lol i wish there was a test way. Only real way is soak testing it. SOme rooms will need the detector to be adjusted differently as you have found out.
re a better sensor. Thats a difficult one. From a support point of view we have hew issues with this unit, the bosch blue line, but do get complaints on the pyronix unit.
So id say no. But IMHO the best pet sensor out there (plus bear in mind im not a fan of the technology) is the blueline DT