Contact sensor tamper

After working flawlessly for several months, one of my contact sensors repeatedly tampers causing home mode alarms . Battery is fine.
How do I fix this or check to see if the sensor now faulty?

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Further information: this is a 2nd generation sensor and the gap is about 1/8 inch. The battery cover is firmly clicked in and in the correct place. The sensor is on an unused window that is never opened.

Hi there, @duggo33! The common reason for an Alarm device to show as tampered is when the cover is loose. Try removing the Contact Sensor cover then putting it back on to see if the tamper clears. Check out this Community thread for more tamper message troubleshooting tips. I hope this helps! :slight_smile:

Thanks Marley–
Did that after the alarm woke me in the middle of last night. Tamper actually cleared as soon as I touched the sensor. Then, about an hour later, the alarm again woke me up. Tamper again cleared as soon as I touched it , but this time I simply disabled the home mode.
Now wondering if I should simply install a different sensor to see what happens.
doug

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Thank you for that update, and sorry to hear that this still resulted in an unintended Alarm trigger. Excellent idea to place a different sensor there, as this would really rule out most any other factors. As a mere touch seemed to have cleared the tamper concern, it is likely that another sensor in that area will behave normally when you test.

Our troubleshooting help center article for the Contact Sensor has some steps for resetting the device. If you have not already, try the reset to see if it resolves this concern.

If the Contact Sensor in question continues to show as tampered no matter what you try, this may require a more in-depth look from our support team. Please give our support team a call at one of the numbers available here. If you are outside of the US, please visit here to see how to contact support. Feel free to let us know how it goes! :slight_smile:

OK, I installed a new contact sensor and it has been fine for the past few nights while on Home mode. Today I did a factory reset of the problem sensor and then reinstalled it on the same kitchen window. It took only 10 minutes for it to show tampered again. The new sensor on the same window remained fine.
Again simply tapping the tampered sensor removed the tamper and it is still closed a couple of hours later.
That initial tamper however is too much threat for me and I now simply don’t trust it, especially for Away mode. So unless you have another suggestion I will uninstall it again before I next change modes.
doug

I’ve seen others say they corrected this by loosening the screws in the cover. The tamper switch seems to be very sensitive and if the back plate is screwed in too tight is warps just enough to trigger the tamper switch.

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I have had this lots of times over the last week, tried all their recommendations but it did not solve problem. I removed the sensor from the cover and inserted a small piece of rolled up paper in the tamper switch (you know the little groove, replaced the cover and it cleared the alarm.

I tested the sensor by removing to see it still alarmed, and it did. It may be that the little plastic tab was not making good contact, but it seems to be working fine now. Also tested to make sure that it alarmed when the window was opened, all was good. So fingers crossed, touch wood I hope I have solved it.

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I also had this problem of a loose sensor. I have my own solution below as applying Scotch tape tore with the force I use to close my sliding door.
I thought duct tape was too ugly and did not match the nice clean look of the contact sensor

In the end I designed my own collar to keep the contact sensor in place
Feel free to download the 3D print file here:
Contact Sensor Collar

I printed it in white to match the original Ring look.

Hope this helps!
-James

IMG_4557 (1) cropped white

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Hi James, I’ve got exactly the same problem and your collar looks like a great solution! The only problem is that I don’t have a 3D printer. I don’t suppose you’d be interested in printing off a few and selling them to me? I’d need them in black if possible.
Cheers!

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