand frustration if you have been dealing with intermittent tampers.

It may be possible that specific production run(s) had issues. As an example, years ago, (nearly a decade, I feel old) the 2GIG DW10 had a roughly 10% DOA rate on at least one or two production runs, but when that occurred we saw a significant volume of reports, even with our team testing and filtering out DOA units before shipment, just the users buying elsewhere resulted in a lot of questions.

The reason I suggest troubleshooting steps still is that the QS1135 is by far our most commonly sold sensor for the panels for a long while now, and we simply do not see a large volume of issues reported.

We had someone mention a similar issue with a couple sensors in 2018. Another in 2020, in addition to this original thread. I found another referencing a tamper, but it is unrelated with a specific cause found. Of course not everyone experiencing an issue is guaranteed to reach out, but it would have to be a huge number of unreported cases. In terms of the units sold through our store and similar reports the incidence rate looks like it might be close to 1 in 10000 rather than 1 in 10.

That is not to diminish what you are reporting, only to explain why we don’t have any confirmation of widespread problems from Qolsys. I just don’t have any stats to back that up.

Qolsys is also very good about acknowledging and posting technical bulletins for dealers when production problems are found. I can reference TSBs going back through 2014. I can’t find any historical report of known defect on the IQ DW Mini.

important:

Can you confirm, have the batteries been replaced in all the sensors? If not, please be sure to replace them as they would be past the manufacturer’s recommended time frame. As batteries die they are more likely to cause issues in general, and lithium battery charges drop off precipitously near the end of their life, not gradually.

is it possible to request that a setting be added to allow tamper to be disabled (or alarms as a result of a tamper)?

We are happy to forward all feedback to manufacturers, of course! We will send this as a feature request.

The panel tamper can be disabled, and tamper beeps can be disabled for sensors, but there is no way to disable sensor tamper reports yet to my knowledge.