Chamberlain Group CWA2000 Chamberlain Driveway Alert, Black

We have a female cat who unfortunately attracts a lot of Tom Cats. Even though she's been desexed still attracts the toms. And toms like to spray. It smells worse than a public urinal on a hot day. Our cat is only small so often leave my sliding door open just enough for her to come and go and have some where to escape from unwanted attention. Yeh, I spoil her. Not too long ago she attracted the attention of a particularly determined tom. Now I love cats and would never do anything to hurt one no matter what. But in an effort to deter them I use a can of cheap fly spray. The sound is a bit like a cat hissing and the chemical smell is very unpleasant. It worked for years until this particular cat came into our area. No matter what I did even throwing a tennis ball in its direction when I was lucky enough to catch it. I live in a sort of granny flat detached from the main house. The entry is by a sliding door. So at night when I left the door open just enough for our cat to come and go this tom started coming in and spraying. He would spray all around the doorway in and outside. Around the outside of my room and on the walls of the main house. On the water tanks. On the cars. Anyway this tom got quicker and sneakier and short of installing an expensive video surveillance system there was no way I was going to catch it until I setup a Chamberlain motion sensor system. I bought three extra sensors with the main unit giving me four altogether. So far I've only needed to setup three though. Which has given me fair warning when there are cats around and according to how many beeps I know from which direction they are coming from. So now all cats keep their distance and pretty much stay off the property and patrol the perimeter. So for the price I paid for the whole setup it's been an absolute bargain and works better than I expected considering some of the negative reviews I had read prior to buying it. All units take four AA batteries and the main unit has a transformer for using mains power. I live in Australia so had to buy another transformer to suit our power system which is a bit higher than U.S. Only cost $20 more. Still a bargain. As far as setting it up goes it's pretty easy. The instruction manual is very basic. Just a printed and folded sheet of paper. All you have to do is with the motion sensor close to the base station is press the learn button on the base and within 60 seconds press the learn button on the inside of the motion sensor after installing the batteries. And make sure you get them all the right way round or it will make the base station beep every ten seconds or so. Be careful not to nip the antennae when you fasten the cover of the motion sensors. I left all the settings on the two switches in the motion sensors at default. And I thought the volume adjustment was just right for my application. As the Base Unit had battery power as well as mains I could always unplug and keep it in close proximity when needed. As I gained confidence I had the cats under control I didn't have to worry about keeping it with me. As the motion sensors were never more than 10 to 15 meters from the base at any given time never had a problem with distance.

Although I just set this unit up today, I just wanted to write up a quick review of a few things I learned or think might be helpful for others that own this unit or and considering purchasing it. So far I am very impressed with this unit. I will update my review after I spend some more time with the unit. As for my setup. I have this unit setup on a remote heavily wooded 40 acres. The air temperature here is currently -33 F. My driveway is 1,300 feet long. I have the PIR sensor (motion sensor) mounted 4 feet high on the trunk of a tree. I have the base unit sitting on my kitchen counter approximately 1,000 feet from the PIR sensor. I do not have the base unit by a window. I have it stuck in the corner on top of my counter. It is too cold out right now to measure the exact distance between the base unit and the PIR sensor, but 1,000 feet is a very good estimate. As I said before the acreage is heavily wooded. The woods are so thick that in the winter with all the leaves off the trees you are still hard pressed to even see 30 feet into the woods. The unit works excellent in these conditions! I was actually very surprised because of the cold temperatures, distance between the base unit and the PIR sensor and the fact that I have nothing even close to line of sight between the two. As for the test. I drove my ATV up and down the driveway three times and every single time it signaled an alert. I used my cell phone to tap into an IP cameras microphone I have in the kitchen by the base unit and could hear the alert tone come from the base. The base never signaled an alert while driving toward the PIR sensor but did signal every time I drove away from the sensor. More on this later. The take away from this. The unit has OUTSTANDING range at my 1,000 foot distance. In cold climates such as mine, use Lithium ion batteries. Normal alkaline batteries (lose power) in cold conditions. Although lithium ion batteries are a little more expensive they are absolutely critical in cold conditions so don't cheap out on this!!! Now finally positioning and understanding of how the PIR sensor (motion sensor) works are also critical. The PIR sensor detects inferred radiation. The best way to explain what that means is to think of the PIR sensor as a sensor that actually doesn't detect motion but detects heat motion. The PIR sensor looks for something in its view that is a different temperature from its surroundings. This gets back to why the PIR sensor did not detect me driving an ATV toward the PIR sensor but detected the ATV every time when I drove away from the PIR sensor. The PIR sensor could not detect any temperature differences between me and the ATV I was driving and the surrounding temperature. The ATV is parked in a unheated garage so the entire ATV is the same temperature as the surroundings.......-33 degrees F. The PIR sensor didn't detect me while driving the ATV either because I was wearing boots, snow pants, jacket, gloves and face mask. All of these coverings were also -33 degrees F. Making my temperature the same as my surroundings. The PIR sensor did however detect me driving the ATV away from the PIR sensor after passing it. This is because the PIR sensor had a clear view of the exhaust and exhaust pipe system which was probably a couple hundred degrees hotter than the surrounding tempature therefore triggering an alert. The biggest mistake I see people making with this unit is positioning the PIR sensor at 90 degree angle to the driveway. Try positioning the PIR sensor to have a view up the driveway to maximize the time the vehicle is in the view of the PIR sensor and it also gives the PIR sensor a good view of the back of the vehicle to detect the heat signatures coming off the exhaust system of the vehicle. I will try to clean up this review up soon. Sorry if it's a little choppy. I am writing it with my three little rug rats running all over the place.

