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Walked into a house in Denver yesterday and saw the alarm panel wired with speaker wire instead of 22/4

The homeowner said the last installer did it to save money, and now half the zones are ghosting. Has anyone else run into this kind of hack job with the wrong cable gauge?
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3 Comments
the_simon
the_simon3d agoTop Commenter
@miles_hall nailed it, people really do think wire is wire. I see this kinda stuff all the time where folks try to cut the tiniest corner on something that actually matters and end up spending way more to fix it later. Speaker wire for alarm zones is just asking for ghost readings because the resistance is all wrong so I'm not surprised half of them dropped out.
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miles_hall
lol speaker wire for alarm cable that's a new one. Gotta love when people think all copper is the same and save like twelve bucks on wire but then the whole system is a paperweight. I half expect the next post to be someone using lamp cord for their thermostat lmao. At least half the zones ghosting is a mercy honestly, probably would have caught fire if they all worked.
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the_lee
the_lee3d ago
Admit I used to think wire was wire but you guys changed my mind.
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