Nortek Control Supervised Wireless Glass Break Detector Transmitter

The Nortek Control supervised wireless glass break detector has a 500 foot transmit range. That is open-air range, so on a multi-tenant building or a long commercial run you plan receiver placement around it rather than assuming one receiver covers the whole floor. Because it is supervised, the receiver also knows if the device stops checking in, which is the difference between a detector that quietly dies and one that reports.

Coverage is 12 feet at 360 degrees, so one unit protects glass within a 12 foot radius of the detector in any direction. In practice that means a single device covers a modest office, a storefront vestibule, or one glass-front unit, and a wide lobby or a long glass curtain wall needs more than one. The 360 degree pattern means it does not have to be aimed at the glass the way a directional sensor does.

Two CR123A lithium cells power the detector, with a 3 year battery life. For a property manager running dozens of units, that is the number that matters: buy CR123A in bulk and put the swap on a three year cycle rather than a service call per device. There is no wiring to pull, which is why these get used in occupied units and finished glass fronts where fishing wire is not an option.

Yes, it has built-in glass break and RF test modes. The glass break test lets you verify the sensor picks up an event from where you mounted it, and the RF test confirms the unit is reaching the receiver from that location before you commit to the mounting. Run the RF test at the mounting spot first, since a location inside the 500 foot range can still be blocked by masonry or metal stud walls.

It uses a two stage detector circuit, meaning it has to sense both parts of a break event before it trips rather than reacting to a single loud noise. That is the design intent behind two stage detection and it is why these are used in tenant spaces where a slammed door or a dropped tray would otherwise generate a service call. No detector is immune, but a single impulse alone will not trigger it.

They answer different questions. A door contact tells you the door opened; a glass break detector catches someone coming through the glazing without ever touching the door, which is the actual failure mode on a glass front or a ground floor window. The Nortek Control unit is the wireless option, powered by two CR123A cells with a 500 foot transmit range, so it goes into retrofit work where you cannot get wire back to the panel. In new construction with open walls, wired perimeter contacts plus this for the glazed areas is the usual pairing.

Supervised means the detector reports in to the receiver on a schedule, so a missing check-in raises a trouble condition instead of leaving a dead sensor on a live system. On an unsupervised device you find out it stopped working when a break goes unreported. For an institutional or multi-family account running detectors across many units, supervision is what makes the wireless devices auditable at all.