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[Marks DTM Calib]

I have to say that I think the maintenance timers and not providing the engineer codes/boss engineer codes to the customer is a little naughty.

Alarm company wanted 80 or 90 quid a year plus 30 odd quid just to change the code on our alarm when we moved in. Fortunately they had left the "engineer" manual with the previous owner so a quick master reset and I configured it how I wanted.  

Kevin

Exactly, when the original technician arrived to book a service of my old setup, I just handed him the panel......as I had ripped the poorly installed 4 zone setup (4 bed house with 3 reception rooms, 3 doors and an integral garage!) out and installed a more advanced 8 zone unit with greater coverage of the house.

They were not amuzed!  

[prestigesec]

That is the problem sometimes with big companies, i am a one man band and have been installing security equipment for about 7years now and tend to specialise in high end equipment as dont believe in fitting sub standard. Yet for an average alarm system i would charge £52 a year for a maintenance contract covering alarm for parts, labour and call out for 12 months which i think is quite reasonable for your peace of mind and to be honest the majority of alarms i fit are under contracts. Ok there are some who say dont bother leave it and i have been to houses myself where an alarm has been in for 15 years on the same battery and it all works fine yet i have been to some where battery is knackered after a year. Upto you what you do i can only give you some honest advice. Any help on security equipment you need feel free to ask. Regards Steve

[Marks DTM Calib]

That is the problem sometimes with big companies, i am a one man band and have been installing security equipment for about 7years now and tend to specialise in high end equipment as dont believe in fitting sub standard. Yet for an average alarm system i would charge £52 a year for a maintenance contract covering alarm for parts, labour and call out for 12 months which i think is quite reasonable for your peace of mind and to be honest the majority of alarms i fit are under contracts. Ok there are some who say dont bother leave it and i have been to houses myself where an alarm has been in for 15 years on the same battery and it all works fine yet i have been to some where battery is knackered after a year. Upto you what you do i can only give you some honest advice. Any help on security equipment you need feel free to ask. Regards Steve

Steve

I always fit and maintain my own setups but, what panel would you recommend?

I have a Texecom unit at the moment which has been very good.

[prestigesec]

Texecom best you can buy from there budget C8 and R8 panels upto the premier grade 3 panels they are all excellent and i wouldnt touch anything else. They win award after award and make my life so much easier as you very very rarely get anything faulty from them which is great for me as i never get called out.

[Kevin Wood]

... for an average alarm system i would charge £52 a year for a maintenance contract covering alarm for parts, labour and call out for 12 months which i think is quite reasonable...

Yes, not unreasonable. Like Mark, I suspect, I am able to look after it myself so I would prefer to do so.

It was the manner in which the previous company tried to extract the money from me rather than the cost that got my goat.. Saying that it would render my insurance invalid and threatening to come and remove the alarm (with no legal basis to do so) if I didn't pay up. Words engineered to extract money out of the vulnerable IMHO, and that really gets me fired up, I'm afraid.

Anyway, I'd also be interested in your recommendations for a panel as mine has a couple of doubled up zones now. I've got a few Texecom PIRS which I seem to recall being impressed with when I installed them.

Kevin

[Marks DTM Calib]

Texecom best you can buy from there budget C8 and R8 panels upto the premier grade 3 panels they are all excellent and i wouldnt touch anything else. They win award after award and make my life so much easier as you very very rarely get anything faulty from them which is great for me as i never get called out.

Thats good news, I did replace the transformer on my Excel setup (Which I guess is just an R8+ with LCD keypad) as its a bit on the noisey side.

Chose the Excel due to LCD keypad making config etc a little easier although the PC interface also seems to function well.

[Auto Addict]

I have my own security business installing alarm systems, CCTV systems etc, the best thing you can do is have it serviced once a year to make sure everything is in order and any problems will be picked up straight away. People have this general conception that once you have an alarm installed then thats it for life unfortunatly its not as the most common fault is your back up battery in the alarm panel failing after a number of years then you baisically burn the back of the alarm panel causing a number of faults including going off for no reason in the middle of the night. Hope this helps a little.

Mine gets serviced every year and the battery changed every 2 years.....but then I have a good supply of free batteries!

Only time it goes off is if I set it off by opening the garage door without dissarming it!

I have to say that I think the maintenance timers and not providing the engineer codes/boss engineer codes to the customer is a little naughty.

Mine is serviced every 12 months as well, never gone off without reason since fitted, 18 years ago.

No movement sensors, just impact and closure sensors on all doors and windows.

[prestigesec]

To be honest you cant really go wrong with anything texecom its all good, if you want extra care against false alarms then go for a dual tech sensor which is an IR and microwave sensor in same unit, both have to be triggered to cause an alarm (more expensive tho).

I assume when you are saying your looking after your own alarm you are obviously all up on resistence levels on your alarm cable and know what levels mean you have a problem and what means ok, also your correct charging rates for battery plus rate at which voltage dropped from battery per zone on alarm and have the correct equipment to measure this??

[Marks DTM Calib]

... for an average alarm system i would charge £52 a year for a maintenance contract covering alarm for parts, labour and call out for 12 months which i think is quite reasonable...

Yes, not unreasonable. Like Mark, I suspect, I am able to look after it myself so I would prefer to do so.

