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Wired a keypad with 4-conductor phone wire back in 2005 and it still works fine, now I'd never use anything but shielded for alarm zones after chasing false alarms for 6 months
Has anyone else noticed the equipment fail rate went up after they started using that thinner 22-gauge stuff around 2018 or was that just my supplier getting a bad batch?
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lewis.drew1mo ago
Oh man, don't even get me started on that thin stuff. I swear they must've saved like three cents per foot and now we're all paying for it with service calls. I had one job where the insulation was so flimsy it basically melted together in the attic heat after two summers. Had to rip out a whole run and start fresh. Real penny-wise, pound-foolish move from the manufacturers if you ask me.
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fiona3321mo ago
That 2018 shift was RIGHT when I started noticing my Vista panels throwing random trouble signals on zones 2 and 3 specifically. Had one house where the 22-gauge ran through an unfinished basement with a dehumidifier running constant, and the humidity made that insulation get tacky and sticky within 18 months. Did you ever pull a piece out of a conduit and find the jacket had basically bonded to the other wires inside, or was that just my luck with a certain color batch?
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