Wheelman

Should complete on my new house the end of next week. I may not actually move for upto 6 weeks but I want to get an alarm on the place a.s.a.p. Have been looking around at all the unknown 'brand' name devices from various DIY stores but the Yale wireless system that can dial upto 6 phone numbers when activated looks like the best option at £199 (basic kit) from Homebase. Anyone got any useful advice to add or experiance of this kit?

ptholt

I'm not typing my previous email of encyclopedia sizes, but i would say with some confidence that ADT are perhaps not the place to go.

paulr

My advice is NOT to go for the diy option.Get it fitted professionaly,not that expensive and a lot less hassle.We have an alarm that was fitted by a really good local guy who was recomended to us.It took a whole day,wires all over the place(all hidden of course),but never had one single problem in 3 years.

Basically it consists of 4 sensors,one in each downstirs room.IMO thats all you need.

Paul

fast bloke

get a professional job. We have sensors in each downstairs room and a perimeter guard for when we are in at night etc. It is monitored by alarm company for 60 quid a year and they will call us and/or police when it goes off

babber

Fitted a Yale wireless alarm a few years ago, and had to get someone in after to commission it. It was easy enough to install, and with the help of my mate, we hid all the wires. It is quite scalable and more modules (i.e. Infra red sensors, wireless door switches) can be added with ease.

Well worth the money IMHO, and gives the misses peace of mind while I'm away on Business.

Cheers Phill C

Tiggs

ptholt,

im about to buy a house with ADT fitted already- whats the prob with them? and is it bad enough to warrent fitting a new system?

Tiggs

ps- off line if you really hate them

ScoobySnack

Peter,

I still have that very long email you typed on ADT when I asked about alarms.

With your permission I can forward?

J

paulr

....PS, the guy who fitted ours said door sensors are a waste of time.This is where you tend to get false alarms and if you have room sensors...whats the point of door sensors?

Paul

fast bloke

Paul,
We can alarm the doors at night so that kids going downstairs for a drink doesn't set the alarm off. The only false alarm we have ever had has been caused by a helium baloon attacking a room sensor

paulr

....point taken.

ptholt

please feel free to forward away my previous massive email on adt

in fact can you send me a copy as well, i'll save it so i dont have to re-type lol.

To the person (tiggs i think it was) who was asking about adt above, before you move in, call adt and ask how much it will cost to transfer ownership to you, otherwise that alarm will stay registered to previous house owner.
When a friend asked about 12 months ago they wanted £150!!
also vendors have been known in the past to charge extra for the alarm which you cant even use properly untill you have paid the above, so i urge you to check it out asap!!!!
Frequent tales of vendors asking for the remaining years cover to be paid for they then pockt it from you, you call adt and they wont even acknowledge you till you pay for the above as well.

most of my problems have been with the installation, though saying that i've had frequent false alarms with various fire engines arriving, also it arms itself from time to time (again an installation issue).

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

I agree that the best thing to do is have a system installed professionally. Get a few quotes too - they varied considerably in both cost and recommendations in my case.

I ended up with a Chubb system which has been very reliable. We've only had 1 false alarm in 2 years since the system was finished, and given that we have two cats running around the house all day I'm very happy with that. It took a bit of fine-tuning at first because some of the IR sensors were a bit over-sensitive, but it's fine now.

Personally I think the deterrent effect of having a brand name siren attached to the front of your house is the most important effect of a professional system. Why burgle a house with one of those above the door, when the neighbours don't have one?

Andy.

Tiggs

cool-i'll phone them now- and someone email me this essay

ScoobySnack

Email gone to Chris & Mark, copied Peter......

J

ptholt

cheers scoobsnack, i can keep it saved for the next adt alert

ScoobySnack

P.S Now been in the new house for 2 weeks...........

Most things sorted except...... you guessed it the alarm.....

