Panel placement change saved me a callback today

I used to tuck alarm panels into tight closets or behind furniture to hide them. But today I put one in a hallway at eye level where the homeowner actually sees it, and it cut my troubleshooting time in half lol. The keypad feedback let me catch a bad zone sensor before I even drove away. Has anyone else tried moving panels to more visible spots on purpose?

3 comments

3 Comments

king.aaron1d ago

I actually heard a guy on a podcast talk about this exact thing. He said he started mounting panels in mudrooms or laundry rooms near the main entry door and it cut his service calls by like 30%. Something about homeowners being able to glance at the panel when they walk in and notice a trouble light before it becomes a big problem. I tried it on a job last week where I put a Qolsys panel in the kitchen right next to the coffee maker and the customer texted me the same day to say she saw a low battery warning she would have missed otherwise. Kinda makes me wonder why we ever hid them in the first place.

mila_brown1019h ago

Pretty sure Qolsys panels don't have a trouble light in the traditional sense though. Most of them just show a notification on the touchscreen, which is basically the same thing but not quite a blinking LED. Still a good point about putting them where people actually see them.

king.aaron19h ago

Question whether it's really that big of a deal though. I've had panels in closets for years and most homeowners either set the chime loud or just check their phone app for alerts. Feels like we might be overthinking placement when the real problem is customers ignoring their systems.