When Should You Replace a Burglar Alarm? The 10–15 Year Question

The replacement signals

• Parts purgatory: panel discontinued, spares from eBay — every future fault is a hostage negotiation (classic residents: Scantronic 9x00s, Veritas 8s, early Accenta — fine panels, finished ecosystems)
• No path to app control/modern signalling: pre-IP panels can't join phones or current ARC paths — and PSTN-dialler signalling dies with the analogue switch-off regardless
• Unencrypted legacy wireless: early one-way radio without supervision/anti-jam is defeatable and unsupportable
• Chronic false alarms across ageing detectors (PIRs degrade ~8–10 years) — re-detectoring an obsolete panel is throwing parts at a sinking platform
• Insurance drift: a Grade-less veteran can't evidence the Grade 2 your renewal now demands
• Lifestyle mismatch: extensions, outbuildings and patterns the old zone plan never imagined

The repair signals (don't be upsold)

A supported panel (current Texecom/Pyronix/Orisec/Honeywell ranges and recent predecessors) with one misbehaving element wants a fix, not a funeral: panel batteries (£75–£150 fitted), a single drifting PIR (£60–£120 swapped), bellbox battery/sounder work, keypad replacements — all routine. Even feature gaps close on supported wired panels: communicator modules retro-fit app control and ARC signalling to many 5–12 year old systems for £150–£300, which is the cheapest 'modernisation' in the industry. The test we apply on surveys: supported platform + isolated fault = repair; unsupported platform or systemic faults = honest replacement quote. Demand the same logic from anyone in your hallway.

Replacing well: reuse, timing and cost

What survives a replacement: wired-system cabling (the expensive 60% of original labour) almost always reuses — contacts often too — making panel+detector refits £600–£1,500 in typical houses against full-install figures; bellbox positions and even housings sometimes carry over. Wireless-to-wireless swaps are faster still (half-day, from £595 fitted). Timing tactics: replace at the natural triggers — house purchase (see our moving-in guide), insurance renewal demands, extension works (cable while walls are open), or the second chronic-fault callout on an obsolete panel (the arithmetic point where repair spend would have part-funded replacement). Old kit disposal and code/data hygiene (panel defaulted) are part of any tidy swap.