Door/Window contacts - Types and Brands

E

ecborgoyn

Active Member
After lots of delays, I'm finally working to move my sensor/detector devices from my old Westec 5000 system over to the new M1G.

First, I've discovered that most of the sensors are supervised with double EOLR's. (1.5K/3K) So I'm replacing these with the 2.2K EOLR's that Elk needs. OK, no problem. I'm only installing single EOLR's. The PIR, Smoke, Heat, CO, etc devices are easy and obvious to modify.

When I opened a couple of the door and window switches I see that they installed switches with integral DEOL resistors. OK, I need to replace a few dozen door and window contacts.

Question: some doors have roller-plunger switches and a few have magnetic contact switches. A wooden sliding door has a magnetic contact switch. Why would the installer choose this over a plunger switch?? On another door a magnetic contact is installed on the latch side of the door instead of a plunger switch on the hinge side of the door. This one I can understand....

Question: Are 3/4" plunger, 3/4" magnetic, and 3/8" magnetic switches all about the same? Same quality? I have Sentrol switches throughout. What brands to folk use and like? I need 'closed loop' or NO switches throughout.

Question: I'm not sure if I'll be installing EOLR's on the door/window contacts that I rework/replace. If I did, what is the best practice regarding how to protect the EOLR's connections? Heatshrink tubing? Or should I invest in insulated wire lead resistors? If so, where would I purchase 2.2K insulated wire lead resistors? The Westec system used (when not having integral DEOLR's), a resistor pack that contains two 1.5K resistors and terminates in four insulated solid wire leads. Can I get something like this that's cheap???

Thanks.
 
Is the existing cable runs, parallel or series? That makes a differnce

Personally, for me and my setup, I ran them directly to the elk m1 gold, and defined them as normally closed contact.

Easier and friendlier for me... And no need to waste $$ on resistors
 
Plungers wear out. Magnetic contacts shouldnt (maybe the magnet loses sensitivity over time but you're probably talking decades, vs a mechanical plunger wearing out just a little each time its used)

They might all be the same quality, but I would tend to go with something known. I used Tane contacts in my home. Sentrol (GE) are decent too Im sure. I know you can get some unknown brand off ebay a little cheaper, but in the long run who knows if you really save $$$.

I avoided the EOLR issue. I too was worried about how to get them inline. I figured to protect them good old heat shrink would work fine, but my bigger issue was having to solder a resistor inline with 22 ga wire. Seemed like it would be more of a pain that its worth so I went EOLR-less and defined all zones as NC in ElkRP.
 
If I had a chance to rebuy, and do over, I would spring for the tane pill contacts

Thats for surface mounts.

Looks great and discreet

If you currently already have magnetic Reed holes, just get the same size and be done with... Imo they all work the same, if going hardwired, its about appearance
 
I used GE magnetic reed contactors which fit in a 3/8 hole and am quite pleased. I used the kind with screw terminals which avoids a lot of splicing/soldering. While soldering is not mandatory, I did solder every single splice just to know that I won't ever have a problem.

In many situations, I put the 2200 ohm resistor directly into the screw terminal on the contactor and then spliced/soldered the other end of the resistor to the alarm wiring. Since I have a single zone covering banks of multiple double hung windows, I only needed a single splice for as many as 10 contacts.
 
Thanks for the input.

Every door and window is 'home run' wired back to the panel.

Maybe I didn't explicitly state it, but these are all recessed contacts/switches.

I thought a bit more. The situation where a magnetic (not plunger) switch was used on the sliding door, the switch was located near the floor. The plunger switches were all mounted up high, above the top-most hinge. The plunger style switch would suffer from dirt issues, and would be worse near the floor. This might be a factor in the contact selection.

I like the idea of using contacts with screw terminals. It means fewer splices and less 'stuff' to push into the hole behind the contact...

I'm still thinking about putting in the EOLR's when I replace all of the contacts (there ARE currently a few contacts without EOLR's).
 
ecborgoyn said:
After lots of delays, I'm finally working to move my sensor/detector devices from my old Westec 5000 system over to the new M1G.

First, I've discovered that most of the sensors are supervised with double EOLR's. (1.5K/3K) So I'm replacing these with the 2.2K EOLR's that Elk needs. OK, no problem. I'm only installing single EOLR's. The PIR, Smoke, Heat, CO, etc devices are easy and obvious to modify.

When I opened a couple of the door and window switches I see that they installed switches with integral DEOL resistors. OK, I need to replace a few dozen door and window contacts.

Question: some doors have roller-plunger switches and a few have magnetic contact switches. A wooden sliding door has a magnetic contact switch. Why would the installer choose this over a plunger switch?? On another door a magnetic contact is installed on the latch side of the door instead of a plunger switch on the hinge side of the door. This one I can understand....

Question: Are 3/4" plunger, 3/4" magnetic, and 3/8" magnetic switches all about the same? Same quality? I have Sentrol switches throughout. What brands to folk use and like? I need 'closed loop' or NO switches throughout.

Question: I'm not sure if I'll be installing EOLR's on the door/window contacts that I rework/replace. If I did, what is the best practice regarding how to protect the EOLR's connections? Heatshrink tubing? Or should I invest in insulated wire lead resistors? If so, where would I purchase 2.2K insulated wire lead resistors? The Westec system used (when not having integral DEOLR's), a resistor pack that contains two 1.5K resistors and terminates in four insulated solid wire leads. Can I get something like this that's cheap???

