Remember when we had to run a separate wire for every single sensor?

I was looking at an old job file from 2008, a house in Tempe with 32 zones. That meant 32 individual wires, all bundled and snaked through the walls. It took two of us three full days just to pull the cable. Now, with a modern wireless hybrid panel, I could do that same job in one day, maybe a day and a half. The battery life on those sensors is so good now, you're not getting call backs. The time and material savings are huge. Anyone else still run into those old wired-only systems and just feel a wave of relief that we don't have to do that anymore?

2 comments

2 Comments

eric_martinez1d ago

Wait, you're not getting any callbacks on battery life? I still swap batteries in those wireless sensors every 2-3 years like clockwork. The old wired contacts from that era just work forever if the wire doesn't get cut.

andrewjohnson20h ago

Man, pulling all that wire was the worst. Eric_martinez has a point about batteries, but swapping a few every couple years beats that old cable nightmare. My back still hurts thinking about those bundles. The wireless stuff just saves so much time on the front end. Sure, you trade some long term upkeep for way less labor up front. Still feels like a win most days.