Any house alarm experts in?

bitslice said:
A grade 3 alarm system has to be fitted by an approved company otherwise it's not grade 3. Apart from a whole pile of checklist stuff, grade 3 hardware is very difficult to bypass.
But as eggbert said, grade 2 is fine for domestic, grade 3 is overkill. Personally I like overkill but I still can't recommend it for others.

Given what is likely to fail or false trigger on an alarm, wireless is OK. Having heard about the standard of installation of wired systems by some firms it may even be more reliable. Visonic make nice kit, although you haven't said what cheap tat the other firms quoted you for.

Personally I prefer wired, it's cheaper and less maintenance to DIY. If I was paying someone I'd go for something like a Visonic system as the installer is less likely to mess it up.
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If its installed to the same standard as a fitter then other than certification for insurance purposes it doesn't matter who installs it, in actual fact by conducting a DIY install the system is probably even more secure, only we know the system, the key component locations and any codes, you can program so many users and other exceptions into the system you would never know about them as a 'dumb' user relying on an alarm company with silly maintenance contact needs.

Like I said above it depends what you have to protect and what sort of threat you may come across, we have a premiership footballer living three doors up, I bet he's not got a grade 2 system installed either ;)
 
Yep, no silly maintenance contact, no insurance discount.

Curiously, everyone I know who has an alarm (and stuff worth protecting), leaves it turned off. I've also never heard the exit timer sound on lots of other houses, so I'm assuming all those are left unused too.
That rusty bell box outside must be fooling everybody ;)
 
That always amuses me, I can only assume its because they don't know the system / it's broke and don't want to pay maintenance. Years ago I know someone who painted a bread tin red and fitted a yellow light underneath, that impressed me :p
 
I agree on the installer front, i don't profess to know all but some of the installers we sell kit too.. Well i wouldn't trust them to tie their own shoelaces !

I am sure some are excellent but its a very mixed bag.

I am getting some wireless Dualtec sensors to play with soon, its sad what i get excited about nowadays :p
 
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