The wish list is:
Alarm box on front and back of house
Keypad or Keyfob
Sensors with no wiring showing in the house
Dialer function to my phone line
Possibly including the garage
£500 - £750 fitted in Berks

Any other functions a good idea?

Will go looking this weekend

J

fast bloke

Scoobysnack - panic button to monitoring station / police station

ScoobySnack

Cheers FastBloke

J

Tiggs

just read peters email- while its shocking and i would hate it to happen to me i did laugh at..

"but my god the truck sounded large"

Tiggs

Luke

Getit wired up by a profesional. A phone dialer is a great idea.
I use them on jobs. Then I know if anyone working for me has entered a part of tha building they dont have permision to be in.

ptholt

you called em and asked the dreaded question yet tiggs?

am interested to see how you get on

Tiggs

they had no one to answer my question working today????? good start! someone will call me thurs.

Tiggs

"fingers crossed!"

Allan

iTrader: (1)

ScoobySnack,
If you integrate the Garage into the house alarm you may find additional key pads in the Garage and bedroom useful.
The garage one will allow you to de-arm/set from outside, the bedroom one will let you see which zone has triggered when in part arm at night.
Allan

www.mscva.com

Someone said

....PS, the guy who fitted ours said door sensors are a waste of time.This is where you tend to get false alarms and if you have room sensors...whats the point of door sensors?

Paul


the answer to this is simple, without door sensors you could be robbed easier.

i wont go into detail about it but beleive me you need both sensors.
"after all there isnt much point in telling people how to overcome sensors is there".

would you have ur car alarm fitted with ultrasonics and no door switches ?

Scotty Boy

Just got the new house alarmed;

AAI, Boreham wood, Herts - 0208 207 0900
Free, no hassle, security advice consultation.
My father, brother and I, have used them for last 12 years - not one problem - and yes it does work !!

I also recommend paying that extra money - it is not so much the alarm you are paying for it is piece of mind and safety.

The whole street had a power cut yesturday, out of 9 house alarms my house alarm was the only one that was still working correctly (other makes included ADT, Bell and lots of blank boxes)

IMHO would also avoid ADT - as already stated in other posts

Wheelman

Thanks for all the feedback, lots of food for thought especially on the DIY v profesional installation route. Don't suppose anyone has had a good installation and can recommend someone in the Aylesbury, Bucks area?

paulr

As i said earlier...go for the pro job.We had this toic on here about 3 months ago and the result was the same.

mccltd

I'm fitting one of these to my new house next week.
www.comfort.org.uk house alarm and home control system.

chiark

Do it yourself with good quality stuff if you can find someone friendly who knows what they're doing. I wouldn't use wireless stuff, but that's just probably a silly prejudice.

My father in law is a sparky by trade and now in charge of security systems at a large university. Consequently, he can get access to the parts at a good price. Perhaps you know someone who can help?

Wiring an alarm is easy; running the cables is the hardest part. There's 6 wires to each sensor (power pair, trigger pair, tamper loop). You need power to the control box. That's it, really.

For a good quality alarm with battery backed box, separate keypad, siren, screamer, 5 PIRs, three zone set configs, support for 9 zones, support for 3 keypads, ... the parts cost £125.07. That tells you how much you're paying for labour!

If you're not wanting to do it yourself, get recommendations as there's some real cowboys out there.

Also, ask for them to leave the engineer's manual. Do this before you order. That way you can check the complexity of the alarm, and once installed you can also check that default engineer codes, or additional codes, are no longer on the system.

Huxley

Chiark for £125 for the kit! i would expect that to be standard electrical wholsale package.
The good top line panels we use at work cost about £85 trade,Rkp About £45, good detectors should cost about £18-£30 each(i would go for DA ds835i dual tec the best)the bell box should be about £25-£40 and wiring configuration comes in 2.4 and 6 piont detectot wiring depending on panel type ie Eol,ID and Double pole just to confuse the issue.

If any body wants any more info on whats what then fell free to email me.

Huxley

ps. have stacks of control panels and bits in shed!