Spent $200 on a cellular dialer backup, worth it or waste?

I had a customer last year who insisted we swap his landline dialer for a cellular one because he was worried about storms taking out phone lines. Cost about $200 installed, and six months later a tree took down the whole neighborhood's phone lines for two days. His system stayed online and sent a test signal fine. But I got another job where the cellular unit just stopped working after a year with no warning. So is this extra cost actually worth it for most homes, or are we just upselling people on something they don't need? What's your experience been with these things lasting?

2 comments

2 Comments

robinson.paul20d ago

Honestly it's a coin flip with these things. The peace of mind can be worth it for some people but the failure rate is higher than it should be for the price. I've seen them die for no reason just sitting in a closet. Storms aren't that common everywhere so $200 might be overkill for most folks. It really depends on how bad losing your alarm for a few days would bother you.

aaronlee20d ago

EXACT same thing happened to me. Bought a "premium" one for like $180, stuck it in my utility closet, and it just bricked itself after 6 months with no power surge or anything. No lights, no battery test, nothing. Just a dead hunk of plastic. I replaced it with a $50 model from the hardware store and THAT one has been running fine for two years. The expensive ones are NOT built better, they just have more marketing. I actually keep mine plugged into a cheap UPS now just in case, since the whole point is to work WHEN the power goes out. If it dies during a storm you paid for a paperweight.