I'm not sure just why I'm bothering to write this,(I usually wouldn't) but in the light of, (in my opinion)a number of unfair reviews, my latent altruism won out. I have had a 'Reporter' alarm (with two sensors)for the past fifteen years. It still operates well, or rather, did until I backed my truck into one of the sensors. I was left with only one that worked, and in my situation, this was not going to be satisfactory. A workable system needs a minimum of two sensors because this allows for a 'sequence' of signals to be signalled at the base station and makes 'false' alarms (caused mainly by animals) easy to recognize. If I hear any one of my three sensors activate I try not to be too concerned but listen-out for the next one. Any animal setting the alarm off is unlikely to set another (different) sensor off as well. A progression of beeps is a sure sign that a human is coming. I have the 'three buzzer' set as the first one in my driveway. This, hopefully stirs me if I'm asleep - and I'm awake enough to hear the next 'two beep' then 'one beep'. It's possible you might wake to a single beep, but you probably won't hear the one that wakes you. So, you just lie there,zombie-like, wondering why you're awake. Then, it's likely you won't hear anything else until it beeps, ten minutes later as they depart with your possessions. This why more than one sensor is a good idea. I have read other reviews, complaining about lack of range etc, but can only say this - the sensors require a bit of 'fiddling' to find the best positions,heights and angles, etc. They do seem to work best, about car wheel/exhaust-height and angled obliquely across a driveway to catch the rear of any approaching vehicle, as it passes. They also need to be as close as possible to the roadway and preferably where a vehicle naturally slows down. Sometimes, when I drive out of my property and the vehicle isn't 'warm' I can get past the sensors without them detecting me. This isn't a big deal, because most intruders will probably turn up, coming the other way, in 'hot' vehicles. Or they'll be walking and spend more time passing the sensor than a car would. And don't worry about 'disguising' the sensors - people just don't seem to notice them, even when I point them out. And although they 'blink' when activated, they blink after the vehicle/person has passed. I know these things are arguable, but I've had great trouble-free service from a set up like this for fifteen years. The only thing I have to do reasonably regularly is clear spiders out of the sensor window - they just seem to like to make it home. My signal (from the new Chamberlain)seems to easily get back to the base from the farthest sensor, a quarter mile away through trees and shrubs. Criticisms regarding the difficulty in replacing batteries aren't really justified, in my opinion. Using good-quality AA batteries the sensor can actually go for years without attention. And there is a 'warning' when batteries are running low. Replacing batteries is easily done, without removing the unit, by unscrewing the four screws on the front panel. Make sure they're tight otherwise water might get into the electronics. One small difficulty I have found is that the clip carrying the batteries can slop around inside the unit. This can cause a bit of head-scratching if the tiny connector that links the batteries with the circuit- board loosens, making the sensor appear dead. This happened to me with one of the units.To overcome the 'slop' I packed a small wad of paper inside the box to prevent any movement of this battery pack. I have seen other contributors be very critical about the lack of volume coming from the base as it 'beeps'. To me, this is not the problem. At night, when you really want to hear it whenever it sounds, it is audible enough - the problem is more the fact that the beep isn't 'distinctive' enough. The beep sounds like a large number of other beeps made by various appliances around the house- dishwasher, washing machine, microwave, etc. If you are relying on picking-up just a single beep it could be very difficult to differentiate from other very similar ones. The old 'Reporter' was only a little louder than the Chamberlain but it had what could be called a 'unique buzz' -it was distinctive and noticeable and if it was any louder might've almost been annoying. So, all in all, I think that this unit is good value for the money but would be so much better if it sounded-off with a 'buzz' like the old model, rather than a 'chirp'. The only real criticism I'd make is that the product description does not make it at all clear that there is one sensor as part of the package, along with the base unit. Calling the System 'black' and then showing only the base as black (and the sensor beige)adds to the confusion. (Or did I miss something somewhere?) The other thing not made clear is that there is a 'transformer' unit with the package, allowing the base to run from a power outlet. Is this sometimes not included because I notice some customers complaining about how quickly it empties batteries? The batteries, I thought were just for emergency backup and personally I wouldn't worry about batteries in the base unit, unless that was the only option. ps. Great service too. I received the parcel in New Zealand (by the cheapest ordinary freight)five days after I ordered it. Well, done Amazon.

