Had a conversation with an old-school installer that got me second-guessing wireless systems

I was talking to a guy who's been doing this since the 80s, and he said wireless is 'just a ticking time bomb for service calls.' He claimed he can count on one hand the number of hardwired systems he's had to go back and fix after 5 years. But on the flip side, I just finished a retrofit in a 1920s brick building downtown where running wire would have taken me 3 days instead of 4 hours with wireless. The client didn't care about long-term reliability, they just wanted it done cheap and fast. So which side is actually right for a typical resi job in 2025? Has anyone else had a hardwired system that held up for a decade with zero issues?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_sam8d ago

That "ticking time bomb" quote is dead on. I'll take wire over dead batteries any day.

-1

henry_martinez8d ago

@the_sam I had an old cordless phone die mid-call once, so now I keep a cheap wired backup handy too.