I am new to the alarm system business, and I am trying to decide which alarm system to buy. Every salemans says that their system is the best. Can someone give me an educated opinion of which system is best, DSC or Honeywell. Please tell my why you think so.

 

In my opinion, each has it's pros and cons.

The Ademco hardware has a _much_ better wireless system, in my opinion. It's easier to setup and generally better quality.

If you are trying to use the auxilary features, the setup and configuration is more complicated, and generally involves more propriatory add on parts.

They are rock solid panels, and generally last for a very good lifetime.


The DSC hardware is usually less expensive, and has a wider range of capibilities out of the box with nothing more than the use of a couple of inexpensive external relays. They have a pretty broad suite of add on parts.

DSC has two drawbacks that I consider major: The panels have a demonstrated sensitivity to voltage transients; if you live in a location where lightning storms are very common, invest in surge supression for both the incoming AC power and the telephone connection.

The other drawback is that a _lot_ of people have trouble following their installation instructions. All of the information is in the manuals, but it is oddly organized by most people's standards.


Really, what you have to do is look at what the end use of your installations will be, and pick the panel that has the features to do what you want and have some room for expansion (undersizing alarm panels is the worst mistake most installers make).

Basically Ademco is a better choice for a commercial installation, and DSC fits the consumer market better.