Thanks.
Click to expand...
In general, magnetic proximity switches are considered superior in performance to plunger type switches. There tends to be less problems with them in the long run.

Switches are not the same brand to brand. Some are more prone to false alarms than others. If you purchase brands such as GE (sentrol), Honeywell, Tane, or GRI, you should be OK.

The most common way to install EOLRs is to use B-connectors (beanies). These will make a secure permanent connection, although they take up a lot of space and can be difficult to fit into the tiny space you have to work with sometimes. If you dont have space for them, then soldering and shrink tubing is probably the best choice, but will be time consuming.
 
treo650 said:
If I had a chance to rebuy, and do over, I would spring for the tane pill contacts

Thats for surface mounts.

Looks great and discreet

If you currently already have magnetic Reed holes, just get the same size and be done with... Imo they all work the same, if going hardwired, its about appearance
Click to expand...

Thats what I used, they rock!

I had to "special" order the terminal contact version (you can get the version with wired leads all over the place, like Ebay, etc). Was well worth it IMHO, I wanted to avoid having to solder connections. Not that I dont know how to do it, but for the same price and a couple extra day wait, Id rather have the screw terminal version.
 
Sandpiper said:
In general, magnetic proximity switches are considered superior in performance to plunger type switches. There tends to be less problems with them in the long run.

Switches are not the same brand to brand. Some are more prone to false alarms than others. If you purchase brands such as GE (sentrol), Honeywell, Tane, or GRI, you should be OK.

The most common way to install EOLRs is to use B-connectors (beanies). These will make a secure permanent connection, although they take up a lot of space and can be difficult to fit into the tiny space you have to work with sometimes. If you dont have space for them, then soldering and shrink tubing is probably the best choice, but will be time consuming.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I would agree that a magnetic prox switch should have fewer problems than a plunger switch. My plan is to replace each switch with the type of switch currently installed. Plunger where plunger and magnetic prox where magnetic prox. I'd rather NOT need to add the magnets.

Thinking about it more, I see that the current installation uses plunger switches on the hinge side of steel doors. A magnetic prox switch on the latch side of a steel door. And one magnetic prox switch on a wooden sliding door. I think I understand the rational now.....

Most likely I'll be installing the EOL's on the door/window switches. The 2.2K EOLR's supplied with the M1G are simple 'thru-hole' resistors, I think I need some strain-relief on the resistor itself. even if I use B-connector for splices I might put a section of heat shrink tubing over the body of the resistor and leads. When I install the resistor in a device such as a smoke detector or PIR the resistors don't experience any mechanical stress. But I think I need some protection for the resistor that I shove into a 3/4" hole in window or door frame. But that's just me....

The brands you list are the only ones I've considered... Thanks.
 
ecborgoyn said:
Thanks for the info. I would agree that a magnetic prox switch should have fewer problems than a plunger switch. My plan is to replace each switch with the type of switch currently installed. Plunger where plunger and magnetic prox where magnetic prox. I'd rather NOT need to add the magnets.

Thinking about it more, I see that the current installation uses plunger switches on the hinge side of steel doors. A magnetic prox switch on the latch side of a steel door. And one magnetic prox switch on a wooden sliding door. I think I understand the rational now.....

Most likely I'll be installing the EOL's on the door/window switches. The 2.2K EOLR's supplied with the M1G are simple 'thru-hole' resistors, I think I need some strain-relief on the resistor itself. even if I use B-connector for splices I might put a section of heat shrink tubing over the body of the resistor and leads. When I install the resistor in a device such as a smoke detector or PIR the resistors don't experience any mechanical stress. But I think I need some protection for the resistor that I shove into a 3/4" hole in window or door frame. But that's just me....

The brands you list are the only ones I've considered... Thanks.
Click to expand...


I stripped the insulation back on the one lead so that when slipped into the screw terminal of the contactor none of the non-insulated wire showed. Then I cut the resistor wire back so that when it was fully inserted into the other screw terminal the body of the resistor ended up just touching the contact and tightened it into place. Then I cut the other lead from the panel back so that it dead ended just shy of the resistor. Then after stripping 1/4 inch from alarm panel lead, I wrapped the resistor wire around it a bunch of time. Then solder. Then I wrapped with a couple wraps of electrical tape both wires/resistor together. No need for insulation between the two wires because of the way I did it. You could also use the shrink wrap instead of electric tape for a slightly cleaner look.

Putting it together this way was very solid since the two wires/resistor were all bundled together creating a lot of stability. I also had 18g alarm wire which helps with robustness.
 
treo650 said:
Since wires are home runner, why not put resistors at the panel?
Click to expand...

I'm going to get out of the line of fire on this one.... The EOLR zealots can continue this issue about EOLR's at the panel.....

If/when I implement EOLR's, I'll place them in the field.
 
ecborgoyn said:
I'm going to get out of the line of fire on this one.... The EOLR zealots can continue this issue about EOLR's at the panel.....

If/when I implement EOLR's, I'll place them in the field.
Click to expand...

EOLR at the panel is utterly useless. It complicates your install and adds zero value. If you don't want to put eolr at the eol, then don't use them at all, just set the Elk to open/close instead of open/eolr.
 
Lou Apo said:
EOLR at the panel is utterly useless. It complicates your install and adds zero value. If you don't want to put eolr at the eol, then don't use them at all, just set the Elk to open/close instead of open/eolr.
Click to expand...

Not true, it will alert you if there is a ground on the loop but EOL is better.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
 
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