Smart home maintenance suggestions to keep your Yakima system running properly

Maintenance is crucial to various elements of our lives. You work out to keep your body fit and take your vehicle to the service shop so it operates properly. Your Yakima smart home is no exception. While it demands less attention than your vehicle, you still need to handle a couple easy tasks to keep components running properly. It’s not difficult, and we’ll make it even easier with our smart home maintenance tips.

Clean Hardware Is Essential To Reliable Function

Dust and dirt are threats to video camera lenses, sensors, and all sorts of electronics. How effectively do you think your outside surveillance will detect prowlers if it’s obscured by cobwebs? Your smart home won’t look so smart when it’s not operating as expected. But you can lend a hand by doing these easy maintenance duties:

• Keep your camera lenses dirt-free by wiping them periodically with a microfiber towel slightly moistened with glass cleaner. Don’t use paper towels that could harm the lens, and avoid spraying a fluid straight onto the camera.
• Prevent dust from collecting on delicate electronics. If contaminants make their way inside the protective exterior, it can impact those sensitive electronics and hinder needed airflow. Even your central interface’s narrow, flat top can collect dust.
• When cleaning or dusting, do a brief check to make sure your devices are connected solidly and placed properly.

It’s not hard to keep your smart home equipment clean, but you ought to do some other things to ensure error-free functionality.

Perform a quick check of your Yakima security system

Have you not gotten a smartphone update in some time? Your system might be fine, and your home safe and secure, but it might also indicate something is malfunctioning. How about finding out by performing a quick inspection of your equipment? Here’s how to proceed:

• Assume the role of an intruder and see if you can set off your motion sensors, entry point sensors, or additional devices you have. You can typically set your system in “test mode” to avoid notifying your monitoring company.
• Launch your home security mobile app and examine the video footage. See if the images are crisp and the camera is directed where it should.
• If you have automation configured, check it. Did the smart thermostat update settings at the proper time? Did your lights turn on or off as expected?
• Ensure batteries are switched out periodically. Some systems will even tell you when replacement is needed.

Inspections may be conducted periodically or any time you think a device is not functioning as it should.

Is your system firmware current?

Those smart gadgets you have across your house don’t just operate automatically. These incorporated components have firmware installed, so they perform as expected. In many cases, the firmware will self-update, but not every time. Install the updates as soon as they’re released (your system will probably notify you) to steer clear of security or performance concerns.

Get a reliable smart home in Yakima from Vivint

Looking for a dependable, simple-to-maintain smart home in Yakima? Consult with the home security experts at Vivint. Offering the best in home automation and exterior surveillance, we have the right system for your property. Reach out to (509) 790-6958 now to get started.