Well now, you've come to the right place ! I tend to lean towards Paradox
as a matter of course anyway, but I do try to give an honest assessment of
products when asked. I have almost six hundred of the Paradox panels in
service of which about 100 are the Paradox Spectra. I can honestly say, it
is the best panel I have ever had anything to do with, and they beat DSC
products by a country mile in every way. And their latest wireless products
seem to work very well as well (don't tell Paul....
))
Your concern about lightning protection is warranted in Florida. Paradox is
the best selling panel I am told in Brazil, where lightning strikes are very
common. Some years ago, Paradox took special steps to build more lightning
protection in to their panels, upon promise of a 250,000 panel sale, if they
could meet those kind of requirements. They did, and that increased
lightning resistance is part of all their products now.
The Paradox Spectra is now the ONLY panel I install, including the high end
LCD keypad. I need no other to serve any but the largest of residential
clients. On the down side, they are considerably more difficult to program
than the DSC products, but once you have set up your memory key with all
your constant settings, it is a simple job to download most of the settings
you will need. The rest you can add at the keypad in less than a couple of
minutes. Frankly, I don't like their low end keypad, nor their fixed icon
keypads, so I use ONLY the LCD keypad. Clients love them since they can see
everything that is going on in plain English. And since clients are paying
me top dollar for a system, they get only the high end keypads as well. Plus
unlike most other products, the client can access the event log at the
keypad using the FN2 button....something some clients like to be able to
see.
They have all the approval ratings needed I am told. They are also as quick
to communicate using Contact ID as any other panel. And unlike the DSC
panels, they are not full of quirky problems such as random error messages
and unknown problems solved only by cycling power. Once set up, they are
bulletproof !
In short, I don't think you have anything to fear by taking on the Paradox
Spectra panel. And if you do need help, their tech support is excellent as
well (I assume you also call in to Montreal for that)
And...yes, I really would say something bad if I had anything bad to
say....but I don't
R.H.Campbell
Home Security Metal Products
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
www.homemetal.com