Electronic Alarms and Home Security Devices - Ademco opinion needed

I will be moving to a house w/o an alarm system and plan on a DIY installation. I think I will use an Ademco panel but am open to suggestions for other systems.

I will install 2 wireless smoke detectors, 1 heat detector, several wireless window switches, 2 door switches, 2 glass break detectors, and possibly one or more motion detectors. There will be 2 keypads. I am familiar with the alpha keypad but I've never seen a touchscreen. Is the touchscreen worth the extra cost?

I've read about the Vista 15p & 20p but it's hard for me to determine which of these is better suited for me. Is there a compelling reason to choose one over the other?

Thanks, Jon

I will be moving to a house w/o an alarm system and plan on a DIY installation. I think I will use an Ademco panel but am open to suggestions for other systems.

I will install 2 wireless smoke detectors, 1 heat detector, several wireless window switches, 2 door switches, 2 glass break detectors, and possibly one or more motion detectors. There will be 2 keypads. I am familiar with the alpha keypad but I've never seen a touchscreen. Is the touchscreen worth the extra cost?

I've read about the Vista 15p & 20p but it's hard for me to determine which of these is better suited for me. Is there a compelling reason to choose one over the other?

Thanks, Jon





Get the 20p3 and the 6271cv (touchscreen) is definitely worth it

Hey, Jon229
The Ademco Vista 15p will give you all the same features as the 20p with a few small exceptions the 15p will only expand to 32 zones but the 20p will give you 48 zones total. so it would really depend on your size of home there are a few minor differences but they mostly apply to commercial applications as far as the touch center it’s about “BLING” in my opinion, if your house has fully automated lighting control stations the wall would look odd with a standard keypad and the same goes for the other way around if your home has old style rocker switch lights it would look odd to have a state of the art touch pad center.
Ademco has many styles of keypads for both these models both in wireless and hardwire. Hope that answered your question :)

Get the 20p3 and the 6271cv (touchscreen) is definitely worth it

alarmTechie:

I've seen info on 20p, but not 20p3. Is there a difference?

Thanks, Jon

Hey, Jon229
The Ademco Vista 15p will give you all the same features as the 20p with a few small exceptions the 15p will only expand to 32 zones but the 20p will give you 48 zones total.

ADT92808:

Thanks for confirming this, I thought there may be some other significant differences that I had not identified. I haven't really thought out the zone requirements yet but the system where I'm at now uses only 14 zones and it is adequate. The next house will need more but probably not twice as many.

Your comment about bling confirms my suspicions. I don't really care if a touchscreen is mounted next to a rocker in my 50 yr old home but I'd want something worthwhile out of it if I installed it. Apparently there is not much more to offer except for the cosmetics. If that is all it has to offer then the plain jane alpha pad is good enough for me. I certainly don't need a voice pad, in another 5 years I probably won't be able to hear it (old timer) anyway!

jon

alarmTechie:

I've seen info on 20p, but not 20p3. Is there a difference?

Thanks, Jon




20p3 is the latest version. if you ask for a 20p you can basically end up with any version including the earlier versions that only do 2/ 6270 keypads.