Another feature that is found in most home alarm systems, including the ADT home alarm systems, is the door chime. This feature will emit a tone every time a door or a window in the protected area is opened when the arm/disarm button is pressed. This helps inform you of a stranger’s entrance even when the main alarm is not activated. Turning on the door chime is quite often very easy. In this guide, you will learn how to enable the door chime and set it up on an ADT alarm panel, as well as potential issues to avoid.

Finding Your ADT Home Alarm Control Panel The first thing that needs to be done is to find your ADT alarm system panel. In most homes, this panel is mounted in a place that is easily visible from most rooms and a common area like an entryway, hallway, or utility area is an ideal place to mount this panel. It may be high or low on the wall and it is very important to plan where the studs are located in the wall. The panel will have a keypad and a display that will allow the users to control the various functions within the room. Various models of ADT panels exist on the market, however, their basic functioning and usage when it comes to setting something like the door chime does not differ.

Determine Panel Model After that, you must try and find out the kind of alarm panel that you are using. Somewhere on that panel be it above, below, or at the side there must be a label, name, or logo showing the model. Safewatch Pro 3000, Safewatch Pro Custom, ADC 1500, 1600, 3000, and more are some of the popular models in use. But if you know the exact model you are dealing with it will help you to follow the instructions to the letter but the chime setting process in most panels is quite similar.

Disarm Your System In case the alarm system is currently armed, all you will have to do is disarm it before you change its settings. To manually neutralize the system on the keypad, input your normal user access code. The keypad beeps and displays something like “System Disarmed Ready to Arm”. This will ensure that there is a message displayed on the screen alerting those around that the system is disarmed.

Access Toolbox Menu Following that you will enter the alarm system toolbox menu. This is where you turn and configure various options as you see in the box below depending on the car model, options, and year for the door chime among others. In most of the panels, 1 and 3 buttons are used for a brief period to turn on the toolbox mode. If you can successfully access the keypad, it will include the “Toolbox Menu” at the top of the keypad.

Enable Chime With the toolbox menu on the screen, move your cursor with the arrow keys and when you see the word “Chime” highlight the toolbox menu with the Select key on the pad of the keypad. Press the arrow keys once more to set the option to either OFF or ON, depending on the chime feature. Selecting “On” will result in the activation of door chimes.

Set Chime Tone This option is still in the toolbox menu, if pressed, use the arrow keys to scroll and to highlight the “Chime Tone”. Press Select. Here are some of the options you are bound to come across such as Continuous, 6 Brief, 3 Groups, and Discontinuous. Emphasize the one you wish to indicate or set the style of chime tone that will go with the feature whenever it is activated. Continuous is a steady ringing sound while the others are different sorts of broken patterns of shorter ringing sound or just a ding.

Fixed Which Contacts Will Chime ADT panels give you the option of which of your protected points (doors, windows, motion sensors, etc. ) will sound the chime when opened. Go down to the Chime on the Open option and point at it with the light. Press Select. Now use the arrow keys again to switch on and off single contact/zone such as the front door or the back door or the living room motion etc. Switch on the ones which are to chime when opened and this will be when the system is turned off.

Exit and Test Chime After you set the chime feature to ‘on’, select the tone, and choose the contacts you can go back to the main program. The Exit option is the last one at the bottom of the list from the menu of the toolbox. To exit from the Keypad screen just press the Select button written below the word Exit. This shall bring you back to the normal unarmed system state or condition. Open a protected entry door or window and ensure the preselected chime tone is heard and is briefly audible to confirm it functions well.

Changing Chime Settings Later To alter those settings later, just follow the same steps while using the toolbox and moving the sliders to the desired positions. This is how you can toggle the ring chime feature on or off. You can also change which doors, motions, or windows will activate the chime if necessary over time due to other factors. You can simply make your way back to the chime menu sections again by entering toolbox mode anytime.

Troubleshooting Chimes This is especially so if the door chime is not working, meaning you need to ensure that it is in toolbox mode. Check and ensure that the specific contact (door, window, motion, etc) triggering the problem is set to chime when opened. If a zone rings but the one in question remains silent, turn to the toolbox and check that the specified zone is set to “On” for ringing. Also, check for any sign of trouble or fault and if you find one or if you are having issues with your chime, contact ADT support.

Advantages of Door Chimes Using the chime feature offers helpful advantages: 

  • Informs you when somebody gets in while the alarm system is turned off
  • Reminds you of doors or windows that you have opened and left ajar.
  • Sounds of kids opening doors at night to sneak out of the house or sneak someone into the house
  • Sounds an audible alarm if an intruder approaches even if the alarm has not been turned on to the highest level.

Therefore, just as a reminder, set some time aside to use the control menu of the ADT alarm system toolbox to enable the door chime. In this case, you can change the tone and the zones to achieve the best results. The chime provides an easy method of keeping tabs on movement and potential entry points in your home even if the armed security system isn’t entirely active. As a free service, incredibly convenient, and adaptable, it is a helpful addition to your running security.

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