That moment when a simple window sensor took me 3 hours to install

I kept getting a fault on a wireless sensor for a back door at a house in Portland. Turns out the metal frame was blocking the signal, not a bad battery or a bad sensor like I assumed. I swapped the mounting placement three times before I finally moved it to the wood trim and it worked instantly. Has anyone else dealt with metal window frames just eating your signal for no good reason?

2 comments

2 Comments

sageross21d ago

and the metal window thing is SO real. I had a similar issue with a sliding glass door where the sensor just kept going offline randomly. I swapped batteries, reset the hub, wasted a whole afternoon. Finally realized the aluminum door frame was basically acting like a faraday cage for the z-wave signal. I ended up having to mount the sensor on the stationary glass panel itself with a really strong adhesive and then run a thin wire to the magnet on the moving door. It was a hacky solution but it's been solid for two years now. For your back door, maybe try those thin puck style sensors that can sit flush on the wood trim instead of the bulky rectangle ones. Sometimes just getting that sensor a few inches away from the metal makes all the difference.

hannahw3021d ago

The puck sensors still have range issues if the metal frame is the problem though.