Anyone bought one of these? is it just the box and no strobe? Buying an active bell box and was wondering to buy a dummy one as well but would prefer to have the strobe in it as well.
That one does not had a strobe in it, look at item 19644 on the screwfix site, but then it is not really a dummy box......
In message , George writes
Any thief worth his salt will be able to recognise a dummy box, it'll be a red Rag to a bull
Ok maybe I havn't made it clear in the post? I want an active sounder,strobe and box on the front of the house and a dummy box on the back of the house but preferably with a strobe in the dummy box and alls I wanted to know is whether this dummy box had a strobe inside as it has the same blue perspex panel on the bottom as the active box.
I wouldn't have thought so - the dummy box sells at £7.50.
Regards,
Hi George The box you picture is just an empty box. Dummy by the description is just that a fake. Some don't even have a backplate you just put 2 screws in the wall and hang the cover on. The majority of manufacturers now sell the same top cover and backplate for the dummy and the active units, the only difference being the electronics clipped onto the backplate. Supplying one with a strobe would entail wiring to the box so defeating the idea of a dummy ,that's why most installers fit active units . You could do this and just leave out the sounder feed but it begs the question WHY? if going to all that trouble.
CJ
In message , George writes
The other point is (AFAIK) that thieves really don't care about house alarms unless they are recognised ones which phone through to a control who call the police
Alarm goes off - so what ?
who would bother reporting it ?
and how long does it take them to get through if they did
and the other other point is that having an alarm which is not approved is a liability when it comes to insurance
sounder,strobe
That depends how well you know your neighbours?
Tell me... do you have an alarm system installed on your property?
In message , geoff writes
Depends on the locality. On the odd occasion an alarm goes off here neighbours check quite quickly to see if there are any obvious signs of unauthorised entry. The last time it happen 4 turned up within a few minutes.
See above
Not long to get through but of course the actual response time varies considerably
I appreciate that they are not taken into account when calculating the premium but a liability - that is very unlikely.
An alarm/alarm box may not deter the clued up 'experienced' thief (other factors may) but they may well deter the opportunists and 'apprentices' who will move on to apparently safer pickings.
In message , George writes
I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you ...
If someone entered my house, I would know, and I don't think that they would remain within the house for any longer than it took them to get out
I DO think that dummy boxes are an open invitation - "look I'm pretending I have an alarm system" ... whether you do or not
I fitted a dummy box for a guy a few weeks ago, it was from a local alarm company complete with their logo & phone number, matched all the real/dummy boxes on the estate.
I wonder where that line came from......
:-)
Generally (probably always) dummy bell boxes are devoid of contents; i.e. bell, battery, leds and strobe. The dummy box has a small deterrent value of making a house appear from a distance as if it had an alarm system. This in turn where some houses do and some don't /might/ cause a potential robber to go elsewhere.
If you just want the strobe and maybe leds you buy a normal bell box and set it up to not use the sounder. Most panels will support several bell boxes or maybe more.
Ah, but that's a different kettle of hovercrafts
A few years ago, someone broke into one of my sheds (non-alarmed) and took a chainsaw. He then forced a window of my clock workshop (omg - I nearly advertised then), stuck his arm through, and triggered the house alarm. He scarpered, leaving the chainsaw a few yards away.
My conclusions:
The alarm did frighten him off, and was therefore effective in this case.
He would not have seen the house alarm box from the direction from which he approached, and might therefore have been deterred had there been another box (real or dummy) where he would have seen it.
I'm not so sure about my second conclusion, because he may not have realised the workshop would be linked to the alarm, or may have been prepared to risk it.
Only, I think, if you've declared it such that they've taken it into account in assessing the risk.
SNIP
No more so than not having one at all surely.
Not sure how many burglars are opportunist wee scrotes/druggies, and how many are pro's who would actually be capable of recognising different alarm systems.
cheers
David
Sadly most thieves aren't: evidently the quality of training these days leaves much to be desired. What is the Guild of Thieves doing to promote and maintain standards in the profession, I hear you ask?
So a dummy box is probably as much use as a real stand-alone system: if brain-addled tealeaf is prepared to break in thinking he'll set off an alarm which no-one will pay any attention to anyway, because people don't, then it doesn't much matter whether it really does go off or not. And it saves the hassle of setting and resetting it and the cost of installation & maintenance of a real system, and saves winding the neighbours up when it goes off accidentally while you're away. As they do.
Of course if you've got something worth the attention of real skilled professional thieves, and a proper monitored alarm system, it's a different ballgame.
and if not get the panel to drive a relay and then have a chunky PSU to drive the various bells / sounders / flashing lights / etc .....
I hear that the colleges are full so they are letting some go home early. No surprise the standards are slipping. The other day they carefully mangled the lock mechanism on the van rear door whilst failing to spot the KASP lock. What a waste of their effort really.
It is more to make the occupant feel secure than to add any real security.
Just slows down them (Ocean's 10+n team) down a bit.
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