Testing to ensure your home security system is communicating properly with Guardian’s monitoring center is extremely important. Be sure to test your system once a month. Additionally, we recommend testing in these circumstances:
- After remodeling or making renovations to your home
- After making changes to your telephone landline/internet/broadband service
- Before going on vacation
Why You Need to Put Your System on Test Mode
We recommend that you place your system on test mode when you are testing, relocating, or troubleshooting a device on your system. Test mode will ensure that any signals sent to our monitoring center will be disregarded while you are working on your system.
Taking this step will also prevent accidental alarms and unnecessary dispatch of authorities.
What is a Reminder to Test Notification
If you received a notification about a reminder to test, it means that your system has been in communication failure, and your system may not be sending signals to our monitoring center. We recommend testing your system right away. If a signal is received successfully, you can rest assured that your system is transmitting properly.
If you can’t test your system right away, be sure to test at your earliest convenience. If you are experiencing an emergency while your system is having communication trouble, please call 911.
How Testing Works
To help ensure that your home security system is communicating, the system automatically sends a silent signal from your security panel to the monitoring center on a regular basis. Frequency is determined by the system type, and we recommend manually testing the system at least once a month to ensure the devices in the home are working and communicating properly. Guardian will notify you if your system fails to communicate.
If you test your home security system on your own, you can know immediately if it is communicating to the monitoring center. You can choose to do a partial test or a full test. A partial test is done by placing the system in alarm or initiating the communication test from the keypad. This tells you whether your security panel is communicating with the monitoring center. A full test tells you whether all devices that signal the monitoring center — such as keypads, monitored door and window sensors, motion sensors, and heat and smoke detectors — are communicating. A full test is an especially good idea if you have had any work done, as described above.
It is simple to test your home security system by logging into your Guardian account here. When you test your system online, you will see a message telling you the last time your system was tested. Remember that cameras, including video doorbells, can only be tested by personally viewing them and not by this method.
Steps for Testing Your System
It’s very important to test your system once a month to make sure it’s communicating with our monitoring center. Here are the simple step-by-step instructions:
- Log into your Guardian account either on desktop or through our mobile app.
- Choose My System.
- Next, choose Test.
- Please be sure to read the full instructions before placing your system in test mode and let the system siren sound for the recommended 60 seconds.
Once you’ve tested, make sure to check that your test signal was received. If it wasn’t, give us a call at 1.800.PROTECT (1.800.776.8328) so we can help. You can learn more about how to test your system (and why you should) here.
How to Test Your Motion Sensor
When testing your motion detector, be sure to arm your system in Away mode so the motion detectors are armed. Also, try to stay clear of the motion detector you are testing for about five minutes prior to starting the test. You can place your system on test by logging into your Guardian account.
How to Remove Your System from Test Mode
To remove your system from test mode, simply end the test or the system will automatically be taken off of test mode after 4 hours. You will receive an email once your system has been removed from test mode.
You can also call our monitoring center at 1.800.364.3616 to remove the system from test mode.