Driveway alarms

[heehaw]

didn't think of that, but no low e: triple pane aluminum frame: that 250 ft has been the max reliable distance for the 2 reporter alarms too: i was hoping one of them would go the full 500 ft of my drive, but haven't found one that will yet..
couple other comments: the first alarm i got from lowes, falsed every couple minutes, no matter what: i returned it, the next one, which is the one i still have, i mounted to a maple tree, thats about 14-16 inches in diameter, and the unit falsed constantly if the wind was blowing, so i moved it to a fence post which worked fine, then when i had to move it closer, i used the stake that came with the alarm, and it works fine.
heehaw

 

[Mosey]

I have my GE Driveway Monitor installed now. It's about 150' from the house. The receiver is in the middle of the house and it's a brick house. It's been working good. I have the sensor about 6' from the edge of the driveway (I mounted it on a tree so I didn't have another thing to mow around). It misses if I drive on the far side of the driveway with my Jeep CJ5, which is real narrow, but otherwise it hasn't missed yet.

The funny thing about it is that it says it will alert you if someone comes up your driveway while you are gone. But, you have to reset the thing before you leave, then it will trigger it when you drive out the driveway as you're leaving, so it's really useless in that respect!

 

[heehaw]

yeah, i decided they thought we should drive out, then walk back and reset the alarm? mine has functioned flawlessly since i put it at the 120ft location: i am still messin with the 2 reporters i have to see why one of them misses almost every car. and its the closest one to the house.
it sure beats having someone knock on the door, when you don't know anyone is around.
heehaw

 

[Panache]

On my GE, if the batteries in the remote get low it starts falsing every few minutes even if the cheap battery tester I have says the battery is still good. Replaced the batterys and falsing went away for a while.

 

[heehaw]

i changed the batteries in one of the reporter units i have yesterday, and it quit missing so many vehicles: with the other reporter, i remounted it with more of an angle to the driveway, and that seems to have helped a lot. the magnetic sensor model from lowes, a ge unit, has worked flawlessly at 120ft: i may move it a little further away and see where it starts missing. sure wish one would work at 500ft!!
heehaw

 

[heehaw]

i moved the ge unit out to about 260 ft yesterday: it missed my daughters car coming in this morning: go it going back out but thats one miss at that distance: have had no misses at all at the 120 ft distance:
heehaw

 

[Mosey]

My GE Driveway Monitor has been working real good. Hasn't missed yet. I haven't tested it with a "car" yet though. Everyone so far has been driving a pickup or SUV. My Jeep CJ-5 is small, but it's a 78 model, so it's all metal. I don't know if a modern compact car (with a lot of plastic) will trigger it or not.

 

[mdbarb]

check this out: http://www.smarthome.com/7171.html
I use it placed about 400' from my home and it has worked fine for about two years now. The nice thing is it will not send false alarms for deer.

 

[heehaw]

works like the GE unit does, the best part is they don't false on animals. if it goes off, there is a vehicle: the problem comes with the range, they all say "up to" 500 ft.! now i haven't tried raising the height of the sensor, i may try that and see if it increases the range. right now at about 240 ft. it misses an occasional vehicle, especially my wifes white camry.
heehaw

 

[Mosey]

OK, the GE Driveway Monitor's perfect record was ruined yesterday. It missed a UPS truck, both coming and going! I don't get it? Why would it miss a big UPS truck and not miss pickups and my Jeep? I'm very disappointed, since the UPS truck was one of the main things I wanted to be notified about. Are they made of plastic or something?

 

[heehaw]

welcome to the world of the unexplained. could be the speed of the truck?
heehaw

 

[Mosey]

heehaw - I tried driving past kind of fast with my pickup and it worked, so I don't think it was the speed. I moved the sensor up about 7" higher, maybe that will help. It did sense a regular car the other day, but that was before I moved it up. Hopefully it will still work on a car and maybe now it will sense the UPS truck. I guess I need to order a new accessory for my tractor so UPS can deliver it and test the Driveway Monitor!

 

[heehaw]

as i have mentioned before, i have 2 reporters, and one ge alert: have been moving them around for almost a year, and they all still miss occasionally; my daughter just came down the drive in her 97 merc van: the first reporter missed her, but the ge and other reporter worked. they all tend to miss my wifes white camry: if i can ever locate one that uses the line across the drive like the service stations use to have, i may try that.
heehaw

 

[Panache]

Heehaw, you mean like this?

 

[heehaw]

thats it, just what i have been looking for, thanks, i will contact the co. if they are anywhere near, even 25% correct with thier transmission distance,it would work to the end of my driveway. at $155 that will be the next thing i save for.
thanks
heehaw

 

[Panache]

I am looking at their wired units for when I build in the country. The two sensor unit which knows in vs out looks promissing. I think wired vs wireless is a tradeoff.

 

[heehaw]

i have another brand of alarm, but the motion sensor quit working, i looked it over and it a place to install a switch closure to activate the alarm, so i may try to get one of the lines that lays across the drive and hook to this alarm and see how that works.
heehaw

 

[Mosey]

The GE Driveway Monitor gradually got worse. When the weather got cold (and it's been a mild winter) it started needing new batteries every 3 weeks! Even with new batteries, it was inconsistant. I found out it has to be within a couple feet of the edge of the driveway, then it worked better. I didn't like it there because it stuck out like a sore thumb and I wanted it somewhat hidden. I ended up taking it back to Lowes and got a refund. I still had the receipt, so Lowes took it back even after 6 months. So, it's back to the drawing board on driveway monitors.

 

[Panache]

My Lowes/GE alarm also went belly up. Contacted GE. they replaced it. Still no luck as getting the replacment working. decided I liked the way it worked ok but just not the unit I bought this instead. More money but none of the problems yet.

 

[BILLYFNEW]

I purchased a GE driveway monitor from Lowes some time back after reading this column. The unit worked perfectly for about three months. Then started beaping every one or two minutes continously. I replaced the batteries and repositioned it in another location along the drive. This did not correct the problem of the false beeping, so I returned it to Lowes and got another unit. The second unit worked perfectly upon installation but at the end of about three months it too also started falsely beeping every one or two minutes. I again replaced the batteries and reinstalled it in another spot along the drive, but this did not help at all.

So my experience has been that the unit works well but for only about three months.

Bill