Testing Your Commercial and Home Alarm System

To create security and peace of mind you installed an alarm system, and you diligently set your alarm every day.

One day, you arrived at work or home and realized you had a break-in. Your alarm didn’t work; you did not receive a call, and the police never came.

How did this happen? What preventative measures can you take?

Testing your home alarm system monthly and your commercial system weekly is extremely beneficial. A properly connected alarm system will ensure your system is communicating correctly with your monitoring station.

Testing your alarm system regularly can expose any problems caused by a sensor failure, phone line failure, change in phone service, power surge, or disconnecting a component and not reconnecting it properly.

Steps to test your system:

Before testing your system call your alarm company and place your account on test. You will need your account number or password. If you do not put your system on test it could result in police dispatch.

1. Make sure all of your doors and windows are closed securely.
2. Arm your system as if you were leaving the premises and wait 60 seconds for the exit delay to expire.
3. Open each door and window with a sensor attached. Wait 3-5 seconds then close the door or window. The alarm will sound, do not turn it off until all sensors are checked.
4. Once each sensor has been checked, disarm your system.
5. Call your alarm company to take your alarm off test.
6. Ask your alarm company which signals were received.

When One Source Security installs an alarm system, we test each system component to ensure proper communication with the central monitoring station. Periodic testing of your alarm system is essential.

If for any reason your system is not communicating to the monitoring station, please call us today at 1-800-570-6478.