Anyone recommend a good domestic alarm system

[soulman]

Can you fella's & ladies of course recommend a good alarm system thats easy to install in a domestic property, An alarm system where you can buy only the parts you need seperately, wired, never installed one just been getting asked a lot lately, I have been recommending a guy i know who has let me down twice, So i have decided to install one on a rewire have got in may, just need some suggestions

Cheers

 

[GLENNSPARK]

honeywell...or texacom veritas.......avoid scantronic...by all accounts there crap.....

 

[danzor]

a big dog

 

[GLENNSPARK]

one of those battery thingies by friedland for £39.99.....or a `home security kit` by one of the sheds....yuk!!

 

[Frosty69]

Visonic powermax, they are wireless and take about two hours to install for a three bed house cost about £300 from adi gardner. they have a nice fob system aswell so you can hide panel away, it can call your mobile when it goes off and can put your own nasty message into it for the burglar scum

 

[ipf]

Scantronic wireless were very good a few years ago, but expensive. Bought out by Cooper/Menvier, now parts for those models cost a fortune because they're no longer in production.

 

[a12jpm]

Pyronix enforcer with hard wired deltabell back lit box for me. Easy install and test and the box lights up to advertise your name and number at night!

 

[vernam616]

Honeywells/accenta are rubbish cheapo systems

I always always go for the veritas R8, reasonably priced, very easy to fit/program and works well

 

[UNG]

honeywell...or texacom veritas.......avoid scantronic...by all accounts there crap.....

Scantronic lost the plot many years ago, lived on their name for too long supported by ADT and didn't develop and update their range of control panels, and unless their tech support has improved god help you if you have a problem

a big dog

Great if the dog only eats on the owners command been to too many houses to quote for systems where the poisoned lump of steak through the letterbox took the dog out

one of those battery thingies by friedland for £39.99.....or a `home security kit` by one of the sheds....yuk!!

Get asked to repair these quite often usually quote around £400 - £500 for repair

Scantronic wireless were very good a few years ago, but expensive. Bought out by Cooper/Menvier, now parts for those models cost a fortune because they're no longer in production.

Scantronic and Menvier were bought out by Cooper around the same time in order to boost Scantronic sales some of the Menvier control panels were repackaged as Scantronic panels

Honeywells/accenta are rubbish cheapo systems

I always always go for the veritas R8, reasonably priced, very easy to fit/program and works well

I always go for the Texecom Veritas R8+ or Excel panels with LCD keypad saves the hassle where customers can't read the LED's these panels also have communicator outputs for adding speech and text diallers

 

[timbobelfast]

I would go for a Scantronic 9561. Excellent alarm if installed and programmed correctly. 8 zone panel around £50 IIRC

 

[UNG]

I would go for a Scantronic 9561. Excellent alarm if installed and programmed correctly. 8 zone panel around £50 IIRC

Any alarm that is not installed and programmed correctly usually results in call backs and no end of problems so your comment goes for all alarm panels. For the reasons previously stated personally I don't rate Scantronic kit. With alarm systems the price depends on what you want it to do as they all have various setups from basic home and away setting to multiple part set areas and add on communication facilities

 

[timbobelfast]

Each to their own. Same ways as I don't rate Texacom. Personally would not even put one in my shed.

 

[oldtimer]

If you are new to alarms then ADE Optima/Accenta or the Veritas stay away from Scantronic as they have the "remove CP lid" to access engineers section also horses for courses sometimes people just want a simple panel so they dont have to feed the dog and take it for a walk at night

 

[UNG]

Each to their own. Same ways as I don't rate Texacom. Personally would not even put one in my shed.

Ahh an I will always fit Scantronic engineer no matter how out of date they are, thought they died out years ago. I find it interesting that you would spec a panel manufactured to BS 4737 a standard that was superseded years ago by BS EN 50131

 

[polo1]

Just my twopence worth - I have installed Scantronic, ADE, Ademco Galaxy over the years, both hard wired and wireless. I don't personally agree with the bad spec given here to Scannys - generally found them to be well built panels with a lower than average failure rate.

If you are aiming mainly for the "bells only" market with no monitoring, most of the main panels on the market will do you fine. My advice is to stick to two, max three makes and get to know them well - it's half the battle when you can programme, reprogramme etc without having to constantly refer to the installation manual. I also pay a bit of a premium for external sounders - after all they are out there in all weathers.

Domestic/small commercial intruder systems is approx 25% of my turnover, with access growing from 10% - I get very little hassle from my own installations and a reasonable margin. It's like the thread on today about satellite installation - you can never have too many strings to your bow, but play them all competently!
Regards.

 

[UNG]

I don't personally agree with the bad spec given here to Scannys - generally found them to be well built panels with a lower than average failure rate.

