Cowboy Installer

[Specialist]

Went to a callout this morning, large'ish shop with intermittent alarming problem & now won't arm. System was originally installed by a Large National who were dropped recently because the owners were sick of having to call them out for false alarms.

They called me as I was local & gave them a Discount card a few weeks ago, so I went to check the system & try find the problem

Went to the panel & immediately spotted faults 1,2 & 3: Panel powered via a 13a plug into the socket at the side of it, 0.5mm 3 core flex for supply, 13a fuse fitted in plug & that's before even opening the panel.

Opened panel & find nice 7 A/H battery dated 2001 & with a hole in the side of it, Internal fuse wired out with strands of wire, Zone wiring wrapped around incoming flex.

Decided to check rest of system to see what other joys there were: Cables feeding 2 Zones passed through a hole in the wall along with the 2.5mm mains to the socket feeding the panel, other side of wall 1 cable stapled up the corner to a PIR & other along top of skirting to a door contact. Cable to rear office stapled along ceiling line to outside of office & the passes through the doorstop into the office, cable crushed by closing of the door. RKP in rear corridor about a foot inside entry door & mounted directly above light switch. In the main shop area they have a PIR mounted above a doorway & facing a big plate glass window about 3m away.

Looked at system paperwork & the system was only service by installer a few months ago, service log paperwork shows that system has been false alarming reasonably regularly for over a year, I wonder why.

Now that's what I call 1 C**P install, waiting for the shopkeeprs decision now on having a new system installed.

[Guest Oxo]

I told you before, stop telling tales about my installs!

[Specialist]

I told you before, stop telling tales about my installs!

[alterEGO]

nothing new, they may have taken over the system, the customer may have moved the spur and temp job was never sorted as customer wouldn't pay etc etc still a joke and we would have put right or walked away. Was it monitored?

[james.wilson]

Yep sounds pretty bad. Any pics including logos maybe?

[MrHappy]

locally theres a certain national which will sticker anything, even then they stuggle to cover logos, or have half the label peeling off

[jnealon]

This is fairly typical around here. If they are really good they use mini trunking

[Specialist]

nothing new, they may have taken over the system, the customer may have moved the spur and temp job was never sorted as customer wouldn't pay etc etc still a joke and we would have put right or walked away. Was it monitored?

According to the paperwork, the National installed the system originally in 1999 & maintained until recently & according to the owner that's how they left it. Plug actually has the Nationals logo on it, again according to their paperwork system was monitored until 2 years ago when it was changed to Local sounder only with 2 sounders being fitted. Totally agree with you, but with the way the system is installed & the wiring run I would'nt be happy doing a takeover (Might be crazy but i'm no masochist)so told them they needed a new system or to get someone else in.

Yep sounds pretty bad. Any pics including logos maybe?

Will take pics when I go back to rip the old out & fit the new, including the Logo's on the nice little Blue bell boxes.

[norman]

seen loads on plug tops, mainly due to sub not getting spurr in time but insisting on working system, document and advise.

[Guest Oxo]

seen loads on plug tops, mainly due to sub not getting spurr in time but insisting on working system, document and advise.

QFA