Driveway alarms

heehaw · Aug 27, 2005

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

Mosey · Aug 29, 2005

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 · Aug 30, 2005

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 · Aug 31, 2005

Heehaw, you mean like this?

heehaw · Aug 31, 2005

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 · Aug 31, 2005

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 · Sep 1, 2005

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 · Jan 30, 2006

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 · Jan 31, 2006

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 · Mar 6, 2006

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