Why Is My Pressure Alarm Mat Chirping?

The Solution: 
Replace your batteries. Make sure you're using new batteries; ones that have been sitting in a box for some time may have self-discharged.

The Story:

We are frequently asked, "Why is my pressure mat alarm chirping?". More specifically, we receive customer tickets like the one below:

I have owned one of your pressure mat alarms to alert me when my dog is at the door for a while, and it works great. So I bought a new one this week. When I plug the battery in, it just chirps nonstop. So I ordered a new one planning to send the first back. The second one does the same thing. Looking at reviews it seems that you are having this problem. So, I would like to get one that actually works!

And that's an understandable response. We get it frequently enough that we had to do some thorough investigation. These alarm systems see many use cases: customers use them as pet mats, door mats, welcome mats, an addition to their home security systems, or a way to keep tabs on family members with impairments and ensure their safety. That last point prompted our months of testing to recreate our customers' issues - we don't want to offer a product that promises safety and have it fall short of expectations.

Anyways - months of testing, and some back-and-forth with customers who were willing to send us their pressure mats for us to experiment with. Alas, we had no luck recreating their issues - the mats they sent us worked fine, and as soon as we'd send new mats back, they'd face the same problem - the pressure mat would chirp on the chime setting, even if it wasn't being used.

To make a long story short, here's the solution we eventually realized - the pressure mat chirps on the chime setting if the battery is dying.

Here's the response to that exact same ticket quoted above, when we discovered the solution:

Aha! Yes, you're right, the battery was dead. I pulled it out of a box of new batteries, but it turns out several in that box were dead. They must have shorted out. Thanks for your help. Love the mat!

That's all there is to it. If your mat is chirping or emitting false alarms, please change out the batteries. If your unit came with a battery, it may be a victim of self-discharge. Batteries have a natural rate of self-discharge, meaning they lose power even when they are not in use.