Looked up the failure rate on wireless sensors yesterday and it messed with my head

I was double checking a manual for a DSC system and stumbled on some testing numbers from 2021. Turns out wireless sensors have about a 3% failure rate over 5 years compared to wired at under 1%. I always figured wireless was close enough but now I'm rethinking a few jobs I bid out last month. Has anyone else seen real world failures that match those stats?

2 comments

2 Comments

willow2442d agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, I don't know, 3% over 5 years really isn't that wild when you think about it. Most people's wifi routers drop connection way more than that without anyone losing sleep. I'd bet a lot of those failures are just dead batteries that get swapped out anyway, not the sensors actually breaking.

the_miles1d ago

3% over 5 years means for a typical 30-sensor install you've got almost a 1 in 1 chance one of them will flake out. And no, it's not just dead batteries, I've seen transmitters straight up lose sync with the panel for no reason. Replacing a bad sensor after the drywall is up costs way more than running wire in the first place.