Recommend me a house alarm please?

Oh My God!

I leave the forum for a little while and come back to all these hysterics.

Sadly some people have let their cover slip. 'Alarm' I am surprised at you I thought you were different.
You certainly don't seem to mind the possiblility of being sued for libel your insurance as you say must be good.

I could let everyone continue to spout on making their inner persona available for all to see-

Would anyone here like Europlex or Alarm to enter their homes?

Lets just put some FACTS on the table here before everyone on BOTH sides loses sight of the TRUTH.

Domestic alarms

1/ requirements

If you want an insurance approved alarm or if your Insurance company insists you have an alarm installed as a condition of insurance cover then YOU MUST HAVE A PROFESSIONALLY INSTALLED ALARM TO GRADE 2 STD installed by an approved NSI or SSIA installer.

If that is your requirements DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT FITTING A DIY ALARM.

2/ police response to alarms

THE POLICE WILL NOT 'GUARANTEE' TO RESPOND TO YOUR ALARM.
They will respond if you haven't lost that right by either you or the company that installed it registering too many false alarms.
If you haven't lost your response rights then THE POLICE WILL RESPOND BUT ONLY IF THEY HAVE RESOURCES AVAILABLE.
If you live in a rural area a response may be too late anyway if you life in a built up area then if its busy then they may not be able to respond dependent on what other work 'traffic accidents' 'town centre drunks' etc they have on and the cover they have available.
Typically an area in North Leeds with three officers covering 300,000 residents including surrounding rural areas has three officer on duty at night and a response to an incident took 45mins.
Lets also remember that when your alarm notification goes through the Police will be notified that a domestic burglary is taking place. They know that unless they arrive within 10 minutes the chances of catching someone on site are slim. The probablity is that car keys and a car may be stolen along with ipods and phones and possibly a flat screen tv if they get the car to drive it away. All covered by insurance usually.
Why waste resources going to an event after it has happened when paperwork and other tasks can be completed later.

3. Bells only alarms

If you have a bells only alarm even if fitted by a professional company to professional standards and grades the police will NOT RESPOND to it UNLESS there is witness evidence to back up the fact that it isn't simply a false alarm. If your neighbours alarm goes off and you call the police unless you confirm actually seeing someone on site or evidence of a break in they will not respond.

IN THIS RESPECT A DIY ALARM IS EXACTLY THE SAME AS A PROFESSIONAL ALARM

Provided a DIY system has been fitted correctly it will give exactly the same service that a professional alarm does.

THE POLICE WILL RESPOND TO A BELLS ONLY DIY ALARM IN EXACTLY THE SAME WAY THEY WOULD RESPOND TO A PROFESSIONAL ALARM if they receive the same witness evidence of someone on site or evidence of a break in.

4/ Insurance

If your home insurance is say £400 you may get a £40 to £60 discount on your policy if you get an approved alarm fitted.
However your alarm to be compliant MUST be services at an annual cost of around £65 to £85.

If you have an alarm system fitted as part of your insurance conditions or if you have received a discount for having an alarm fitted then read your small print.
IF YOU ARE BURGLED AND EITHER YOU HAVE NOT SERVICED YOUR ALARM OR YOU FORGOT TO SET IT BEFORE GOING OUT YOU MAY NOT RECEIVE AN INSURANCE PAY OUT IF YOU ARE BURGLED

If you fit a DIY alarm and you do not inform your insurers it has been installed -Even if you have not set it or even if it isn't working you will STILL GET PAID OUT IF YOU ARE BURGLED because you haven't made it a part of your insurance contract.

5/ people

On this site professional alarm installers jump on anyone thinking of fitting a DIY alarm.
Can you think why this is?
Is it possibly because they earn money fitting alarms and discouraging people fitting their own has a vested commercial interest for them?
Many of the comments from professionals are also in the belief that only professional products are up to the job.
A badly installed DIY alarm will indeed be a poor security investment and they may indeed have their heart in the right place , however they are obviously unaware that a properly fitted one can actually work and work very well. The current range of alarms have been selling for three years in their current guise and they are still on the shelves of the big multiples today. Any quality issues would have ensured they were either not on sale or that enough trading standards cases would have stopped their sale. This has not happened because the products do in fact fulfil their brief.

6/ Balance

Some of the views of the professionals on here are correct. If I was to survey a house for an alarm and they did too they would come up I am sure with a very similar solution to providing protection as I would just using products from different packaging.
It is nonsense to dismiss a DIY alarm as carp or poo as there is absolutely no evidence to back up the fact they are not fit for purpose.
An incorrectly fitted or maintained alarm either DIY or PRO will not work properly its common sense.
A correctly fitted DIY or PRO alarm will give good service

I have over 400 alarms installed all DIY products with myself as the contact should a system fail under warranty (2yrs) I never get any call outs. They all perform faultlessly or if a user has problems its usually a usage issue that can be resolved over the phone. I am only generally contacted when the systems need new batteries after 2 yrs.

Its bad for me from a financial point of view as I don't get to charge for any repair or service visits but the customers don't complain obviously.

Firstly I am not Yaleguy3 so lets not go down that pathetic route

secondly NO so called PRO installer has provided any evidence that DIY alarms are not up to the job.

Why don't you contact the BBC WATCH DOG programme if you are so confident and say these alarms are not fit for purpose using YOU'RE real names or have you not got the bottle?

