What is YOUR opinion on the EST3 panel?

At the hospital in my city, the fire alarm control panel is being replaced (large EST 3 panel). My dad is the plant manager there and one of his jobs is directing and supervising fire alarm system drills, tests, replacements, etc… The panel is being replaced with something MUCH larger because of a new expansion wing being built. He has asked about what will happen with the panel, and whether or not I can have it. Depending whether or not it will be taken by a company for parts or will just be thrown out, there is a slight chance that I could be getting it. Andrew (Newageserveralarm) has told me on Youtube about how they are overly complicated and unreliable, but I just wanted to get opinions from others who maybe have had more experience with them. Thanks :wink:

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There are at most 4 or 5 est panels in use at the school system for which I do maintainance. One of the schools I serve has an est2.

Mapping errors is an aspect that gives us fits.

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I believe there was a recall of sorts on one of the EST panels awhile back which caused a ton of them to be replaced/upgraded, I would have to dig it up but we pulled a lot of them out because of the issue.

When the panel came out it was extremely powerful but heavily depended on a solid installation and a good programmer. If you had those things, it was pretty reliable and could do just as much if not more than any other panel at the time, but it’s also 2 decades old at this point and has been surpassed by everyone after a long lull in r&d for the period that GE owned them.

You won’t be able to program the panel, requires special software and a programming dongle from a dealer licensed for that particular panel.

If my understanding is correct, chris+s nailed it right on the head: the initial installation must be perfect, and the programming must be carefully implemented.
The EST3 has a lot of features and a lot of advanced engineering, like the mapping feature, which allows the panel to draw a virtual map of the system’s wiring (by measuring current draw between devices). It’s critical to their self-addressing protocol, and if any connections are loose, or wire leads exposed, or sharp bends on the wires, over time the resistance of the wire will change enough in that particular section, and will throw off the panel from it’s expected measurements, and cause the dreaded “map fault” trouble.
Another thing that I’ve heard of with some EST2/3 systems is a thermal trouble in the CPU, where the CPU will overheat and if it hits a certain temperature, it will restart. This kind of trouble can be hard to pinpoint, but it usually can be indicated by reading the trouble history, as when this happens, all the devices on the panel will report “failure to communicate with CPU” in the history log. Probably not too common, but definitely a concern as a panel ages.

Just a quick note, the panel is the “newer” version with the bigger LCD screen which is a blue-ish Color rather than green. Also, there is a Chubb Edwards thechnician who also is working at the hospital, so he might be able to get me the programming I need. Not certain though

Just a quick note, the panel is the “newer” version with the bigger LCD screen which is a blue-ish Color rather than green. It actually replaced an older EST 3 panel about 3-4 years ago, so it is still fairly new. If i do get it, I don’t want to program every feature on it, just basic zones and NACS. Also, there is a Chubb Edwards technician who I have spoken with before who also is working at the hospital, so he might be able to get me the programming I need. Not certain though

I don’t know about EST but I know for a lot of other companies, not necessarily fire alarms - Crestron for one, they make good stuff but programming is locked down. If you are a Crestron dealer and share the programming software with anybody - Crestron will shut that dealer down because that is a violation of the dealer agreement. However, if EST has the same sort of restrictions, you might be able to weasel your way out of it, depends on how well you know the tech/company. YMMV.

[quote="jelimoore]

I have met the technician several times, and have emailed him a couple times, so I fairly know him

My opinion of the EST 3 panel is that it’s was revolutionary for it’s time. All three schools (Including the school i’m in now) has had an EST system with Genesis horn strobes and Siga 278 dual action pull stations paired to an EST 3. They certainly get the job done but to today’s standards the panel is a little bit out of date. I would say it’s a good commercial/professional use panel but it wouldn’t be as good as a hobby panel. Like said above it takes skills and time (A LOT of time) to program these to perform it’s best.

As I have said before, I only want to program the nacs, zones, and relays. I don’t want to program every last feature the panel has. Also, if I do in fact get the panel, it will be in June, so I will have a whole 2 and a half months of summer vacation to program the panel, IF I am able to get the programming software