Guest Deryck Tintagel Posted October 29, 2003 Share Posted October 29, 2003 I am not a professional installer but I like to think that I know what I am looking at ... A relative bought a house which came with an alarm system. One evening they went out and came back about four hours later and the alarm was sounding. A neighbour complained to them that it had been sounding since just after they left the house. I popped round to have a look and this is what I found: Panel lid held on with insulating tape as the installer had tried to use a self-tapping security screw when a set screw should have been used causing it to strip the nut in the case. Panel mains supply taken via a 13A plug and an extension lead to a socket in the hall. Bell cut-off timer link had not been cut Cabling was CW1308 telephone cable Tamper wire twisted together within a detector and not s sign of solder or insulation Detector tamper switch springs missing All this from a supossed professional installer - that's why I fit my own! Anything worse than this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dale Posted October 29, 2003 Share Posted October 29, 2003 Deryck, Sounds like either the installer from hell, or someone's tried to save a buck and do it themselves. Needless to say I hope you either repaired the dodgy install or got a proffessional company to come and repair it! Dale Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Deryck Tintagel Posted October 29, 2003 Share Posted October 29, 2003 Definitely an installer from Hell - one of the local outfits fitting a full system for less than £200. I also saw another system installed by the same company - that wasn't full BS compliance but was better. The company has since been taken over by a more reputable installer and closed down I made good what I could but my relative moved before giving me the go ahead to replace the system - defintely not worth spendin time doing to many repairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dale Posted October 29, 2003 Share Posted October 29, 2003 I fit systems for less than £200, but only for family!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Service Engineer Posted October 29, 2003 Share Posted October 29, 2003 Ive been called out to many installations as least as bad as this, and the annoying thing is that most of the time the customers know no better so are happy enough with their alarm system. Most of the time i just keep my mouth shut, sort out the fault and go. One of the worst installs that i`d seen was the one in my fathers new house about 8 years ago: Zone 1: Front door contact, no tamper Zone 2: 12 non latching shock sensors, no tamper Zone 3: All the Downstairs and upsatairs doors, garage door and back door, no tamper. The hall PA button was wired through the bellbox tamper circuit...? 2 Bellboxes, Front Tampered but with no SAB module, rear not tampered at all. No Fused spur Everything cabled from 4X4 core cables coming from the main panel, everything was joined by twisted wires under the carpets in many locations. No trunking anywhere, cables were fixed on skirting boards and then up/down the walls to window/door shocks. And to top it all, this was installed by a well known NACOSS company who im not sure but think are no longer in existance. And im not certain but assume the installation must have been a Foreigner by an engineer who worked for that company at the time. ........................................................ Dave Partridge (Romec Service Engineer) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kenny james Posted October 30, 2003 Share Posted October 30, 2003 i find the most problems i have come across are alarms panels fitted without any spur socket, both tamper circuits linked off, no log book left,and worst was an alarm that hadnt even been programmed,i have also had a pir which seemed to function to the customer alright activating the led when passing the pir but had,nt even been wired up to a zone,also a customer had a 4 minute time delay on entry and 3 minute on exit - i explained to her the time differences between her exit timer and entry timer would be the equivalent of either a perfectly boiled egg or a very hard boiled egg (she didnt quite understand what i meant, poor dear!!). no doubt the list can be endless years down the road but what is annoying is the people who fit these lego style alarms are making money out of innocent people who know no different and end up parting with a lot of hard earned cash, i dont think theres any trade which doesnt have a cowboy involved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borris Posted October 31, 2003 Share Posted October 31, 2003 Went to a shop the other day and the panel was attached to the wall with parcel tape, which is odd as I can't get the ctuff to stick paper never mind a bog metal box to a wall! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borris Posted November 1, 2003 Share Posted November 1, 2003 Went to one a while ago and all the pirs where just hanging from the ceiling by the cables, which had no slack on them so they were tight to the ceiling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul fae kings Posted November 3, 2003 Share Posted November 3, 2003 Just recently weve took over some big jobs from another big company. The control panels are unbelievable,if i had a dig camera i would show you what i mean. ATOTAL BIRDS NEST. open the panel and the wiring comes out to meet you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dale Posted November 3, 2003 Share Posted November 3, 2003 I once went to a ladies house who was having trouble with her alarm, after a quick inspection in the panel and sensors i realised all the cables were different colours at the sensors to what they were in the panel. So went on a cable tracing fest... lone behold all the cables from the panel went into the loft into a pattress with a blanking plate on.... well when I opened it, I could not believe what I saw... the entire cables come into this box and are twisted to other cables and selotaped.. needless to say I was not touching these massive bunch of wires for fear of setting something off, so told the customer I could either re-install all the cables or she could get in touch with the "reputable" alarm company and get one of their engineers to see what mess this system was in - she wasnt happy, but I was not going to take on a system in that state without major recabling work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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