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Just hit 500 systems installed without a single false alarm callback | Alarm System Installers - Thought Shares

Just hit 500 systems installed without a single false alarm callback

I was going through my service logs this morning and the number just jumped out at me. Five hundred. I started keeping a personal count about three years ago after a rough patch where I kept getting called back for motion sensors going off because of a sunbeam or a heater vent. It was driving me nuts and hurting my rep. So I got SUPER picky about placement and sensor tuning, especially with those dual-tech units. I must have spent a full day just testing angles in my own house. The milestone matters because it's not about speed, it's about doing it right the first time so the customer actually trusts the system. Has anyone else found that one specific habit, like always doing a full walk-test at different times of day, that just made those nuisance trips vanish?

4 comments

4 Comments

jackson.faith7mo ago

I started mapping out air currents in a room with incense before installing. Sounds weird, but it shows you exactly where those drafts will hit a sensor.

miles_burns7mo ago

Man, that's actually brilliant. My buddy tried something like that after his thermostat kept reading wrong. He lit a stick of incense and just walked around his living room, watching the smoke drift. He found this tiny breeze from a window seal he never even felt. Totally changed where he put the sensor. Your method, @jackson.faith, is way more planned out than his hazy walkabout, but it's the same smart idea. It saves you from guessing and getting bad data later.

sage6057mo ago

Your buddy's method sounds like a cheap ghost hunt.

tarabell6mo ago

My old apartment in Chicago had a heating vent right under where I first put my thermostat. I spent a whole winter wondering why it was always 68 degrees but freezing, until I did the incense trick and saw the hot air shooting straight up the wall. Now I check every new place with a lighter flame first, it's faster. You can actually map out the whole room's flow patterns in about ten minutes if you start at the air return.