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intercom System

12 years ago

We are redoing kitchen in December. We have a NuTone Intercom System with a master station in the kitchen and stations throughout the house and at the front and back doors. It is kind of nice to play the radio and hear it everywhere but the intercom is really not working or we have not figured it out. If we do away with it we will ultimately have to patch holes all over the house.

Has anyone installed one or updated an existing intercom system? Any advice? Is this the right forum?

Thanks.

Comments (7)

lascatx
12 years ago
We removed ours. The cost to replace it -- and then to upgrade the wiring for the new systems, was ridiculous. We figured an ipod and speaker would be better, and you can get wireless speaker systems that will probably give you better music quality, more flexibility and be cheaper that the intercom. We patched the wall in the kitchen when it was done and are doing the other rooms as we repaint them. The front door had the doorbell, so we had to do that one at the time also. We installed a new doorbell and mounted the button to a small wooden plaque I bought for $1 at Michael's.
laxsupermom
12 years ago
We removed ours, too. We patched the wall in the kitchen, where the main unit was, haven't touched the ones in the other rooms, but like lascatx will be removing them as we redo those rooms.
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We spent almost $1K on a phone system with eight wireless slave phones that had an intercom feature. But our systems guy talked us into installing an intercom and we're really glad we did. First, if you call someone, they can simply answer you from across the room without having to walk over and push a button or pick up a phone...very handy. Next, the doorbell rings on each intercom, a real benefit in a house as large (7K SF) and spread out as ours. You can tell the person at the front door to wait until you get there. We've used the monitor feature when infants have visited the house and it works great. Our unit has a built-in radio and CD player but we rarely use that because we have a whole-house audio system and the intercom speakers are low fidelity. But it has a timer that turns on the radio at a particular time and I've used that to remind me about an appointment when I didn't know what room I'd be in. And finally, you can chose from perhaps 20 different door bell tones (e.g., Jingle Bells), not that that's a reason to install an intercom. Perhaps the biggest drawback is that it adds yet more "wall acne", i.e., functional junk on the wall that detracts from the aesthetics of the room.
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We installed the Nutone 5000 system. Each unit gets a code (01 - 30), and you can 'call' individual rooms or broadcast to all units. It's a lot easier to use than other systems that are more geared towards broadcast communication. It doesn't have a built-in radio, although the base unit has an input jack if you want to add it. We tried a wireless (Westinghouse) system, but the line noise was unbearable, so we went with the hardwired system.
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Again, I would recommend using an off-the-shelf telephone system with a handset intercom feature. Only the base unit needs to be attached to the landline twisted pair. The other units just require power. Most of the systems come with four handsets, but check the specs because you can usually add more handsets purchased separately. Some of these systems even have video screens. The speakers on these are standard phone speakers so I would really recommend using a separate system for music.
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Is anyone looking to replace their outdated intercom system? If interest is shown, I will provide more information on this feed.
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maid_o_cliff
12 years ago
We just removed ours and the speakers in the bedrooms. We also priced out a new system years ago, it was cost prohibitive, and was only used for radio! I was really glad to be rid of something that absolutely screamed seventies, and reclaim the wall space!

maid
jakkom
12 years ago
Check out some of the multi-handset phone systems. Some of them have intercom capabilities. Very handy when I'm upstairs and need to call DH down in the garage!
brickeyee
12 years ago
The intercom systems pretty much shot themselves in the foot with their horrible sound quality.

Our 3 handset wireless phone has paging and 'local' service.
Cloud Swift
12 years ago
So far, it is unanimous - we removed the base unit in the kitchen and will be removing and patching in the other rooms next time we repaint.
enneluin87
12 years ago
Intercom service NYC by SOS Locksmith Corp. provides businesses and residences with the security they need to identify visitors at their home. Unwanted visitors remain outside the building or home if the owner does not recognize the visitor. This keeps the inhabitants of the home or office safe during occupancy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Intercom Installation

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