Showerthought: Heard a guy at the hardware store say 'wire is wire' about alarm cable

I was grabbing some 22/4 at the local supply place yesterday. Overheard a DIY guy tell his buddy that all alarm wire is the same, just get the cheapest. He was holding a no-name spool next to the good stuff. I didn't say anything, but it made me think about all the callbacks for voltage drop or interference we get from cheap cable. Has anyone else had to explain why cable quality matters to a customer after a bad install?

2 comments

2 Comments

nancy_owens19h agoMost Upvoted

Tell me about it, that line makes me cringe every time. I've spent hours troubleshooting ghost signals and voltage issues that traced right back to bargain bin cable. It's never just wire, the copper purity and jacket quality make a real difference on a long run. Explaining that to a customer after their system acts up is the worst part of the job, because they already paid someone else to do it wrong.

olivia_lewis919h ago

Right? It's like they think wire is wire. Then you get to play detective for free when their cheap stuff fails. My favorite part is when they argue that the price was too good to pass up.