10 Common Issues With Your Yale Alarm

Here's a list of common problems that Yale alarm owners encounter. Most of them are not due to equipment failure, and the remedies are quite straightforward.

If your problem isn't here, let us know in the contact form and we'll include the solution in the blog.

1. Panel or hub is beeping.

This is the system notifying you of a fault. Normally this is a low battery in a sensor, a tamper switch is open or the power has been switched off. The panel and app will both tell you what the fault is (there may be more than one). 

2. Switching off the fault beep.

Do this on a panel by entering the programming mode, choosing settings/advanced settings and finding 'Warning Beep'. Selecting this gives you the option to turn it off. On the app, head to Menu/settings/alarm settings/system settings/general configuration. In there you'll see 'Hub warning sounds'. Switch that off and hit save. 

3. Replaced battery in a door sensor but it doesn't work.

There are a few things that could be the problem here.

• If you've used a Duracell CR2032 battery, make sure you've removed the sticker from the positive side. If you don't, it will prevent the battery from making contact with the positive terminal in the sensor.

• When you you fit the battery, some door contact battery cradles require you to slip the battery under a pair of 'vampire teeth' contacts which should make contact with the top of the battery. The sensor won't work if you squash these contacts under the new battery.

  

• Make sure the battery is the right way up - you should see the writing on it when it's fitted.

• With the new battery in place, press the test button - the LED should flash. If that happens, but the sensor still doesn't work when the alarm is armed, the magnet (the other part of the sensor) may be too far away from the switch inside the sensor. Check the gap is no more than 12mm. To check the operation, press the test button. The LED will flash and the sensor enters test mode for the next three minutes. During this time, opening and closing the door (or window) should make the LED flash again. If it doesn't, the sensor has a faulty switch and needs replacing. If the LED does light up but the sensor still doesn't work, it's not transmitting a signal and, again, will need replacing.

4. External siren goes off randomly.

This is usually because a tamper switch on the siren is not closing properly when the outer lid is put on.

On the round sirens, there are two tamper switches, which both need to be closed by depressing springs which are attached to them. You can hear the click of the tamper switch closing when you press the spring. There is one on the back of the siren, which should be closed when the siren is fitted to the wall, and one on the front which is closed by fitting the lid. Check the back spring isn't sitting in a deep mortar line or in a deep recess in a stone block. That's normally ok - it's the front switch that generally causes a problem. That's because, in my opinion, the spring which closes the front tamper switch is just a fraction too short, so sometimes the lid fails to put enough pressure on the spring to close the switch when the lid is fitted. 

The way to prevent this problem is to pull the front spring off the switch and gently stretch it out and extend its length by half an inch. Then, when the spring is pushed back onto the switch, it will press more firmly on it when the lid is closed. This is something I do on every round siren I fit, and every time I change siren batteries, as a precautionary measure.

If you have a rectangular siren, there is a single tamper switch which relies on being pressed from the back and the front at the same time in order to close. And again, it's possible that, if the underside of the switch sits in a deep mortar line, the switch won't close and the siren will remain in tamper - and will randomly trigger. So another preventative measure I always take is to bend up slightly the flat metal rod which closes the switch when the lid is fitted. This has the same effect as stretching the spring in the round sirens, ensuring there's a solid push on the tamper switch to make it close positively.

Note: switch the siren off while working on the tamper switches.

5. The app randomly logs me out. 

Firstly, check you have a clean version of the app by deleting it and installing it again. Then make sure each user has a separate account and is using their own email to log in. Using the same account to log in across different devices is usually the cause of random logouts. 

6. PIRs (motion detectors) don't trigger the alarm

Firstly, have you fitted pet-friendly PIRs? If so, these PIRs are calibrated to work best at 2m height, which is considerably lower than most ceilings in UK houses. If they are to pick up human intruders but not cats and dogs, the 2m height restriction is a must. Above that, the PIR will not detect all movement, and will be particularly blind if you're moving within a few metres of the sensor. If it's necessary to fit a pet-friendly PIR a little higher than 2m, it's a good idea to put some packing behind it so it angles slightly down, although this should not be too great an angle because there's a danger of pets coming into the detection field.

If your sensors are standard PIRs, you're unlikely to fit them too high. What you might be experiencing is the battery saving feature that most wireless PIRs have. A Yale PIR will trigger when it detects movement, whether the alarm is armed or not. The control unit simply ignores the signal if it's not armed. But when the PIR has signalled, it shuts down and goes to sleep for the next 60 seconds. This is to save battery life by only signalling once even if there are many instances of movement in front of it. So if you arm the alarm AFTER you have walked in front of a PIR, it's highly likely it will be asleep when the alarm countdown finishes, so moving in front of it will not trigger the sensor. 

To test an individual PIR, stay out of the room it's protecting for at least a minute, and then arm the alarm. The sensor then ought to trigger an alarm when you walk into the room with the alarm armed.

7. My keypad doesn't arm the alarm.

I have to press the arm button a few times to get it to work.

Check there isn't a fault on the system (low battery somewhere) or that there is not a door or window sensor in the open position. This may be the front door that's open as you're about to walk through it. What you're experiencing is a warning that there may be an issue. Yale alarms can be armed by simply pressing the arm button on the keypad. When this doesn't start the arm countdown and, say, you know it's because you have a low battery somewhere or the front door is already open, simply wait a couple of seconds and press the arm button again, to override the warning. This overriding is called 'force arming'. 

8. My keypad doesn't disarm the system. 

Are you using the correct sequence? You need to press the disarm button first before entering your code. 

9. My Yale smart alarm hub is offline and appears to be frozen. 

Restart the hub by turning the power off and ALSO switching the internal backup battery off. The switch is under a rubber cover next to where the power lead plugs in. There should be no lights on the hub. Switch the backup battery back on and then switch the

mains power back on. Check that the ethernet cable is connecting the hub to your router, and that the hub shows a green light once the power is restored. 

10. My siren bleeps 5 times when I'm arming the alarm.

This is usually due to batteries becoming weak and needing to be replaced. It can also indicate that a siren tamper switch is not closed and therefore likely to false alarm.