There is no need to skimp on cable when wiring a house. By doing this it is very difficult to install a conventional alarm and nearly impossible if it is an apartment.The home owner should have some choice and not be limited to one type of alarm system. Any of the astec wired sites I have been on are dominated by one company.
I base my information from running my own company and getting feedback from other companies and wholesalers etc. Some have even got on to Mr Anderson about this.
I have also repaired a lot of astec alarms, more than I should considering their small market share. It is true that most of them are from poor wiring but some are down to poor design. On one instance the home owner was lucky that the panel did not go on fire as all the insulation on the wires inside the panel had melted
I don't get what you mean by skimp on cable?
The minimum a builder is going to use is 4 core.(Which is rare enough to see) Even with a house or apartment wired compleatly with 4 core A conventional syatem could be installed fully up to standards.
Have you never heard of dual wiring?
Have you never heard of common negitives?
Any good installer would have no problems installing a different make of system if the home owner requested it.
With regar to the panel you say nearly went on fire.I presume you are talking about the insulation on the mains wires.If so this would be a fault of the mains wiring going into the panel. Astecs mains fuse is of a very low rating (180ma or there abouts) so anthing after this fuse could not possibly heat up to melting point. if that evaluation is correct how can you fault Astec for this?
You say any
Astec wired sites are nearly dominated by one company.
How is that Astecs fault? There are literally hundreds of companys installing Astec systems. If one is dominating a site they are probobly more competitive on price & quality.
What do you base Astecs market share on? You have just said a lot of estates are dominated by the Astec system.
Thanks for the offer Colm but I'm not having any problems with the alarm, after initial problems were sorted out. I was just interested in getting some feedback from other users and /or installers.
JNealon, thanks for your feedback too, I accept what your saying regarding the small market share vs the number of faults you've come accross. I spoke to the designer Mr Anderson myself when I'd had problems and the whole panel was just replaced so I can't really complain.
However I wonder if either of you can tell whether the digi voice dialler used on Astec (and other) alarms is IS (or EN) compliant in terms of being a "monitored system"?
The IS199 standard is not based on any form of monitoring, so a Voice dialler being installed is irrelevent.
The newer EN50131 has different grades & central station monitoring may be a requirement for an alarm to pass on that grade.
To sum up. I have been using & installing Astec systems sine they came on the market. In that time I have found them extreemly reliable with very little problems. As I already stated, the way the astec system workes over conventional systems makes it less forgiving to bad connections, but this is usually down to bad installation. I have serviced & repaired a lot of astec systems. I have never once come across a case where a system nearly went on fire or anything like it.As with all Alarm systems Astec works on low voltage (12dc) which is very safe & almost impossible to heat to the extent of melting cables. Only a mains electrical fault could cause something like this.
We live in a compeditive society, where a lot of people are being ripped off. Consumers are more aware of the cost of things nowdays & most people shop around. I do not accept the way a house or apartment is wired will give any company an advantage over another. If jnealon feels he is being unjustly being done out of business I would suggest he contact the
competition authority . They would be only too happy to explain the act to him.