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That common sensor wire staple trick everyone uses is wrong
I was on a job in Portland last month and saw three different installers using those plastic staples to pin down 22/4 wire along baseboards. But if you look at the fine print on the staple box, they're rated for communication cable only, not security wire. I had a system start throwing random faults after 6 months because the staples were crushing the insulation just enough to cause intermittent shorts. Has anyone else run into false alarms from staple damage?
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sam_harris6822m ago
Three of my service calls last year ended up being exactly this problem. One was a church system where every single door contact on the south wing would go into trouble at 3 AM every other night. The homeowner had used those cheap white staples from Home Depot and sure enough, every one was digging into the jacket just enough to let moisture in. I really feel for you because it's one of those things that seems totally fine until it's not, and by then you've got hours of troubleshooting ahead of you. That intermittent short stuff is the absolute worst to track down in an existing install.
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