Glass Break Sensors

Smash! Because of your good sense in fitting quality window locks, Mr. Burglar has no option but to break the glass if he wants to get into your home through your window.

Mr. Burglar has checked things out and he is pretty sure that your neighbors are not at home and there is not much chance of anyone hearing the tinkle of breaking glass. Perhaps he waits until there is passing traffic to cover the sound a little.

Now imagine that glass break sensors protect your windows. As soon as Mr. Burglar smashes the glass your monitored security system receives a signal and the authorities are alerted. At the same time a siren sounds and spooks the intruder, he doesn’t want to hang around with that noise whether he thinks your neighbors are at home or not.

Perhaps you remember the foil strip glass break detectors. These foil strips were fixed around the perimeter of the glass and looked on the ugly side to say the least.

If the glass was broken so too were the thin foil strips and this sent a signal to the security system's control panel. Each pane of glass had to have its own detector, which made the job of protecting your windows both time consuming and expensive.

Glass break sensors are available for hardwired and wireless home security systems.

The next type of glass break detectors to appear on the market were a bit of an improvement on the foil strips. They were smaller and slightly less noticeable and worked in a substantially different way.

These sensors worked by detecting the vibrations given out by breaking glass, which was a heap better than relying on a strip of foil tearing. Trouble was a whole lot of other things could set those sensors off, such as a passing truck or a slamming door. Not only that but you still had to have one glass break sensor for each pane.

Eventually glass break detectors were developed that did not depend on detecting the vibration of a breaking windowpane, but rather the actual sound of breaking glass. These work well and produce far fewer false alarms. However some false alarms still occur because the sensor can occasionally confuse the sound of two drinking glasses clinking together, or a similar sound, with the tinkling of breaking glass. Glass breaking detectors that trigger only with the sound of breaking glass are known as Single Technology sensors.

These Dual sensors combine sound detection (acoustic discrimination) and vibration detection in a single unit. For a burglar to break your window he has to hit it and so there will be vibration caused by the thud, and the actual sound of the glass breaking. Both have to be detected for a Dual Technology glass breaking alarm sensor to activate. This belt and braces technology prevents false alarms through the sensor mistaking some other tinkling sound with breaking glass.

But the biggest advantage that acoustic glass breaking sensors, whether single or dual technology, have over older style sensors is that usually you only need one sensor per room and not one for each window pane.

With the older glass break alarms you needed one sensor per pane, so the ability to use just one acoustic sensor unit per room can give you a real saving, even though each unit cost $50 to $150. They are available for both hardwired and wireless home security systems.

Whereas PIR motion sensors detect an intruder moving around inside your home, glass break sensors trigger your alarm system before the burglar gets inside. You may be left with a broken window but that is a heck of a lot better than suffering a burglary.

Find Glass Break Sensors at Amazon.com

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