I have owned/installed 7 of these systems at my childrens/my home over the last 15 years, all the way back to the original "Reporter" models. The original Reporter had circuit boards made in the USA (printed on the boards). They all worked great at far distances. I could easily get a full 1300 feet(unobstructed view)of reception even though they only claimed they were good for 1000'. About 4-5 years ago Chamberlain company bought Reporter. Unfortunatly this is the same time I had to replace my old/original units (from weather/sun fatigue) of approx 10 years usage. The new units I ordered had the same transmitter (field unit) case cover and a slightly differnt receiver (house unit) cover, but the circuit bords were all made in China (printed right on the boards). These units were terrible. I tested 6 of these transmitters, each with an unobstructed view. The maximum reception I could get was 400' on one and only 150'/200' on all the other transmitters. All new fresh/expensive Li-Ion batteries here too, so no low voltage excuses. Quality control of these circuit boars is the big issue here!!!! So I ended up moving them very close to my house. I have lived with those for several years (not good). I just received 2 new sets of this new CWA2000 model on 8-24-2012. I tested both systems side by side on the exact same spot I have used for the last 15 years. These work even better than the original Reporter units. Upon inspection I see the units were assembled in Mexico on 7-25-21012 (yes, just 1 month ago!), so they are the latest/freshest you can get. No made in stamp on the boards, just on the outer plastic receiver case. With only a 1 month duration between assembly and delivery, it is very likely these circuit boards are made in the USA or Mexico. If they came from China there would be at least a 3 month delay. So bottom line, these new units work excellent! I just orderd several more sets for my kids homes (Christmas presents for all). To Note: New base unit in the house is smaller (nicer than old unit). Buzzer sound has changed. It is now more of a long, high pitched squeal (O.K.) rather than the old loud buzzzzzzzzzz, but plenty of volume to hear anywhere thru my large 3600 sq.ft. single level home. No relay outputs for a relay connection to an external bell or light, but with the Head units being so low in price now, just buy two systems if you want an additional Alarm sound elsewhere in your house/garage/shop. You can program the transmitters to more than 1 Head unit. That is what I did, so I hear when I'm out working in my detached shop.

Depending on how you have security configured at your home can change a lot of things. I have security cameras.....yes they have motion alert options, BUT I do not have them set to alert me. This is due to the constant false alarms. The camera system is great, but it doesnt tell me when someone is here. This little set up does.....I have it mounted to my wood fence. The beam goes from the fence across my one off street parking space to my garage. This does three things for me....it alerts when someone tries to access the side door of my garage, the lady's car parked in the off street spot and the gate to my yard. It does not and will not go off unless someone breaks that area....no birds etc bother it. Within the first month of having it I believe it saved me and for sure the thief from injury. While getting ready for work one day it started beeping like crazy, I had not yet experienced it to behave this way. I grabbed the ipad and checked my security cameras....just as I loaded them up all I could see was my gate swinging open and the head of a person going out of frame towards my back door. I was able to stop this person from entering my home where he was getting ready to try my side window. Mind you I was armed so had he entered not knowing I was here he most likely would have suffered the grave consequences of burglary, but luckily for him this device made me aware of his presence. Also could have saved me from who knows what had that have played out. Great device, range is great I have it mounted probably 25-30 yards from my house and the base station stays connected from everywhere inside of my two story home. If it dies tomorrow Ill replace it with another immediately!