You won't because its all hot air and BS and scaremongering


You should all be BANNED for slandering a companies systems and therefore bringing this website into disrepute

By the way it's EU regs we work to now not BS

When you, spacecat, become an approved alarm engineer / company I will listen to your informed comments about how alarm systems are regulated / installed etc.

Until that day arrives I strongly suggest you read and understand what has been said, because at the moment, you don't.

As YOU said about yourself before " I am as far from an alarm engineer as you can imagine " - why then don't you read and try to understand what has been said, perhaps you don't want to admit that you might be wrong?

Getting all emotional in your posts can't be doing you any good, calm down.

yaleguy3

5/ Wrong, it's usually because of all the miss-information gleaned from people like spacedcat who do not know what they are talking about.

In general about your post - not a bad explanation of 'how it is', guess who will read it and not take it all in though.

The professionals including yourself do not have any idea what we are talking about, do we?

At the end of the day an alarm is little more than a glorified automatic doorbell. It doesn't really matter how it operates as long as it does. You can add all the bells and whistles you like but it doesn't alter the fact.

I've never fitted a Yale type alarm but having seen the street that Yale Guy lives on - I might just start.

Y ou can quote regs until you are blue in the face doesn't change the facts of which I have seen none.
They make no difference in the REAL world

Are DIY alarms fit for purpose
If you say no Prove it, go on the public record

Are DIY alarms fit for purpose
If you say no Prove it, go on the public record

Click to expand...

If fitted by the average muppet no/
Public enough?
Same as some pee poor Nationals as well, in case your going down that road.
As before we take a Risk assesment and then have insurance to cover us in the case of a malfunction.

When you, spacecat, become an approved alarm engineer / company I will listen to your informed comments about how alarm systems are regulated / installed etc.

Until that day arrives I strongly suggest you read and understand what has been said, because at the moment, you don't.

Click to expand...

Well said.
Your the one scare mongering, we are giving advice, good too.

I suspect Yale 3 could cut it in our game with the way he conducts himself in quality respects.
Might have to learn about CCTV and a few other bits too. But hey thats what we do!


Also, why have you no thanks rated ?
Pretty obvious really, your not as good as you think.



~PS

Sadly some people have let their cover slip. 'Alarm' I am surprised at you I thought you were different.
You certainly don't seem to mind the possiblility of being sued for libel your insurance as you say must be good

Click to expand...

I said what I have seen, no more no less. Make out of it what you may.
Truth often hurts.

you have just backtracked from you' re position
If installed by the average muppet who ever they are that means if not then they are just as good!

You try to make out like this is some magical art, the average muppet CAN install a diy alarm that's the whole point!

Its not hard to do and the results are really no different on an average basis than getting someone like you to do it.

Yaleguy3 has seen a gap in the market and his posts indicate that people with diy alarms are not complaining of failures to work, they are reliable and basically do the same job
For one quarter of the price

Face the facts the future isn't looking bright for you is it, you better take up another scam

All we need now are easy self install boilers and double glazing and its game over for

Ooooooooh its gonna cost yah brigade

Not back tracked whatsoever.
Reread.

I`ll be glad if people didnt need alarms, save a lot of heartache.
But they do and need them as well as locks, CCTV, Fire detection. So not going to be that bothered about your rants and slurs.
Carry on looking like someone without a clue.

Alarm said:

Reread.

Click to expand...

Don't be silly, he has not read anything else you've written.

point 1 posting on a forum with a made up name is NOT on the public

record you plum.



Point 2 . You have said that DIY alarms are NOT up to the job many times. Now you are saying only if they are fitted by a MUPPET!

Therefore If they are fitted NOT by a MUPPET are you now saying they are FIT FOR PURPOSE? YES or NO?

If YOU say NO put your REAL NAME behind the statement in On a REAL PUBLIC RECORD .........................methinks not somehow

Point 3. A DIY alarm can be fitted by ANYONE with basic DIY skills if they fit them correctly then they are FIT FOR PURPOSE!


Point4. People will always defend any point no matter how untenable
No matter what evidence is put before them if MONEY is riding on the outcome. WHY should I trust yours or indeed the word of any 'PRO' installer on the deterrent factor of the systems YOU do for a living compared to a DIY system.

Are you really going to be OBJECTIVE about it and say that an alarm that anyone can put in is basically as much as a deterrent as a DIY even if it were true?

Of course you will not because it will lose you money


Technology is catching up with people such as yourself and so is the recession. As money gets tighter and technology gets better more systems like alarms are going to get cheaper and easier to install and will be sold in the DIY arena because ANYONE can now install a decent system in a few hours.

Not one of you have come up with a SHRED of verifiable evidence to suggest otherwise , No STATS, NO research Nothing just your own BIASED and in some cases blatantly MADE UP opinions.

Go on TELL YALE THEIR SYSTEMS ARE NO GOOD PUBLICLY WITH YOUR REAL NAMES..............or ...............STFU

b+#@&x, c#@p, T**T, (B****X, different version of the first) & STFU

are the veiled obscenities used by spacecat in this thread.

It seems to me that this sort of 'language' is acceptable to DIYnot.com as the MODs, if there are still any here are quite happy to let it go.

I, and I expect most here were brought up with better manners.

Usually this sort of language shows a diarrhoea of words but a constipation of thoughts & understanding.

Perhaps nuff said other than MODs, if you are still about please close all this rubbish.