I had a QS1135-840 in our garage door for almost two years with no issues. Suddenly it started to randomly fail reporting opening/closings. (At one point triggering a false alarm). I tried new batteries, new sensor, moving magnet closer, etc with no luck.
I even tried using an old QS1137-840 I had sitting around. So far it has been reporting, but I am worried it will start acting up at some point soon since it shows really bad signal (-96).
What’s odd is that it was working for almost 2 years and suddenly we started having issues. (Nothing else has been added to account for the failures).
I have a few QS1134-840 that I never installed, but I am worried it will be even be since the sensor is going to have even more obstacles inside the door. (Specially in a solid garage door).
Overall signal strength for the panel radio won’t change abruptly, however borderline signaling issues are very often first brought to light by lower battery levels. It is pretty common for signal problems to be first noticed after a couple years if the sensor has borderline poor signal at the location.
Is that the door into the garage from the home? Is it a metal door? Typically a metal door will have more signaling issues for both surface mounted and recessed sensors. Does the sensor show a better signal when moved off the door just about a foot?
That was my thinking…that’s why i put new batteries immediately, followedby new sensors in case the original one got damaged. (I have had my fair share of sensors going bad).
I placed the sensor 1-2’ from the door, about same height and it went from poor (-97) to good (-88). It’s a garage door, so I’m pretty sure its reinforced by code. Even though the sensor is on the same side of the panel, I am sure the metal on the door is not helping.
I’m considering putting a PowerG on that location. (Specially since its the most used door). Unfortunately I have a box full of s-line sensors, but I don’t think any of them is going to fix the problem. I’m guessing the PowerG will still have the same interference issue, but the longer range will work on my favor.
One quick test would be to try reorienting the sensor and magnet. If the sensor is on the door itself, move it to the frame and put the magnet on the door. This can help reduce the signal attenuation in some cases.
PowerG sensors would be impacted the same by attenuation, but the much larger range may help to better overcome this kind of issue.
I tried earlier swapping the sensor/magnet locations. It made more sense that the sensor would work better when it was mounted on the frame vs the door. But it really didn’t make much difference. (That was the original instal location).
I ordered a PowerG sensor from you guys last night. Hopefully the additional range will provide a more reliable signal. I will let you know how that works.
Installing the sensor in exactly the same spot as the QS1135/QS1137, the Qolsys was giving me around -96 and poor reception. The PowerG gave me a 10 (different scale) and Good.