Guardian Home Technologies (Charlotte: month to, fence, price)

[evan1229]

what have other people's experiences been with vendors like Guardian or CPI or others used by area builders?

[crzipilot]

Used Guardian, wasn't impressed one bit. Part of the blame could go to myself, as not doing enough research in the latest gadgets and such, and what was required. Biggest thing was the Directv hookup. Now of course explained to the sales rep, what my setup was ultimately going to be. As the other poster said, he got 5 cable runs to outside of the house, directv definately needs this if your going to do HD and DVR in multiple rooms. Also their Wall mount LCD package, asked about HDMI cables, rep said couldn't do a run as long as I wanted, signal degredation, and costs too much. Well the run was only about 20' and found a company in Concord (firefold I think) that sells long runs of HDMI cables (up to 75' for about 30.00) Ended up not using any of the wires in Guardians Wall mount package. Also if you want Direct TV with HD and DVR, make sure you have two cable outlets run to where your DVR box is going to be, or else you'll have more head aches.

Also didn't like how Guardian did their sales pitch. Had two meeting with them, (they mentioned free alarm briefly at first meeting) At end of 2nd meeting he slides over the paperwork for all the wiring and such, and says just sign here, that'll be a 5 yr commitment at 35/month. Look at him and ask, WTF for??? Well the alarm, no you said the alarm was free. Well yes, but you have to pay for monitoring, I don't want it for 35/month, well that's what it is, and for 5 years.......So I told him what I thought of such tactics and promptly told him to get out of my sight.......

[redlikemethodz]

Originally Posted by crzipilot

Used Guardian, wasn't impressed one bit. Part of the blame could go to myself, as not doing enough research in the latest gadgets and such, and what was required. Biggest thing was the Directv hookup. Now of course explained to the sales rep, what my setup was ultimately going to be. As the other poster said, he got 5 cable runs to outside of the house, directv definately needs this if your going to do HD and DVR in multiple rooms. Also their Wall mount LCD package, asked about HDMI cables, rep said couldn't do a run as long as I wanted, signal degredation, and costs too much. Well the run was only about 20' and found a company in Concord (firefold I think) that sells long runs of HDMI cables (up to 75' for about 30.00) Ended up not using any of the wires in Guardians Wall mount package. Also if you want Direct TV with HD and DVR, make sure you have two cable outlets run to where your DVR box is going to be, or else you'll have more head aches.

Also didn't like how Guardian did their sales pitch. Had two meeting with them, (they mentioned free alarm briefly at first meeting) At end of 2nd meeting he slides over the paperwork for all the wiring and such, and says just sign here, that'll be a 5 yr commitment at 35/month. Look at him and ask, WTF for??? Well the alarm, no you said the alarm was free. Well yes, but you have to pay for monitoring, I don't want it for 35/month, well that's what it is, and for 5 years.......So I told him what I thought of such tactics and promptly told him to get out of my sight.......

I sure hope Gaurdian didn't also tell you about needing two cable outlets for HD and DVR. I don't know about DirecTV but Dish Network can you use 1 line to send SD and HD channels to both tuners on a dual Tuner DVR receiver. I have this setup at my home. Here's some examples of how they do it:

http://rweb.echostar.com/departmenta...ProPlus_FG.pdf

Cable installers, and in this case Guardian, obviously get paid more to run more lines. So they usually neglect to mention this option.

At my previous home, when the Dish Network installer came out to setup my dual tuner DVR box, he went over this long explination of how he was going to run a cable on my garage ceiling and into my living room. I said no thanks, just use a diplexer (signal combiner). I've never had a second line run. = )

[crzipilot]

Well again, don't know the specifics and such, but the directtv box needed 2 lines run to it. Guy threw me a multisplitter and said when I wanted to activate the boxes in my other rooms just hook the switch up and it should work. Well it didn't, the DVR box lost signal from one of the satelites. Unhook the switch and it worked fine. Ended up running the extra 2 lines myself from outside to my control box. Then Directtv came back out and ran the extra two lines from the dish to the 2 new lines. Hooked the switch up and have signal in all rooms now. Didn't pay for any of the extra work from directtv, but there was a lot of nail and hair pulling and took about a month and 5 service calls to get it straightened out.

[Tober138]

Originally Posted by evan1229

I'm interested in doing whole house audio and some internet drops throughout the house, maybe an intercom. I think window taps are a must. If you have the motions, that's great, but if you're at home and have system set with motions off, someone could pry open window -- not break it and set off your glass breakage -- and be in with you!

Curious what the 1K Guardian system bought you?

Actually I mis-spoke, it was about $1500. That was to have all 4 doors wired (front, back, door from garage to house and the patio door), 2 motion sensors, window contacts and glass break on the ground floor, 2 smoke detectors, 2 heat sensors, 2 keypads and one keyfob (although I will likely just stick it in a drawer and give it to the occasional house guest - I know someone who had one and they had their heys and wallet stolen and then they were worried someone knew their address and could shut off their security system)

[Tober138]

Originally Posted by crzipilot

Used Guardian, wasn't impressed one bit. Part of the blame could go to myself, as not doing enough research in the latest gadgets and such, and what was required...

So far have had no problems (but then again our house is still under construction). Our rep gave us all of the prices up front - 5 years did not seem unreasonable as we are thinking we will be in the house for 5-7 years anyways. Other than security, the only other major work we did was have them run in-wall surround in the media room - only because we just wanted to have it done at move in. Other than that, we just had them run a few extra phone jacks and do a few extra pre-wires. But we knew exactly what we wanted in terms of wiring, so we were able to explain what we wanted and ask up front what they could and could not do. And we left out a few things we know we can do ourselves.

[evan1229]

Guardian and CPI -- folks we are dealing with now -- seem to be about similar in price. I've heard good and bad things about both. CPI seems to have been here for awhile, Guardian is newer.

[nc2sc778]

Originally Posted by evan1229

Anybody ever dealt with them for new construction services? Prices seem awful high, but I'm sure you can negotiate. I was curious about the quality of the work and the quality of the equipment they use, specifically with security systems. $110 per window contact seems steep, but you need all of your bottom floor windows contacted I'd say b/c if you're home with alarm set to no motion so you can move around, someone could pry open the window and you wouldn't know.

If the work is being done during construction $110 a window is high. If the work is to be done after the interior of the home is complete, $110 a window is reasonable. A lot changes when the interior is done. Keep in mind a window contact costs about $2 and the cable is not expensive so most is labor. Labor is MUCH more intense on a completed interior. If you want each room in a differen zone the panel may cost more. Watch out for monitoring contracts too. My advise is to put all the cabling you can into the walls before the drywall goes up- if you have the opportunity.

[nc2sc778]

I forgot to add- in my dealings with ADT and CPI, they came out of the gate wanting a 5 year contract and all I had to do was ask to get it reduced to 3 years. 5 years is a long time to pay for a service if you end up not liking the company.

[evan1229]

Good points, NC/SC. I ended up getting 85 per windwo from Guardian and CPI did 75 per window. I don't know how that fares down that way but seemed reasonable to me. CPI will also do the whole house wiring that we want. Now we have to find a good fence contractor.