Powermax + Wireless Security System

by Visonic

Product Details

Product Manual [967kb PDF]

• ASIN: B0006890KC
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 2, 2001

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great system, November 26, 2004

By 

madkiwi (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Powermax + Wireless Security System (Electronics)

I have owned my Visonic Powermax system for a year and a half, and it has been stellar. In that time we have had one false alarm while we were at work that resulted in a visit from a police cruiser (25 minutes after the 911 call!). When the system notification came we knew that the alarm was set off by a motion detector in the living room, but no doors or windows were violated. I blame the cat, and I had set the sensor for maximum sensitivity. I put it back to normal, and have had no problems since.

Only real complaints have been that the setup can be confusing, and bypassing a zone can be a real PITA. When we go away and have a neighbor check on our dog it is simpler to disable the garage sensors than give them access to the whole house. The only way to do this is via the installer menu, which is very odd.

Despite what the previous reviewer said a wireless keypad is available, it is part number MCM 140. I consider this an essential, because mounting the panel near an entry door is asking for it to be destroyed very quickly should someone break in. The control panel should go in a closet near the center of the house, and you should run external sirens to it (disable the panel siren).

Many other accessories are available for the Powermax, including smoke detectors and breaking glass sensors. All are easily integrated into the system.

I highly recommend this alarm system, despite the odd programiing quirks.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Visonic wireless system overall a good deal, March 31, 2005

By 

R. Prakash "rprakash" (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Powermax + Wireless Security System (Electronics)

The initial system is a good value at $200+ but future purchses of keyfobs and motion detector (in addition to the ones supplied) will set you back $50 to $80 a piece. The door window wireless contacts work well until the 3 year period when you have to change the batteries. Expect to pay a lot for those 3.6v lithium batteries which are different from the generic camera batteries you find everywhere. When you replace the batteries in the door/window transmitters expect at least one to malfunction and give you false alarms or "tamper violations". Why ? Poor construction by the folks who supply visonic resulting in the internal springs not making contact wtih the cover of the unit which causes the unit to send out false tamper alerts to your console. The wireless keyfob is flimsy and works ok till you change batteries after a year or two at which point the spring connecting to the internal battery in the keyfob popped out in mine and rather than buying an expense $60 keyfob replacement I had to go work on it with a soldering iron.

The dialer system in mine once caused 3 days of nonstop faulty dialing which ran up my metered phone line. Disconnecting the dialer is a bad idea as the system perpetually tries to monitor the phone line and gives you "line failure" messages. Programming the unit to not monitor the line doesn't work as advertised.

Wiring an internal horn is tricky since the ones supported by the visonic console are too tinny to be heard out side your home. If you want larger horns be ready to do some circuit design with battery packs etc.. to get a sturdy horn in place.

Visonic DOES NOT support end users directly and prefers that you go to the reseller who may/may-not want to support you 3 years later when you come back with product issues. On the plus side if you escalate your concerns to visonic their sales manager is genuinely helpful though even he can't make up for the poor construction of the door/window contacts.

On the whole a good value at $200+ and fun to program if you are a DIY type. Expect 3 years of trouble free use then be prepared for more expenses or chuck the system altogether. Then again when was the last time you retained electronics for a decade??

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very pleased with the Visonic Powermax, November 1, 2004

By 

James Mark "James" (Iowa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Powermax + Wireless Security System (Electronics)

The Visonic Powermax is a wireless burglar alarm system, with some useful features for home automaters. There seem to be various opinions in the industry regarding wireless alarm systems. The old school of thought is that wireless devices are less reliable and less secure than a traditional hard wired system, they have also been very popular with the enthusiast weekend DIY'er as they are easier to install than a wired system. Whilst the cheap low end systems may fall into this unreliable/less secure category the Visonic PowerMax certainly does not...
The control panel itself is a fairly neat looking well deigned piece of kit - however I wish Visonic produced wireless keypads as well as the main unit, as a result the main unit must be installed fairly close to the entry/exit door (unless you are going to give everyone a key fob) It would have been better in my opinion if the main unit could have been hidden away somewhere and drone keypad located close to the entry/exit.