I received a Zone Zero tamper alarm on my Alarm.com system today. I have a 2Gig GC3 panel. As far as I know there is no Zone Zero. No sensor is showing as tripped or open. What does a Zone Zero tamper alarm mean? The gentlemen who called from monitoring had no idea.
This is the E-mail notification I received: The System reported a Tamper Alarm at 9:18 am on Friday, August 19 2022.
Monitoring told me it was Zone Zero.
P.S.–There is no one at that house currently.
Zone 0 is just what shows on the operator end when the panel itself is the subject. The Tamper alert is for the panel. This means that the panel’s internal tamper switch is not fully pressed in.
Often this occurs on a GC3 when the back plate is not screwed shut or if the battery cable is not inserted in the gap for it before closing the panel. It can put outward pressure on the plate and cause intermittent tampers.
Oddly, the panel itself shows no events at all. The tamper switch seems fine. Note the panel had not been touched for some months. The same tamper was reported again this morning. Is there a way to bypass the panel tamper so that it won’t set off an alarm while I try to sort this out? Otherwise, the system is unusable at the moment.
How can I identify whether a swollen battery is the issue? I have no unswollen battery to which to compare it.
How can I identify whether a swollen battery is the issue? I have no unswollen battery to which to compare it.
It could potentially be putting enough pressure to impact the switch but even beyond that, if you have a swollen battery it should be replaced regardless. I would try that first.
So, I have now had persistent tamper issues with 2 2Gig GC3’s at 2 different locations. Neither scenario responded to the clear tamper instructions given here. I eventually found another user posting here about a swollen battery and then found some information elsewhere suggesting that swollen batteries were a common cause of persistent tamper issues. Some sites suggested that the batteries should be replaced every few years regardless. I ordered new batteries and compared them to the existing batteries. The batteries in both panels were significantly swollen. Replacing the batteries, likewise, solved the issue for both panels. If you have tamper issues, be sure and check the battery for swelling.
The location of the battery and how tight it is against the back plate does make the GC3 pretty susceptible to this. If the battery cable is not routed in the slot for it the back plate can’t close, so a significantly swollen battery would do it. Thank you for confirming and describing what you found.