Well, where to start. Does this system work as advertised? Yes - if you want to use this unit to protect only a zone or two then you're fine and you can ignore the rest of this review. However, if you want to use this in MULTIPLE ZONES then it does have some SERIOUS design limitations you should be aware of before you buy! I have an 8 transmitter (the maximum) and 2 receiver set up and based on about 6 months of use here's what I've learned: Pros: This works well, and my entire property is protected against the occasional animal and delivery driver. The receivers are not too sensitive and seem to only pick up vehicles, and reasonably large animals like big dogs and deer as long as you have the transmitters placed at the recommended height. Cons: Well, there are many. Firstly, Chamberlain severely limited the usability of this system by choosing numbered BEEPS rather than an audible ZONE NUMBER for the warning signal (it would take NO MORE EFFORT AND LITTLE COST on their part to have a system say "Zone two" instead of beeping twice)! This whole system of beeps is complicated by the fact that Chamberlain elected to put NO DEMARCATION signal in the beep chain. So let's say the system beeps 6 times. Is that "Zone 6" that just went off or is "Zone 2" and "Zone 4" being triggered at the same time? YOU CAN'T TELL! You'll just hear 6 straight beeps because there's no separation between the two warnings in this example. To further complicate things, Chamberlain also elected not to put any inherent delay into the transmitter warnings. This results in the SAME zone being triggered multiple times back to back. So let's say the system beeps 4 times. Is that "Zone 4" that just went off or is it "Zone 2" that was triggered two times in a row?? Again, good luck trying to tell the difference because you'll just hear 4 beeps. Plus, the slow timing of the beeps means that you'll be waiting 8 - 10 seconds to determine that "Zone 8" was triggered and then god help you if that zone was triggered twice because then you'll hear 16 beeps in a row and will simply lose count and have to just check all of your zones anyway. Annoying, unsafe, and nearly unusable in certain scenarios. Additionally, individual zones can NOT be turned off in the evening so if you have a lot of deer that enter your property at night then prepare to be either woken up at all hours of the evening or simply decide to turn the entire system OFF at night rendering your little security system entirely useless to protect against the occasional late night visitor that decides to come up your driveway. Want to protect the driveway but ignore the back yard? Yeah, good luck with that. In many ways, it seems that the design team at Chamberlain was stocked by people that had ABSOLUTELY NO EXPERIENCE in designing a usable, multizone security system. Chamberlain has to SERIOUSLY RETHINK this product. I would recommend they (or a competitor!) do the following: 1) Alter this system to play a pre-recorded audio file indicating the zone number ("Zone 1", "Zone 3", etc) instead of beeps. This is the most frustrating part of the system and must be done to fix the usability problems inherent in a "beeping" scheme as outlined above. 2) Add 8 buttons (and LED's for each) to the base station so that INDIVIDUAL ZONES can be turned off when desired instead of having to turn the whole system off to avoid constant beeping from selected zones during peak periods. If Chamberlain hired some smarter people, they would even recommend that you add a 9th button for a "day/night" mode that would enable a user to program which zones they wanted to monitor in the day vs. the evening (think the DEER problem). 3) FIX YOUR TRANSMITTERS so that they cannot be over-triggered and send out multiple warnings back-to-back. A user-programmable delay would be great (5 seconds, 10 seconds...ANYTHING other than the way it is now). I shouldn't hear multiple warnings from the same transmitter in this way - it's distracting. So, consider carefully before you decide to purchase if this is really what you are looking for...

We first purchased the Guardline driveway alarm system on Amazon for $100. While the customer service was very good, the receiver would only alert us about 25% of the time. Our driveway where the sensor is placed is less the 150' from our home with no trees or obstacles between the sensor and the receiver and only one wall to clear. Despite many attempts to move the receiver even to a window the Guardline system was a fail for us. The solution suggested was to purchase another device called a repeater for an additional $60 to make the signal strength better. The sensor worked perfectly but the receiver would not pick up the signal inside our vinyl sided home through one wall. We returned that item and then purchased a very inexpensive 1byone driveway alarm for $16. That was a very cheaply manufactured unit that didn't work at all for us and was also returned. We next ordered this Chamberlain system and besides being the easiest of the three to set up it works great. Set up is super fast and easy and the signal is excellent. When trying all three systems we placed the sensor inside a bluebird house that is attached to a fence post at the end of our driveway so nothing changed when positioning each sensor we tried. We have had no false alarms so far and it has worked great right out of the box with no adjustments. As for the quality of materials used, the Chamberlain and Guardline systems are almost identical. While all are made of plastic the 1byone set was very low budget and flimsy. I preferred the alarm on the Guardline unit since there were many choices in sound and volume settings but we find that since the Chamberlain also has volume settings the highest level works great to be heard throughout our main floor without issue. Without a doubt the Chamberlain driveway alert has turned out to be the best option for us and at about 1/3 the cost of the Guardline system.

