Winter this year was no joke. Between heavy snowfall, freezing rain, ice storms, and months of sub-zero temperatures, your technology takes a beating — even when it’s mounted outdoors and built to handle the elements. Now that the snow is melting and warmer days are ahead, it’s the perfect time to do a post-winter checkup on your systems before the busy spring and summer season gets underway.
Here are the key things to inspect and verify after a long Canadian winter.
1. Check Your Antenna Alignment
If you have any of the following installed, give them a close look:
- Point-to-Point (PtP) Wireless Links — These systems connect two buildings or locations using directional antennas that must be precisely aimed at each other. Ice loading, strong winds, and freeze-thaw cycles throughout winter can shift antenna mounts by just enough to degrade performance noticeably. Even a small change in alignment can reduce signal strength and throughput significantly. If your wireless link feels slower than usual or has been dropping, misalignment may be the culprit.
- Cellular Boosters — The external (donor) antenna on your cell booster is mounted outside and is either directional and pointed towards the strongest cell tower, or omnidirectional and pointed upwards. Wind and ice can rotate or tilt the antenna away from its optimal heading. If you’ve noticed weaker in-building cell signal or more dropped calls lately, it’s worth checking that the antenna hasn’t shifted.
- Starlink Dishes — Starlink dishes are motorized and self-orienting, but mounting hardware can loosen over winter. Check that the mount is still secure, that the dish has a clear, unobstructed view of the northern sky, and that no debris has accumulated around the base or cable entry points.
When inspecting any antenna or dish, also check the cable connections and weatherproofing at the connector points. Water ingress at a coaxial connection can cause ongoing performance issues that are easy to overlook.
2. Clean Your Camera Lenses
Security cameras and video doorbells are exposed to everything winter throws at them — snow, freezing rain, and then pollen as things thaw. The result is often a film of residue on the camera lens that subtly degrades image quality. You may not even notice it day to day, but the difference between a clean lens and a dirty one can be significant when you need to review footage.
What to do:
- Use a clean, dry microfibre cloth to gently wipe the lens cover on each camera. Do not use paper towels, tissues, or abrasive cloths, as these can scratch the lens housing.
- If there is stubborn residue, slightly dampen the cloth with clean water — avoid household glass cleaners, which can leave their own film or damage lens coatings.
- Don’t forget your video doorbell camera, which is at eye level and especially prone to fingerprints, and pollen buildup.
- While you’re at it, inspect the housing of each camera for any cracks, loose mounting screws, or signs of water infiltration.
Clean lenses mean clearer images, better night vision performance, and more reliable motion detection — all of which matter when it counts.
3. Check for Foliage Blocking Camera Views
This is one of the most overlooked post-winter tasks. In late autumn, most trees and shrubs are bare, so your cameras may have had excellent sight lines all winter. As spring growth accelerates through April and May, branches fill in quickly — and what was a clear view of your driveway, parking lot, or side yard in February may be partially or fully obscured by June.
What to do:
- Review the live view of each camera now, and make a note of any branches or shrubs that are already encroaching on the frame.
- Plan to trim vegetation that is on a path to blocking a camera view before it becomes a problem.
- If foliage cannot be trimmed, consider whether a camera needs to be repositioned or its angle adjusted to maintain adequate coverage.
- Also watch for false motion alerts — cameras pointed at trees or bushes that sway in the wind can generate excessive notifications as leaves fill in.
A few minutes of planning now can save you from discovering a blind spot in your coverage at the worst possible time.
4. Replace Batteries in Wireless Security Devices
Cold temperatures are hard on batteries. Wireless security sensors — door and window contacts, motion detectors, glass break sensors, key fobs, and wireless panic buttons — all rely on batteries that drain faster in cold conditions. A sensor that showed a healthy battery level in October may be running low by spring.
What to do:
- Log in to your security panel or alarm app and check for any low battery warnings on wireless devices.
- Even if no warnings are showing, spring is a good time to proactively replace batteries in any device that is due, particularly in critical locations like primary entry doors or main floor motion detectors.
- Use quality alkaline or lithium batteries as specified by the device manufacturer. Lithium batteries are especially recommended for outdoor or unheated locations, as they maintain performance at lower temperatures far better than standard alkaline cells.
- After replacing batteries, verify that the device is still communicating properly with your panel by triggering the sensor and confirming it shows on your keypad or app.
Keeping wireless device batteries fresh is one of the simplest things you can do to ensure your alarm system performs reliably when you need it most.
5. Verify Time Settings on Your NVR and Cameras After Daylight Saving Time
Daylight Saving Time (DST) takes effect in Canada on the second Sunday of March each year. Most modern NVR (recorder) systems and IP cameras can be configured to adjust automatically, but not all do so reliably. If your NVR or cameras did not update their clocks, your footage timestamps will be off by one hour until fall.
This matters more than it might seem. Accurate timestamps are important for correlating events with known times, providing footage as evidence, or simply understanding when something happened on your property.
What to do:
- Log in to your NVR’s interface (via monitor or web browser) and check the current time displayed. Compare it to your phone or a known accurate time source.
- If the time is off by one hour, navigate to the NVR’s date/time settings and correct it. Enable automatic DST adjustment if the option is available.
- Check individual cameras as well. Some cameras maintain their own internal clock independently of the NVR, and these may need to be updated separately.
- While in the settings, verify that the correct time zone (Eastern Time) is selected.
Need Help With Any of This? Cozzmic Is Here.
If you’ve done your walkthrough and found issues, a camera with a damaged housing, a wireless link that seems off, sensors with low batteries, or an NVR that isn’t quite right, the Cozzmic team can help. We offer post-winter maintenance visits to:
- Inspect and realign antennas and dishes
- Clean and inspect cameras and doorbell units
- Replace batteries in wireless security devices
- Verify and correct time settings on NVRs and cameras
- Identify and address any other issues found during the inspection
Don’t wait until a problem becomes urgent. A quick spring checkup now can give you confidence that your systems are working properly heading into the warmer months. Contact Cozzmic today to schedule a maintenance visit or to ask any questions about your systems.
