Glass break detector in garage

CORT

Active Member
Is a glass break detector located in a garage prone to false alarms with garage doors opening and closing and cars driving in and out?
 
Is a glass break detector located in a garage prone to false alarms with garage doors opening and closing and cars driving in and out?
No. A modern quality glass break detector will not be prone to false alarms in garage. I have installed plenty in garages. This is a good choice for protecting a garage.
 
Okay I'll say yes prone, this assumes you have a concrete floor. Anything falling from the workspaces or shelves could and quite possibly would trigger a false alarm. Now some strategic placement of carpet scraps or an epoxy coating might make that a non-issue. You can always buy one and find out without having it set as a burglary zone.

Why not a motion detector?
 
Why not a motion detector?

I want to be able to drive my cars into and out of the garage with the rest of the house armed, so a motion detector would be a bad idea.

Thank you to all who replied. I will install a glass break detector in the garage and define it as a non-alarm input initially.
 
I will install a glass break detector in the garage and define it as a non-alarm input initially.

I've been looking at glass break detectors recently also. They all seem to be based on proprietary technology so they each might react differently to fringe cases, even if they all work comparably for more standard cases.

Are your windows in the garage in the overhead garage door itself or are they regular windows framed into the house (or maybe both)?

Windows in an overhead door, which often has some rattle and flex to it, might have a different acoustic signature than windows framed into the house. Some GBT's might not respond in the desired way to overhead door windows (purely a guess; I don't know for sure). The designers seem to put a lot of effort into getting the GBT to reject "acoustic events" that don't follow a very specific set of frequencies, amplitudes, durations, and sequences of the various sounds.

It might be worthwhile to zero in on a couple specific models and email/call the manufacturer's tech support to see if they have any specific advice for a garage. I haven't had to give garage windows much thought since my garage has no windows (which has its pros and cons, but is good for security purposes)
 
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