HONEYWELL VISTA 15P-20P SECURITY SYSTEM REVIEW

Honeywell is the most well known brand when it comes to alarm systems. The company has been doing security since 1957 and has been growing by leaps and bounds since then. The Honeywell alarm panels have evolved greatly since those early days and have become better with time and technological advances. Today we’re going to be looking at the Vista series. If you'd like more information about the Vista series panels you can visit this site: http://www.security.honeywell.com/

The Honeywell Vista series panels are a mid-level residential and commercial security solution for those that want peace of mind when security is an issue. Some of the panels in the Vista series offer varying degrees of features but usually don’t differ in the setup or programming of the panel.

The kit comes to you with the panel with the control board firmly attached within. The box also includes:

• 16.5VAC 25VA Transformer
• Set 2K EOL(End-of-Line)Resistors
• Set Zone Doubling Resistors
• Set Installation, Programming & End-User Manuals
• Metal Enclosure w/Lock

Also included in the above mentioned kit are a backup battery, hard-wired motion detector, a 15 watt indoor siren, one keypad, and an RJ31X phone jack and cable set. This gives the consumer a little to start out with. You can then add other devices to the system if needed.  Depending on the kit you can get different versions of the Vista series panels.

One version of the Vista kits comes with the Honeywell 6160 keypad. This keypad is alpha programmable which makes finding your way around the programming section a breeze. This pad reads out numbers as well as words in plain English and if you have more than one keypad, then I would definitely suggest that this be your primary. You, of course, can add fixed keypads for secondaries.

Another version of a Vista kits contains the 6160RF keypad. This keypad is just like the 6160, but differs in the fact that it has a built in wireless receiver so that you can pick up wireless contacts, motion detectors, smoke detectors, etc.

The last version of Vista kits that I will mention comes with a 6160V keypad. This kit version offers a keypad which voice announces the zone faults when you program in the alpha descriptors for each zone. A nice feature for those that have limited mobility and can’t keep going back to the keypad everytime there is an alarm event or fault.

Wiring in devices is really simple and safe as the system is a low-current system. You can add devices to the system with it powered up without the worry of electrocution. All the zones have two terminals that you run the wires from contacts into. You can put one contact or sensor on each zone or some contacts and sensors can be wired in series or paralell to one zone.

The only negative thing I can say about the Vistas is that people may experience trouble with the programming at first, but it doesn’t take long to get used to it. The programming, I would say, is at the beginner-intermediate level, but with patience and perserverance anyone can take this system and make it their own.

Below I have included a comparison table between the current versions of the Vista panels. This will give you a rough idea of which panel might be right for you:

As you can see another feature of the Vista, the 20P at least, is that you can partition the system. Say that you have your house and you also have an outbuilding. With the 20P you can put the house on one partition and the outbuilding on another partition. This way you can arm both buildings independently of one another. You will, of course, have to have a keypad for each partition, but this is a very handy feature to have. It’s like getting two alarm systems in one panel.

Honeywell makes great products and the Vista series is no exception to this. Anyone who needs a mid-level alarm system for their home or business can’t go wrong choose a Honeywell.