Which burglar alarm?

[srebbe64]

The burglar alarm in my house has gone to the great big mansion in the sky! As such, I need a new one. However, I'm guessing that things have progressed in the last twenty years or so. I'm looking for something which won't go off without good reason. Any suggestions?

[Drogo]

In my experience don't fit PIR's of any description.

We've just had a system fitted by a local Bromley company for £850, garage and house but I've had to put Gaffer tape over the PIR.

Door and window contacts only will be fine with us as the system will dial our phones if it triggers.
We also have some (unreliable at the moment) CCTV cameras.

[Magic919]

Have a look at Texecom.

[srebbe64]

Forgive my ignorance, but what is a PIR?

[SS2.]

Passive Infra-Red - aka motion sensor.

[dojo]

We went Texecom - was going to go with Risco but in the end from advice we took just seemed that Texecom was a little more solid... who knows - Very happy with the Texecom though.

[LotusMartin]

Magic919 said:

Have a look at Texecom.

Avoid Texecom. Mine has not lived up to expectations.

[Tahiti]

I've been looking at Pyronix kit recently. Any views on this?

[Salesy]

I normally use scantronic systems but have recently gone to Texecom.

PIR wise i tend to use bosch blue pet friendly.

[thebraketester]

Installed a honeywell system in my studio/shed... seems to work well and works straight out of the box with no setup.

[Podie]

Tahiti said:

I've been looking at Pyronix kit recently. Any views on this?

Had a wireless system installed by a local firm 4 years ago. No issues (even with PIRs).

Garage and house covered, and even smoke alarms connected.

[essayer]

No issues with my Texecom kit, except for the pretty shonky mobile notifications over wifi.

[smashie]

I have Texecom as well. Only issue is that the clock on the control pad runs very fast.

[padhinbed]

Have a look at HKC. The wireless system is quite good, self diagnostics and batteries last a while so your not constantly replacing them (the sensors go to sleep when the system is off so they aren't consuming power). It also has an app which allows you to see which wired zones are open (if any) so good for re-using any existing system remains. The wireless shock/contact sensors are also good as they detect potential break in and notify you where as when a PIR is activated, they are already in to the property.

[davgar]

can anyone share any links to a kit.
Having some work done in my house so could electrician to install.

[shtu]

Drogo said:

In my experience don't fit PIR's of any description.

We've just had a system fitted by a local Bromley company for £850, garage and house but I've had to put Gaffer tape over the PIR.

If that's happening, there's some form of problem with the install, not "PIRs are rubbish".

Trouble is, the installer needs to,

- Select the right sensor for the purpose. Different sensor types, eg, pet immune, dual or quad PIR, or dual-tech ones remove false alarms.
- Site it correctly. eg, Not in a draught. not in places with wide temperature changes, not pointing at windows or radiators, etc.
- Set it up correctly. There's several range\sensitivity adjustments available on even the cheapest ones.

You could look at enabling double-knock on that zone, but that's really not recommended.

[CAPP0]

Also look at Visonic. Mine's been in for several years, and no false alarms other then user-generated. You can also partition it so that, for instance, you can have the garage/mancave fully alarmed whilst you're at home and the home partition is disarmed.

[elanfan]

Drogo said:

In my experience don't fit PIR's of any description.

We've just had a system fitted by a local Bromley company for £850, garage and house but I've had to put Gaffer tape over the PIR.

Door and window contacts only will be fine with us as the system will dial our phones if it triggers.
We also have some (unreliable at the moment) CCTV cameras.

Crap advice - so if someone came through your window rather than opened it your alarm would not operate. If you have problems with your PIR then it's either faulty or there's an environmental reason that's tripping it. Either way get th company back to sort it out rather than generalising about PIR's - there millions of them out there working perfectly well. I've had alarms for 30 years and had 3 PIR's false alarm due to little insects getting inside. Once every 10 years ain't so bad!

[C&C]

CAPP0 said:

Also look at Visonic. Mine's been in for several years, and no false alarms other then user-generated. You can also partition it so that, for instance, you can have the garage/mancave fully alarmed whilst you're at home and the home partition is disarmed.

+1

Very flexible and reliable.

[Rollin]

I installed a wireless Texecom in our house about 3 months ago.
I wouldn't say it was straightforward, but it's been easy to use and reliable since.