Redcare Failing Monthlyish

[wotsupnow]

We are a business in Sth Mcr, for the last 2 yrs we've had the redcare go down ( oddly around 7pm each time ) at 1,2 sometimes 3 month intervals. EMCS ring our keyholder when it goes off, keyholder inspects building, we come in following day and ring alarm maintainers who 'up the stu' and we're ok again. The maintainers won't 'up the stu' at night as they say we need to phone BT and have the line checked first ( which most times we haven't done ). The maintainers looked at our redcare unit and said it's got a sticker on it "guaranteed till 1998 " and needs replacing ,

[shinfieldmonkey]

wouldn't of thought it was the stu

9/10 redcare faults i have on my patch are due to bt engineers switching lines over this is usuall done after business hours

to stop disruption (and they should also tell any monitoring stations )

[james.wilson]

You shouldnt have to sort it out but if you dont call the alarm company at the time then you will need to let them know.

YOu do need to get this resolved you cannot leave it like that.

It could be the stu, or the power to the stu by the sounds of it.

DO you have a maint contract? And what is the

[wotsupnow]

You shouldnt have to sort it out but if you dont call the alarm company at the time then you will need to let them know.

YOu do need to get this resolved you cannot leave it like that.

It could be the stu, or the power to the stu by the sounds of it.

DO you have a maint contract? And what is the

[Guest RJBsec]

You should not be "left vulnerable overnight", get your maintainers emergency callout number or get another maintainer. There may be an equipment fault at the panel end or with BT but if it's easy to resolve at 9am it's probably just as easy to resolve at 7pm! HOWEVER, any faulty parts on your equipment may well need to be paid for.

[james.wilson]

rjb sounds like an upproved company so they may not do out of hours. But OP as RJB says leaving you vulnerble out of ours is unacceptable.

If an 'Up' command fixes it then id still suggest power problems or stu probs, could be a dry joint on the panel or stu. Or a bad connection. If it was one of our sites we carry spares so could swap the stu and test (assuming its a classic redcare)

But worst case you should be on a temp digi till its resolved. DOes your insurance know that once a monthish you have no alarm? how do they feel on this subject? Do they also know that if something serious happened you wouldnt get it fixed that night (at least partially)?

[A-G]

Also worth checking if your installer has efficacy insurance in case your insurers declare your cover invalid

[Joe Harris]

I'd make three suggestions.

1) Check that there is no other equipment connected to the line which is kicking in at a certain time of day (19:00 for example) things to check are streamline machines and the like.

2) If upping the STU works immediately then perhaps ask your ARC to put in place a 'special action' for dealing with Line faults. Something along the line of:

'If a line fault is received between the hours of 18:30 and 20:00 please attempt to UP the STU and suspend the alarm for 5 minutes. If the STU recovers then no further action is required. If the STU remains in no response 5 minutes after attempting to UP the STU then contact keyholders to advise.'

The danger of this approach is that you could have a 5 minute delay to a genuine cut line. You need to ask yourself if the risk outweighs the benifits of this and notify all relevant persons as to the change in procedure.

This would at least provide the ARC with a practical short term solution and allow you some peace.

3) This does need to be rectified at some point. I would strongly suggest that if possible you perform a line test during the time in which the STU is in fault. BT typically state that there is no fault on the line. Only after an engineer has attended and checked all the alarm equipment will they often 'discover' a fault.

Good luck and keep us posted.

'J

[wotsupnow]

Hmmm, thanks for your suggestions, approval was mentioned so I went in search of the maintainers website, reads really well....

They are NSI gold status and have been around nearly 20yr .

quote "xxxxx engineers are trained to the highest level in electronic security systems including; CCTV, access control, intruder alarms, fire alarms and more

[Joe Harris]

Have a word with your ARC Pete.

The company that provides the maintenance for your system needs to get the fault resolved. The arc can at least help speed the process up in the meantime by working collaberatively with you and the maintainer.

I am sure that the maintainer is keen to resolve the downtime issue however I am sure I can speak for many installers here when I say it is difficult to get a response or resolution from the telephony provider at times.

EMCS are a good crowd and will do their best to assist in getting this resolved (I'm sure they enjoy seeing the repeated activations as much as you do ).

Have a word with them and see what they suggest.

Also - one question - are your telephone lines provided by BT or a 3rd party provider?

'J