wireless alarms

chuckle bros · 9 Jun 2007

could somebody help me, i wish to install a wireless alarm, because i have just plastered my walls and i don't want to have conduit everywhere and i don't want to start chasing out my newly plastered walls, but somebody told me that they had a wireless alarm and they had nothing but bother, car fobs setting it off, taxi radios, mobiles and other signals interfering with it, is this so, or can someone recommend a brand name that does not have this problem.
cheers.

breezer · 9 Jun 2007

chuckle bros said:
can someone recommend a brand name that does not have this problem.
cheers.

no, is the short answer

more info clicky

and who said anything about condduit and chasing walls

chuckalicious · 10 Jun 2007

I have to step in here. I bought a wireless alarm from a website, which was an ESP Infinite wireless alarm, and I thought it was fantastic.

Without too much detail, it just did what it was supposed to. No false alarms, alarms when required (ie while testing), very very easy to install (if you can read a manual) and was much cheaper than the cheapest deal installed one I could find. Fair enough it didn't lower my insurance, but it was there to make us feel safer at home, which it did.

It was also fully modular, so at a later date I could add diallers, home automation modules, and any other sensors with no cables.....

This was running in a house with cordless phones, wireless internet, and a neighbour with a diferent type of wireless alarm (mine was better

). The shop I bought it from (link if you want one), will take the alarm back and give you your money back if you have any interference issues, which I didn't.

So if you want one that will lower your insurance premiums, and don't want to look after it yourself, get one installed, if you can handle changing batteries (I never had to, and I had it for over a year, so lets say you change the batteries once a year, and it tells you when that's required), then it's for you.

breezer · 10 Jun 2007

chuckalicious said:
and it tells you when that's required).

who needs that at 2 O'clock in the morning?

the other thing you failed to mention (in cost) is that of the batteries, lets be stingy and say 4 9v batteries, what are they £4 each? thats £16 a year, every year you have to fork out.

then waht happens if there is a problem, you cant call ghostbusters, suppose it comes up jamming (not the bob marley version) what is causing it, how you going to find out?

I once took a radio alarm out becuse the bloke had persistant jamming (still no bob marley) he knew why it was being jammed but there was nothing he could do about it, there was a radio ham moved in the same block radio ham had all his liceneces and was within the law, his kit just upset radio alarms, the poor bloke paid out twice, once for radio alarm then for hardwired alarm.

now tell me wireless alarms are good

lvsystems · 10 Jun 2007

Agree totally with breezer installed one in a very expensive house. This was an ademco galant system (similar to galaxy) we had absolutely nothing but problems. Called in the tech guys from ademco (now honeywell) they carried out radio surveys, rf interference surveys the lot. Came up with nothing. In the end company had to install a wired galaxy for free and refund the cost of original system cost company in the region of 3 grand

This was a high end system but uses similar technology if the can't make a decent one and eliminate faults don't hold out much hope for budget units.
Personal opinion only of course but at least with a wired system fault finding is straight forward. There are no extra maintenance costs and they are far more reliable. Also don't know if it's still the case but ones I have come across have a lock out feature to conserve battery life. E.g after setting system it took 3 minutes before a sensor would trigger. 3 minutes in which you drive away and the house is not protected. Unlikely but someone could watch you leave and slip in. Not good

bernardgreen · 10 Jun 2007

It is possible from outside the house to clone a sensor and then, using a more powerful transmitter speak over that sensor's signal and tell the control unit that the sensor is not seeing any intruder.

lvsystems · 10 Jun 2007

Dam knew i missed something from last post thanks for adding

bernardgreen · 10 Jun 2007

The other point is that a wireless system when set gives a different radio signal to when it is not set. So it is possible to tell from outside if the alarm is set or not.

breezer · 10 Jun 2007

sorrybernard green i have to dissagree on both points.

a radio pir will only tell the main panel when it sees something, hence they do as ivysystems said (sort of) go to sleep for 3 minutes.

you cant clone a sensor from outside, if you did the panel would go into alarm since that is what your clone just did.

every x mins each detector will send out a "i am still here" signal, if the panel does not receive all the signals within a given time it will realise one is missing and go into tamper alarm.

the alarm panel itself does not change state when set or unset, since it is receiving signals all day long as sensors are walked past and i am still here are received.

what it does do when set, is if a signal from a pir etc is received it then goes into full alarm condition, since it knows it has been set.

x can be up to several hours on some of the older wireless sytems

all that said they are still a pile of junk.

and have you heard about the new wireless alarm

it only has 2 cables

1 for the mains

1 for the telephone.

that is to say, NO bell cable, no cable to the keypad, as they too are both wireless. I kid you not.

and before you say it the keypad must be in its "holder" for the alarm to full set so it will still be there when the customer comes home.

my only concern will be what if the keypad goes nearly flat, alarm co cant get there before customer goes on holiday, and keypad goes flat on holiday, how do they turn it off? (they can't)

chuckalicious · 11 Jun 2007

Well, all I can say is I bought one and was more than happy with it. It didn't suffer any of the issues you all seem to have encountered (ie no 3 minute lag etc), so I guess we'll just agree to disagree

chuckle bros · 15 Jun 2007

thanks every one, great help, gives me something to think about,
according to Yale their new wireless alarm with a 433Mhz Radio signal will not be susceptible to interference from oter alarms CBs or Taxis etc
do you think this is true.

breezer · 15 Jun 2007

according to the laws of physics / aerodynamics , a bumble bee can not fly, but it does

or to put it another way

according to Yale their new wireless alarm with a 433Mhz Radio signal will not be susceptible to interference from oter alarms CBs or Taxis etc

means the their previous radio alarms WERE suseptable to RFI from taxis etc, which is what we have been trying to tell you all along, ALL wireless alarms are junk

Coniferman · 19 Jun 2007

breezer said:
lets be stingy and say 4 9v batteries, what are they £4 each?

£4 each !!! You can easily pick up even a duracell 9v for under half that online, postage paid.

Having said that my devices uses even cheaper AA's and D's for the alarm and last a MINIMUM of 4 years.

Not forgetting that wired systems have battery backups batteries that need replacing from time to time.

I suppose if you live near a taxi firm or a ham radio enthusiast and happen to choose a wireless alarm that happens to conflict its tough but for those that don't they are great IHMO (and experience).

How many cars nowadays don't use wireless keyfobs?

I suppose some people will forever say a CRT is better than an LCD, whilst the rest of us enjoy the benefits.

breezer · 19 Jun 2007

points / opinion noted, but you only have one alarm, let us leave it at that

ahdsh · 4 Jun 2009

I have fitted over a hundred YALE wirefree alarms in the past year and I have given 12months warranty and a freephone number to call.
So how many times have I been woken from my slumber at silly o'clock to fix a problem?
The answer is never.
Properly fitted they provide the service they are designed to do.
In all I have had one component 'failure' in all that time, which was an external siren flashing an led continually allthough the system still worked as designed other than that. YALE replaced the siren without question.
If you have particular security needs ie commercial property or a residential property with security issues then yes get a grade 2 or even 3 system installed and yes I would even suggest a hardwired alarm as the optimum.
However if you want an alarm to cover your property and you don't want to disrupt your decor then a modern wireless system will do the trick.

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wireless alarms

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