PSA: My uncle the retired electrician told me to always leave a service loop on alarm panel wires

I ignored him for 2 years until a panel swap turned into a nightmare with wires too short to reach the new board, so now I make loops on every install and it has already saved me once on a rush fix last Tuesday.

3 comments

3 Comments

jamesf291mo ago

That little bit of extra slack is the same principle as keeping a spare tire in the trunk or an extra key in your wallet. People skip these shortcuts because they think it's wasted effort until the one time it turns a headache into a five minute job. A little foresight now saves a lot of cussing later, am I right?

gavin2281mo agoMost Upvoted

Preach, James. I spent a whole afternoon once trying to fish a wire back through a wall because I left myself six inches of slack instead of a foot. Ended up drilling holes in the drywall like a madman. A little extra wire is cheap insurance against a lot of drywall repair and bad language.

the_susan1mo ago

Totally agree James. It's like that old saying about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure. That little bit of extra effort upfront really does save you from wanting to throw your tools across the room later.