It was the manner in which the previous company tried to extract the money from me rather than the cost that got my goat.. Saying that it would render my insurance invalid and threatening to come and remove the alarm (with no legal basis to do so) if I didn't pay up. Words engineered to extract money out of the vulnerable IMHO, and that really gets me fired up, I'm afraid.

Anyway, I'd also be interested in your recommendations for a panel as mine has a couple of doubled up zones now. I've got a few Texecom PIRS which I seem to recall being impressed with when I installed them.

Kevin

Yes price is very good for those less technically minded than ourselves.

Makes British gas maintenance plans look a rip off!

[prestigesec]

Texecom best you can buy from there budget C8 and R8 panels upto the premier grade 3 panels they are all excellent and i wouldnt touch anything else. They win award after award and make my life so much easier as you very very rarely get anything faulty from them which is great for me as i never get called out.

Thats good news, I did replace the transformer on my Excel setup (Which I guess is just an R8+ with LCD keypad) as its a bit on the noisey side.

Chose the Excel due to LCD keypad making config etc a little easier although the PC interface also seems to function well.

Thats pretty much what the excell is to be honest although i have only ever fitted one of them as myself and most engineers tend jump into the premier range after the R8. But dont worry you have made a good choice as i said before all the texecom range is good.

[Marks DTM Calib]

To be honest you cant really go wrong with anything texecom its all good, if you want extra care against false alarms then go for a dual tech sensor which is an IR and microwave sensor in same unit, both have to be triggered to cause an alarm (more expensive tho).

I assume when you are saying your looking after your own alarm you are obviously all up on resistence levels on your alarm cable and know what levels mean you have a problem and what means ok, also your correct charging rates for battery plus rate at which voltage dropped from battery per zone on alarm and have the correct equipment to measure this??

Yup.

The battery charge setup on mine is somewhat modifed (by myself) to improve the battery life as the standard charger setup is a little crude.

Its funny because I always look at the control panel and think, I ought to design one of these myself but, never got round to it.

[prestigesec]

... for an average alarm system i would charge £52 a year for a maintenance contract covering alarm for parts, labour and call out for 12 months which i think is quite reasonable...

Yes, not unreasonable. Like Mark, I suspect, I am able to look after it myself so I would prefer to do so.

It was the manner in which the previous company tried to extract the money from me rather than the cost that got my goat.. Saying that it would render my insurance invalid and threatening to come and remove the alarm (with no legal basis to do so) if I didn't pay up. Words engineered to extract money out of the vulnerable IMHO, and that really gets me fired up, I'm afraid.

Anyway, I'd also be interested in your recommendations for a panel as mine has a couple of doubled up zones now. I've got a few Texecom PIRS which I seem to recall being impressed with when I installed them.

Kevin

Yes price is very good for those less technically minded than ourselves.

Makes British gas maintenance plans look a rip off!

Doesnt make them look like a rip off, it is a rip off.

I hear so many horror stories of what people charge to come out and look at things its crazy, but saying that with the price of fuel and car tax now prices are always going to rise. Personally i couldnt charge silly amounts for going to house for 2mins, but then again people will say your not paying for how long it takes to fix your paying for what that person knows in his profession

[Kevin Wood]

Doesnt make them look like a rip off, it is a rip off.

I hear so many horror stories of what people charge to come out and look at things its crazy, but saying that with the price of fuel and car tax now prices are always going to rise. Personally i couldnt charge silly amounts for going to house for 2mins, but then again people will say your not paying for how long it takes to fix your paying for what that person knows in his profession

Try calling British Gas out at 3 AM too!  

Kevin

[prestigesec]

... for an average alarm system i would charge £52 a year for a maintenance contract covering alarm for parts, labour and call out for 12 months which i think is quite reasonable...

Yes, not unreasonable. Like Mark, I suspect, I am able to look after it myself so I would prefer to do so.

It was the manner in which the previous company tried to extract the money from me rather than the cost that got my goat.. Saying that it would render my insurance invalid and threatening to come and remove the alarm (with no legal basis to do so) if I didn't pay up. Words engineered to extract money out of the vulnerable IMHO, and that really gets me fired up, I'm afraid.

Anyway, I'd also be interested in your recommendations for a panel as mine has a couple of doubled up zones now. I've got a few Texecom PIRS which I seem to recall being impressed with when I installed them.

Kevin

A texecom R8 would do you fine which has 8 zones if you want more zones and fancy the challenge of the phone book as a programing manual then go for the premier with flush mounted keypad in satin chrome with prox tag looks great.

[Kevin Wood]

... for an average alarm system i would charge £52 a year for a maintenance contract covering alarm for parts, labour and call out for 12 months which i think is quite reasonable...

Yes, not unreasonable. Like Mark, I suspect, I am able to look after it myself so I would prefer to do so.

It was the manner in which the previous company tried to extract the money from me rather than the cost that got my goat.. Saying that it would render my insurance invalid and threatening to come and remove the alarm (with no legal basis to do so) if I didn't pay up. Words engineered to extract money out of the vulnerable IMHO, and that really gets me fired up, I'm afraid.

Anyway, I'd also be interested in your recommendations for a panel as mine has a couple of doubled up zones now. I've got a few Texecom PIRS which I seem to recall being impressed with when I installed them.

Kevin

A texecom R8 would do you fine which has 8 zones if you want more zones and fancy the challenge of the phone book as a programing manual then go for the premier with flush mounted keypad in satin chrome with prox tag looks great.

 

Kevin