I'm looking for an alarm system for my 4 bed detached house in Essex. Having started some research into alarm systems I've progressed from planning to buy a DIY wirefree system (£200) to thinking about having a relatively simple wirefree system professionally installed. I've had one quote which was £774 for 3 ESP INF-PIRs, a wirefree panel, an external sounder and a dummy sounder. An annual maintenance contract is quoted at £80.

A couple of questions:

1. Do the quotes sound broadly reasonable?

2. I see that wirefree is generally frowned upon in the forums and that makes me uneasy. However, my wife and I are very fussy about decoration and I am uncomfortable anout the mess, holes and disruption (maybe floorboards up etc) that I imagine comes with a wired system.

I'd welcome comments from you experts out there.

Anyone volunteer a really good professional alarm installer in Essex I could approach for another quote and who has a good track record at careful installation?

Any proffessional would be able to hide all the cables anyway to be honest.

Some of the Dominial wirefree systems look good.

Someone else should comment soon and give you more of an Idea! - your a bit out of my catchment area for me to quote for you.

, Dave.

Edited May 5, 200520 yr by DNS Security

The price doesn't sound too unreasonable, although I haven't priced much up on wireless but you'd do well to get the 3 quotes in, and compare them against some wired prices.

Although you may look at your house and think "wires clipped everywhere" a professional and competent installer should be able to hide most of the cabling so you won't have to have cables on show everywhere and chases up and down walls.

As mentioned in one of the posts above, the Domonial seems to be a very reliable wireless panel, but it does have limited user options. Detector batteries are estimated to last upto 5 years too.

It`s good points being it only requires wiring to a mains supply, and phone line if monitoring is required. Most other soo called wireless require more. There`s a few guys on here who install it and swear by how reliable it has been.

Personally though my opinions on wireless are the same as Pete`s.

Weird LOL - the forums stalled for me about three times tonight - luckily ive manged to stop it double posting, but it does seem a bit- tetchy tonight.

Edited May 5, 200520 yr by DNS Security

Yeah, forums are playing up intermittantly. Waza is looking into what the cause may be..

Deleted my repeated posts

Been doing that for a couple of days here, glad it's not just me then.

Yeah, forums are playing up intermittantly.  Waza is looking into what the cause may be..

Deleted my repeated posts 

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I didnt say anything Dave - because I thought you were doing maint. etc on the site.

I Should have mentioned it sooner, sorry

Edited May 5, 200520 yr by DNS Security

Yes, quote seems reasonable plus the maintenance charge is quite good. If you do go for a wireless option do make sure that a proper survey of the surrounding area both indoors and out doors for possible interference sauces is completed before you sign on the dotted line. Like my fellow colleges have said a professional installer can hide most cables but I am a supporter of wireless and I advice if your going down this road is to get a couple of other quotes from different company

Many thanks for all the replies so far - very helpful guys!

I think I will check out another couple of alarm installers as suggested.

Meantime, if anyone else wants to check out my original query and add some advice feel free. It's all much appreciated.

If there are any hyper-tidy NSI registered (or similar) installers out there who fancy quoting (Essex) let me know