PSA: I keep seeing installers in Phoenix skip the 24-hour system test after a new panel goes in.

I know it adds a day to the job, but after a client's system failed during a real break-in because a sensor we thought was fine had a weak signal, I won't skip it anymore, so has anyone else had a failure that a full test would have caught?

3 comments

3 Comments

elliotjenkins18d ago

Man, that hits home. We had a window contact that passed the quick walk test but would drop out randomly. The full 24-hour cycle caught it failing three separate times overnight. It was just a bad unit, but the quick check missed it. Now I budget that extra day into every quote. It's saved me from a few nasty callbacks.

angela_carter18d ago

What, you mean you don't enjoy getting that 2 AM "alarm failed" call?

torres.leo18d ago

Getting those late calls is actually the best part of the job for me. It proves the system is doing its job and the customer trusts us to fix it. Elliotjenkins has a smart point about testing, but sometimes you just can't catch every weird failure ahead of time. I'd rather be the one they call at 2 AM than have them wake up to a real problem, don't you agree?