Scantronic panels were good years ago but tried to live on their name rather than move with the market and the technology changes, the tech support was also very lacking. Personally I always used Menvier panels (previously Munford & White and then Tunstall) up to a couple of years after Cooper bought them, once the old Menvier guys left the tech support dept it became harder to support the equipment and so I moved on

 

[oldtimer]

Scantronic panels were good years ago but tried to live on their name rather than move with the market and the technology changes, the tech support was also very lacking. Personally I always used Menvier panels (previously Munford & White and then Tunstall) up to a couple of years after Cooper bought them, once the old Menvier guys left the tech support dept it became harder to support the equipment and so I moved on

Munford and White CPA2 by any chance thats going back a bit (like me) Also just to add my last mail I was critical of Scantronic because of the "open control panel" as I had to go to a 8136 yesterday and had a job trying to reset the battery low fault after I changed the battery . As I said if the poster is new to alarm and it is domestic then a good starting place is ADE Optima or Texcom and then he can progress from there.
Plus as you say Scantronic is no worse or better than the rest it is just down to preference a lot of guys get comfortable with one make and model I was lucky I started with Thorn on the 7000 series where the failure rate was 1 in3 moved on to M&W and A&G (My eyes still water when I think about the Micro 3 Deluxe LOL) Bentley,ADE, Scantronic but the catch is you need to as UNG says move on and you have to asses the job ie multiple keyholders or a 2 bedroom semi

 

[Edd]

Was asked to fit a Yale wireless system, about 3 months ago, they supplyed the materials took me about 3 hrs (including wireing the spur) and I was quite impressed, familiy then asked me to do the same for a friend of theirs. Not one call back, and would happily fit them again.

 

[timbobelfast]

What tech support could you possibly need for a hard wired modern scantronic? For commercial installs I use the Galaxy Dimension panels.
And the Scanny previously may have been manufactured around 4737 but they now comply with BS EN 50131 or else I wouldn't be installing them.

 

[telectrix]

Was asked to fit a Yale wireless system, about 3 months ago, they supplyed the materials took me about 3 hrs (including wireing the spur) and I was quite impressed, familiy then asked me to do the same for a friend of theirs. Not one call back, and would happily fit them again.

was a thread on here a few days ago, where the yale systems could be disabled with a car remote or similar.

 

[WPD Lad]

Quick question to the alarm fitters, how do you make off the tamper series loop?

Any tips or recommendations on connectors?

 

[timbobelfast]

Had a customer phone me before Xmas saying he had bought a Yale system and was looking me to install. I told him I wouldn't touch it with a bardge pole in a nice kind of way.

 

[timbobelfast]

For your tamper loop, get a strip of 5 amp connector blocks.

 

[telectrix]

i generally just twist ends of the series loops, fold over and sleeve with a bit of 4mm earth sleeving. OK, sounds a bodge, but i've got systems done this way, been in for for 20 years and no problems.

 

[oldtimer]

For your tamper loop, get a strip of 5 amp connector blocks.

What no tape joints or twisted pair with a bit O 4 core sleeving !! yep quite right I buy a block of 5 or 2 amp connector plus I made up a commissioning sheet that records all the circuit resistances 20 years ago and still use it today

 

[UNG]

Quick question to the alarm fitters, how do you make off the tamper series loop?

Any tips or recommendations on connectors?

I mainly use panels that use E.O.L. wiring saves a lot of time when tamper faults occur and is more secure. If I use 4 wire circuits in a panel with single tamper circuit I use a strip of 2A or 5A connectors

 

[UNG]

Munford and White CPA2 by any chance thats going back a bit (like me) Also just to add my last mail I was critical of Scantronic because of the "open control panel" as I had to go to a 8136 yesterday and had a job trying to reset the battery low fault after I changed the battery . As I said if the poster is new to alarm and it is domestic then a good starting place is ADE Optima or Texcom and then he can progress from there.
Plus as you say Scantronic is no worse or better than the rest it is just down to preference a lot of guys get comfortable with one make and model I was lucky I started with Thorn on the 7000 series where the failure rate was 1 in3 moved on to M&W and A&G (My eyes still water when I think about the Micro 3 Deluxe LOL) Bentley,ADE, Scantronic but the catch is you need to as UNG says move on and you have to asses the job ie multiple keyholders or a 2 bedroom semi

The CPA 2 thats going back a bit along with the CPD 4 and the CPA 6. When I started I was installing Hoyles panels which some of the big outfits labelled up as there own seem to recall they supplied Lander alarms with a 6 zone panel

When you start reeling off the old names it's amazing how many have gone bust or been swallowed up by other companies in the industry

 

[UNG]

What tech support could you possibly need for a hard wired modern scantronic? For commercial installs I use the Galaxy Dimension panels.
And the Scanny previously may have been manufactured around 4737 but they now comply with BS EN 50131 or else I wouldn't be installing them.

Have had numerous problems with Scantronic kit in the past a 9500 with a plug on Red care STU sending 200 alarm signals an hour spoke to every engineer on the help desk had a different suggestion from all of them was finally told when you find what is causing the problem let us know so we know for future, similar thing happened with a Paknet interface on another panel again no solution, as for the later panels most I believe are rebadged Menvier kit anyway so probably of better quality.

I find it's good to know that a manufacturers techie's will and can support engineers on the ground when needed and with Scantronic they didn't do it for me they seemed to have little knowledge of the kit they produced and certainly no interest in going out of their way to help.

 

[alarm man]

Have had numerous problems with Scantronic kit in the past a 9500 with a plug on Red care STU sending 200 alarm signals an hour spoke to every engineer on the help desk had a different suggestion from all of them was finally told when you find what is causing the problem let us know so we know for future,
.

commuicator fitted-yes, direct line- no been guilty of that a few times,great panels the 9500 crash and reprog them in 2 mins

 

[alarm man]

Pyronix enforcer with hard wired deltabell back lit box for me. Easy install and test and the box lights up to advertise your name and number at night!

those deltabells have to be the one of the worst around,look cheap and nasty,not a patch on the backlit abel

 

[Mr.Si]

Well the scantronic ion 16 I put in at my own place went in well and has given me no problems yet.

Early days I know, but it seemed good quality to me!

sent using an Ice Cream Sandwich. Mmmmm...

 

[timbobelfast]

The Scanny ION is an excellent panel, tad bit pricey, but you get what you pay for!