phone watch wired v wireless

Gordy6040

Hi guys
my house is pre wired for an alarm. For some reason phone watch reps keep trying to sell me a wireless alarm . I reckon they are interested in the battery replacement revenue, wireless would most likely be more (for me) expensive to maintain. Am I being cynical? What do you reckon? Is there any benefits to wireless over wired from a security point of view.?

kub

Phonewatch will do the following:

They will install a system made of of a few beams with cameras in them.

They will charge you for monitoring the alarm, the dearest company in the country.

Once they have installed the system, you will not be able to move the monitoring to another company as you may have noticed a lot of posters here query about doing. The new control panel they now use will only connect with their own monitoring station.

You have mentioned that your house is pre wired for an alarm, is that to all perimeter doors and windows?

The best system that you could get is a perimeter system made up of inertia shock sensors and contacts to all of your external windows and doors and a few passive infrared beams just as back up. Then get the system connected to any of the dozens of monitoring stations in this country.

I would recommend that you get at least 3 quotes from PSA licensed installers in your own area.

And by the way, I may be old fashioned but I prefer a physical connection between devices than a wireless one, even though there have been massive improvements in wireless technology over the years.
I cam say for definite that a wired connection if obviously done correctly cannot be bypassed, I cannot say the same about wireless, at the end of the day it is on a particular frequency. ...a bit extreme though to be honest.

But every few years those batteries will have to be changed in those wireless devices.

Evolution1

Stay away from phonewatch. They need to seriously reduce the monitoring costs.
I like a mix of both rf and wired.
a wired system is just as reliable as a wireless system. Im not a fan of keyfobs though.
both can be bypassed no matter how well they are installed . But theyd be quicker to just let them go off. The average scum wont know how to to this

Phonewatch dont use jam detect on their earlier systems and the jam detect will only work while connected to a monitoring station. Id class their gear as grade 1. The simon system doesnt even have an event log so i dont know how their systems conform to any standards.

kub

We all know as installers how that standards were changed to suit Phonewatch systems.

20 years ago we moved away from the panels with the keypads on board to systems with remote keypads. Therefore the actual control panel was elsewhere in the building.
PW come along with a Nynex panel, then a Simon, both with keyboards on board panels. They were also the ones who introduced fobs to alarm systems which in my own opinion are just way too convenient for a security system

Evolution1

I love now how they are telling potential customers that they have come up with an ingenius way to stop thieves from smashing the panels upon entry. That theyve designed a system with a seperate panel and keypad. they make false claims that its other companies panels that are the main cause of this even though its theirs.. its a joke. The claims around the domonial are no better.. instant photos to the monitoring station when it takes 4-5 mins.