Elk / Honeywell Wireless - Couple Questions

[hbskisurf]

I currently have an Elk M1 Gold installed with a M1XRFTW.  To get a break on my homeowners insurance, I need to get the system monitored but I don't have my smokes tied in yet.  
 
Originally I was thinking of throwing in a couple Elk 6050s and being done.  
However, I noticed that Elk released the M1XRF2H after my initial install.  It seems this receiver will allow me to do a few other things (add heat detector in garage, outdoor wireless sensors to my gates, and outdoor motion sensors to my front walk).
 
Questions:
1) Any reason to use Elk smokes over the Honeywell smokes?  Cost of the new Honeywell receiver + smokes + heat detector is the same as 3 Elk smokes.
 
2) If I go the Honeywell route, does anyone know if the 5821Flood/Temp sensor can be mounted outside and provide feedback to display the outside temperature on my Elk keypads?   I currently use my ISY/Weatherbug to display the nearest weather station temp but it would be great to have my own sensor.
 
Thanks!
 

 

[drvnbysound]

The only benefit of the Elk smokes that I know of is that the Elk smokes can communicate with each other and allow simultaneous alarming from all smokes installed.
 
I don't think you will get Honeywell sensor temps displayed on your keypads, but I may be wrong.

 

[mikefamig]

I have two Elk 6050's installed and just learned recently that it will detect smoke and temp and sound an alarm with it's own internal sounder even when the Elk panel is powered off or the smoke loses communication with the panel.
 
I do not know about any other brand but it is a nice feature and worth looking into.
 
Mike.

 

[Del91574]

Honeywell smokes will still sound if tripped.
 
The temp devices will not interface or report to the M1. You need cabling to get temperature on the keypads.

 

[hbskisurf]

Thanks for the replies.  It sounds like I should be OK going with Honeywell for smokes and everything else but the temp sensor.  
 
I unfortunately didn't run an extra wire during my install so my only wired option would be to steal a few wires off a spare Cat 6 that I ran and hook the Elk Temp Sensor to that.
Do you think using 4 wires off the Cat 6 would cause any issues?  I know the gauge of wire and solid vs. normal stranded wire is less than ideal.
 
 

 

[mikefamig]

I looked at the install manual for the Elk M1ZTS and it uses three wires and has a 10ma current draw so cat 6 wire is fine stranded or solid.

 

[mikefamig]

If you do that you should label the wires. Splitting up a cable like that can cause confusion for the next guy who looks at it or if you're like me it will confuse you a year down the road when you forgot what you did.
 
Mike.

 

[hbskisurf]

Thanks.  Good advice on the labeling...I would definitely forget.  I might order up another Elk sensor for temporary use.
 
There are a couple other alternatives that I'm taking a look at for a longer term solution  that will interface with my ISY and give me some more flexibility on my automation side (Autelis Bridge, Netatmo, and WeatherFlow).  
 
Autelis Bridge - gives you the capability to add many alternative temp sensors inexpensively
Netatmo and WeatherFlow - gives you lots of other data (humidity, pressure, sunlight/UV index, rain, wind, etc...)