Do Honeywell wireless sensors work on metal doors?

So lets cut to the chase. We have found that the Honeywell 5818MNL wireless mini recessed window and door sensor in tandem with a magnet from any of the following wired steel door contacts will work well on most metal doors excluding steel doors: 947-75T, 947-75, MPS70WG, the 947. Simply purchase one of these steel door contacts and install the magnet opposite the 5818mnl. Although there is a true wireless solution for standard metal doors, steel doors bring on a different level of issues when it comes to wireless transmissions.

To prevent a less than reliable situation, we recommend you play it safe and use a hard wired steel door contact shown above. Not able to get a wire back to the panel? No problem. Just wire the steel door contact to a local wired to wireless transmitter. You can choose from the Honeywell 5816 door and window sensor, the Honeywell 5817 wireless three zone sensor, or the Honeywell 5817CB wireless commercial sensor. Each of these options has internal screw terminals designed to connect a wired contact. Whats unique about the 5816 is that it can serve as both a wired and wireless zone simultaneously. Make sure you program the wired zone to loop 1 and the wireless zone to loop 2 if you use the 5816 with the included magnet.

Since the 5816 can only transmit a single wired zone you may want to look at the Honeywell 5817 or the Honeywell 5817CB. Not only can these sensors connect up to 3 separate wired zones but they have the unique ability to connect a wired normally open contact and transmit the signal wirelessly back to the panel. While there are many similarities between these two sensors there are some distinct differences.

Generally, the 5817 is used in residential settings while the 5817CB mainly live in a commercial system. Check out our detailed description of the 5817 on our website: "The first loop can also be setup as a repeating transmission so that it sends a signal every 4 seconds while in alarm condition. This type of transmission would be used for high priority alarms such as fire or carbon monoxide. You can also set the first loop to be either slow response time (200mSec normally closed) or fast response time (5mSec normally closed). All of these settings are selectable using the internal dip switches. You should have all dip switches set to the off position while enrolling the 5817 wireless sensor to your Honeywell wireless alarm system." The 5817CB 3 zone commercial sensor can supervise loop 1 as well as connect a wired normally open sensor. "You must use the included 470K ohm end-of-line resistor (EOLR) placed across the normally open wired device. This supervises the loop and if the wire is cut or the sensor removed, a loop 4 tamper will be activated."

Please note that you can wire windows in series in order to minimize the total number zones on your system. Also, we recommend reading the detailed description of whichever product you choose to purchase. There is valuable information that may sway you one way or the other. Keep in mind that ANY other sensor including the popular Honeywell 5800MICRA wireless recessed window sensor will not reliably work with a separate steel door magnet due to polarity issues that can cause faults and other errors.