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Just swapped out a 4-wire for a 6-wire keypad run and it saved the day
I was finishing a job in a big old house and the original plan was a basic 4-wire run to the new keypad location. The homeowner asked for a second keypad at the last minute, and instead of running a whole new cable, I pulled a 6-wire I had in the van. Having those two extra wires meant I could power the second unit without needing a separate transformer or tapping into another circuit. It took maybe 15 extra minutes during the pull, but saved me over an hour of work later. Anyone have a favorite go-to cable for these kinds of last-minute adds?
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henry_anderson545mo ago
My van is basically a rolling cable graveyard because I do this all the time. I once pulled an 18/8 for a single keypad just in case, and the boss gave me grief for "wasting" wire. Two days later, the client wanted a mag lock added right there. That extra wire saved the whole job from being a re-pull nightmare.
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the_jessica5mo ago
Yeah exactly... that's why I always over-pull too. It's not waste, it's just cheap insurance. Like @henry_anderson54 said, you never know when a client will change their mind or add something later. I've seen guys run the bare minimum and then spend twice the labor fishing new wire when a simple extra pair would have covered it.
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cora_west55mo ago
Totally, I read a forum post once where a guy called it "future-proofing" the run. It's exactly what @the_jessica is saying, that extra pair is just cheap insurance. My standard for any keypad now is an 18/6, because you never know when they'll ask for a request-to-exit button or a door position switch later on.
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