lack of support at Home Technology Store

It goes across the bell terminals (at the bell) just like it shows in the install manual...page 2-4

Bells, sirens, sounders are _never_ in series.

I take it you're referring to "NextAlarm"??

Interesting. I'd contact your credit card company and have *them* resolve the issue. Explain that you haven't received what you paid for.

Purchasing any product like this "on line" carries a degree of risk. There are some stores with better reputations. Do your homework first.

No. The manual "implies" the sounders are in parallel with the end of line across the terminals of the last sounder. "End of line" resistors are usually mounted at the last device in the circuit they're "supervising"...

Don't be. It was actually a "rfreshing" change from the constant complaints against Bass Burglar Alarms.

snipped-for-privacy@verizon.net wrote:

Just curious but ...... why would you purchase the equipment yourself and then have an installer put it in for you? You've obviously paid more for the equipment than the installer would. Sure, he's going to mark up equipment that he provides, if he gives you a quote for a full job, including equipment, but he'd be marking up from his price. He'd likely be giving you at least a one year warrantee on parts and labor too. He'd also be responsible for seeing to it that your monitoring service was providing you with the service you're paying for. Since he would have a number of accounts with his central, he'd obviously have more influence with them regarding your quality of service. You, as and end user dealing direct with a central, don't have any leverage whatsoever. Also, if anyone called me to bid on this kind of installation, I'd only discount the price for the equipment based on what ... I .... paid for it, not you. So .... what I'm saying is .... it seems as if you've paid more for the equipment, more for the installation, have unknown quality of monitoring service and the installer is free and clear, if anything goes wrong with the parts you purchased or your central doesn't do their job. He may give you a warrantee on wiring, if something fails. But anything else he's free to charge you. Also, I'd imagine that since you weren't one of his regular accounts, using him for monitoring, he's likely to charge you more for a service call than one of his monitored accounts. I wish I could get 5 jobs a week .... like that.

Or am I missing something?

I've done a few cctv jobs with this kinda relationship...they bought the equipment for what they thought was a great price then paid me to install it...sure why not...just remember I don't warranty it and when it needs to be pulled you pay me again to come out and pull it out and you send it to repair, then you pay me again to come back and install it again.

I know what you mean. It's like "free money"

Yah I know...for years I wouldn't do it...then my buddy says why not?...its like making money with no responsibility to back up the equipment they purchased elsewhere!

Lots of monitoring companies are physically located outside of the area where their customers are located. Typically, the alarm devices are programmed to dial a toll free number and then they call back the Police Dept. and other numbers on the contact list that you provide.

This is not necessarily bad. If you live in a small town or rural area you may need to go with an out-of-town company.

Beachcomber

Yes I'm probably an idiot but (1) when I renovated I saw the garbage a sizeable local monitoring company had previously installed and I wanted top shelf stuff and (2) I wanted hardwire that was going to be a real pain in the rump because of house layout and nobody really wanted to do it and (3) I have the Andersen windows that installers hate and (4) I had access to a commercial installer who would moonlight the panel install if needed. Oh and my in-law is a retired electrical type who supervised the wiring placement like a Marine drill sargeant (best part of all).

My big mistake was letting the equipment reseller sell me service before the above was all complete. Oh well lessons learned.

All I am doing currently is adding a siren in the attic. It seems happy now.

Thanks and best wishes to all of you -- you seem to be all over North America.

I don't have a problem with diy'ers in general, just the ones that really shouldn't be doing it...like they don't know which end of a battery is +.

In fact I'm helping my neighbor on his new house...he wants to do all the labor...I'm just supervising and supplying equipment on a mostly wireless that's gonna still cost him almost 4k. Yah..Andersons are a pain but doable if the homeowner pitches in. This stupid house is brand new and it wasn't prewired...which is probably a good thing because I saw the prewire job across the street...it was just wire stubs..no actual wires installed !!! I think the builder got ripped off on that one.

I can imagine that some houses might be difficult but I've never seen a house that was "impossible" to hardwire. I live in the Northeast so frame houses are what is popular here. I hear that there are some new construction methods using foam or concrete which could probably be prewired, but after market alarm systems would have to be wireless. Transmission strength could be a problem through concrete too. I can also imagine that as radiant heating becomes more popular, drilling will become riskier.

Which Andersens would that be? The only ones that I don't like are the big wooden sliders ..... only because I don't like the way I have to install the contacts. All the rest are pretty easy.

Yep, from Ca AZ TX LA MD Fl NY Canada and probably a few more that I've missed. Every once in awhile someone from England, Germany, Japan Italy and other countries too .. drops in.

Try a flat top, with block walls firred out with only 1" firring strips, built on a slab, with steel casement windows and the SNI on the opposite side of the house from the garage. Oh yeah, when the exterior walls are block or slump block the top window lintel is 1/4" steel L beam.

Oh..yeah..ceramic tile floors.

Can't get much harder that that!

Dang new fangled inventions.

It was so much easier when I first started in this industry. Just wedge a bolder over the cave door with a trip vine. It was sometimes messy but it worked. And there was only ever one false alarm per customer. After that, someone new would occupy the cave.

Uh, perhaps you should reread the previous posts. Nobody was complaing about CSs in other states. I was said the CS that the poster contracted though the equipment sellers doesn't provide service in the area the poster live in. Why? Who knows. Maybe they don't want to be licenced in the area; that would certainly disquailfy them from providing service.

Julian.

You just need to find a decent 'smaller' alarm company. You can get top shelf equipment from any company. Just because the last owner of your home was a cheap bastard and got a low end panel doesn't mean that's all that's available. Did you ask?

When you say 'hardwire that was going to be a real pain in the rump because of house layout and nobody really wanted to do it' and 'I have the Andersen windows that installers hate', how did you come to these conclusions? I regularly get retrofit alarm jobs simply because I'm confident that my installer CAN wire ANY house without wire showing and the other salespeople say there's no way to do it except wirelessly. Being an installer myself helps because I can show the client approx how the wire will get to the tough spots. After my installer did the fully finished two story house with no useable attic and on a cement slab, he's proved he can run and conceal a wire anywhere.

Once a company/technician develops a method for protecting the Andersen windows, it should be easy. Not quick, but easy.

Oh, and you should be prepared to pay a reasonable amount for the work. Like my Chinese Grandfather says "Cheap stuff no good and good stuff no cheap."

Julian.

Oh yeah...the old Splat Tech alarm system.

Until you get the second floor deck poured concrete and the interior studs are all metal as well. Welcome to S. Florida.

Interesting discussion. Yes I unintentionally ended up as a DIY'er after getting three quotes from smaller installers. Money was not the main issue: construction has been so busy here that difficult jobs go to the bottom of the list (if they make it at all).

Best wishes.

Ever try to drill through a pre-stressed concrete floor? sheet.

Yep. I have a Bosch rotary hammer -- not a "hammer drill" -- for just such jobs. Years ago we had to install a fire alarm in a multi-story apartment building in Hartford. Everything had to be in conduit. When I tried using my 1/2-inch Milwaukee it was like trying to drill cement with a twist bit.

I brought out the Bosch hammer and it went right through like we were drilling pine boards. The sound of it (like a demolition hammer) also brought lots of curious tenants to their doors. :^)