On January 14, 2017 I purchased this Alert System (base station & one (1) sensor) as well as three (3) additional sensors as I need four (4) sensors to cover my property. This was to replace a similar Chamberlain system I installed a number years ago that had stopped functioning. I programed all four (4) new sensors (the company calls ‘learning’) to the new base unit in exactly the same manner following the company’s instructions. Three (3) of the four (4) sensors worked but one (1) kept giving “false alarms”. To make sure that this NEW equipment was properly installed, I removed all four (4) sensors, re-programmed them (‘learning’ each sensor to the base station), and, re-installed all four (4) sensors. Once again, three (3) of the four (4) worked but the fourth sensor continued to give “false alarms” intermittently. I had to remove this sensor that first day/night as it set off for no reason even at 3 AM, which was no fun! As there was no need to return the entire system, I decided to call Chamberlain Customer Support and request a replacement sensor, offering to return this malfunctioning sensor. Approximately ten (10) emails were sent between myself and “George” in Chamberlain Support. Unfortunately, Chamberlain Support turned out to be just that; support for the Company but not Customer Support for the Consumer/Customer. The problem that occurred came about because I was always told that Chamberlain’s policy was not to replace any malfunctioning equipment nor even to discuss replacing any malfunctioning sensor until they could “troubleshoot” the problem over the phone. When I asked what this meant I was told this would require me uninstalling all four (4) sensors (which I had already installed twice) and talk to them over the phone to make sure that I had installed everything properly. Knowing that this would have the same results –the base station and three (3) of the four (4) sensors would work with one (1) sensor that would always give false alarms, I tried to reason with Chamberlain. I explained that at 74 years of age and semi-disabled, I had already expended all of the energy I could possibly muster and did not want to undertake what they wanted me to do so they could verbally ‘troubleshoot’ over the phone what was happening as it would be a third time for me and this did not make sense. This equipment was NEW and should work without having to perform the extensive physical activity they said they required before they would talk to me about sending me a replacement sensor. I tried to elevate this to a supervisor who I’d hoped would be more inclined to render some customer service but was told that although they all understood what I was saying, the same “troubleshooting” was required before anyone would assist me with my issue. However, here is the absurdity and the reason I am writing this review (something I have never done before). In one of the first of those many emails between myself and “George”, George wrote that the company knew there were some of their sensors that were malfunctioning and giving false alarms! I said that as long as they knew of this problem, couldn’t they just send me a new one (once they tested to make sure that the replacement was not having this same false alarm problem) and I would send them the malfunctioning sensor? After all, I knew what I was doing; the sensor I was sure did not cost them more than a few dollars; and, they would make customer happy so I could attest to the fact that Chamberlain had a customer service department focusing on the customer instead of what I was getting, which was a runaround that amounted to customer no-service. There was no way Chamberlain would change their policy. What a lot of nonsense for a customer to put up with when for a few dollars Chamberlain would have a customer that would return to them for this as well as other products they sell. As an aside, the little roof that attaches to the sensors did not adequately protect the sensor from the outdoor elements. The reason I had to replace the entire system was because the roofs on the previous sensors were inadequate and the circuit boards in the sensors were corroded. I had hoped that the new ones would have improved protection but they are the same as the previous models. So, if you decide to purchase this system I suggest you do as I did, which is to construct your own roof that you tack above the sensor made of heavy transparent plastic or a similar material. These roofs I made and installed over the sensors & roofs provided by Chamberlain are protecting the sensors perfectly. As I could not get Chamberlain to budge on their policy to send me a replacement sensor without my going through the rigmarole of ‘troubleshooting’ with them over the phone, I decided to contact the Better Business Bureau in their corporate headquarters of Elmhurst, IL. However, this company is not listed as belonging to the BBB. Online research will show that others have encountered sensors with false alarms, which Chamberlain admitted is an issue with some sensors. You will also find consumers with issues is resolving problems with some of Chamberlain’s other products such as garage door openers. In closing, this is a warning is that Chamberlain’s customer service is inadequate. In stark contrast, what a pleasure it is in doing business with Amazon. Amazon’s customer service is what one should expect. When you have a problem with a product, you can return it with no hassle and they will replace it or refund your payment. You are wasting your time if you encounter a problem and try to resolve it with Chamberlain as their “support” is not customer friendly. NSG Atlanta, GA As a PS I bought a replacement sensor from Amazon to replace the broken one that Chamberlain refused to make good on. Yesterday another one of the original sensors is malfunctioning giving false reads. In short, this product is an absolute and complete waste of money.