You buy gel cell batteries that do not outgas and you put them on something just above the floor so they are not subject to cold from concrete.
You can source these from a battery wholesaler locally, you just need to know the system capacity which should be in a general description of the phone system.
I don't know about the other systems, but Toshiba and Samsung both have battery backup just by adding batteries and it is much less expensive than the AC powered units.
I push battery backup on every system I sell just because it is so cheap for the customer to get the batteries and the guideline is that after 5 years you will have about 50% of capacity that you had new.
If you buy a system that has no true battery backup such as a Norstar MICS, then even if you have an APC unit, it will keep you free of flickers that happen to the AC supply.
The cost of the addition of a few batteries to a 50 phone system is insignificant and you get the added run time of not wasting power to convert batteries to AC to have the system convert it back to DC to run the phones.
No matter what system you buy, it will work. None of the systems you mentioned is an unreliable system. I still suggest a 5 year warranty on any voicemail as that has always been the weakest link in the reliability of a phone system.
Your biggest issue should be how well the system fits your needs to do what you want, and not everyone wants VOIP phones in the Execs homes. If you want to check on customer service, ask the salesman for the name of some company they have serviced for 5 years or more and call them up while the salesperson is in the office.
The one thing we include with every system is an EFI surge protector. They and others give you a lifetime $10,000 or more warranty on damage from an AC surge. For $60 or less this is the cheapest insurance in the world.
We had a customer call us one morning and say that their Toshiba was dead. I responded that Toshibas don't die and sure enough when we got there the phones didn't work. We went into the phone room and unplugged the EFI surge protector. It rattled like a box of marbles. Taking the unit apart it was a bunch of black pieces blown apart so the surge had to be huge but it protected the Toshiba.
We plugged the Toshiba in another outlet and the phones were back up. Went to the car and replaced the EFI surge protector. There are other brands of surge protectors but this brand had $10, 000 of insurance that will pay for new equipment if the surge protector blows up. Get a surge protector of any brand that will buy replacement equipment if it fails.
Many vendors will give you or sell you a five year warranty that comes from the manufacturer themselves. I would stay away from buying a 5 year warranty that covers the last four years from a third party vendor. You never know if these people will be in business or not any you've paid your money.
THE Bracha, old blond specialist in Rube Goldberg solutions.
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AlexCDF, If you are looking for a product to program yourself, there is NOTHING easier than Samsung. As noted by others, Samsung has issues, but show me a manufacturer that doesn't. It is part of the industry. I have been installing their systems for 15 years, and one thing I like about them is they always look to see where the industry is heading before they come out with their products. They might not have all the "stuff" that others manufacturers have, but their reliablity is the best. Downtime is excellent. Of all the digital systems I have installed, I have NONE fail due to Main KSU components. I remember the days when there would be a thunderstrom, and you knew you would going out on a service call.
Bunnie is 100% correct. I have even gone as far as adding surge bridge clips to the telco lones on the 66 block. Yes, the Samsung is easy to program. If you had to, you could just add loop start lines to a new system and it would work fine. The voicemail would take a little longer. Everyone dosn't need or want IP phones but the 500 is the most flexable and if you needed more IP support you could go with their 7200 that has the LIM; WIM; 4DSL and the SVMi-20 that also has the AA card on it. All hard drives have about 4-5 year life span regardless who makes them. The only thing that shorten their life span is bad power to the units. Brown out or surges
Oh, Boy. I sort-of drifted off-topic again. Bear with me:
Well, Bunnie and 1grumpy, I have to disagree with you. We don't provide ANY protection devices except for that which is required for outside plant facilities. Unless the customer specifically asks for a UPS or backup batteries on the KSU, we don't offer them.
95% of our "system down" service calls are due to telco issues or failed batteries in APC UPS systems (APC was all we sold until Best Buy started selling them below our cost). When the batteries get weak, whenever they feel like it, that's it.....No power to the KSU.
As for those bridging clip gizmos, maybe they work for you guys, but again, they cause us more trouble than they are worth. They might do their job during a storm (I assume), but they usually fail when there is NOT a storm. We tried using that stuff for about three years and gave up. Our service call rate actually went down on sites in remote/rural areas when we stopped using them and replace them with plain clips. Sure, a major lightning strike may result in a complete card failure, but it's once in a blue moon as opposed to nuisance calls on a "per-pair" basis when those "cure-all" bridge clips fail.
I know you will say that "they failed because they caught a massive surge". OK, I will buy that, but why is it that these things are the only things that failed; no problems with other electronics on-site?
Don't get me wrong, I am not advocating no protection. There can't ever be too much protection, just like the fact that you can't wash your car too much. I am just saying that the ability to survive surges and spikes is reflected by the quality of the manufacturer of the phone system. If it can't survive typical surges out-of-the-box without supplemental devices, then it's not really that good to begin with.
I try to only sell systems that have a battery charging circuit and batteries are cheap. I don't have customers that complain. I was living in a resort when the 1994 Northridge quake hit and 25 hours later when the power came back on the battery was still powering the Toshiba. They had full intercom over the resort even if dial tones were gone. They were VERY happy I had pushed the battery backup when I sold it to them.
I do things differently, I won't sell a system without a one millionth of a second surge protector. My easiest sale is someone who says, "they told me to call Bunnie." If stuff never dies and they get support over the phone, they always recommend that person. I like that.
Anyone can sell anyway they like, I just like the way I sell and it has paid the rent for 21 years. That is good enough for me.
and ev, nice forehead, but bald can be beautiful if you know what I mean. I hear you are having a cold snap out there. Same thing here, last night I put a windbreaker on for the first time this "winter" and the clothing optional resort closed just before sundown. We have it rough here too you know.
THE Bracha, old blond specialist in Rube Goldberg solutions.
One very smart way to shop for systems in to look in the phone book and see how many local dealers there are. If there is one dealer in a 50 mile radius, you are totally SOL if the dealer goes under or you are not happy with each other.
I agree with this to a point. Unfortunantely more often than not you will get more companies not certified on the equipment they sell because they are buying the systems that are sold to the end user and these companies then go forth and sell these systems. Goto sights like graybar ect...and look and see how many companies sell systems you can buy right over the counter. We don't and can't compete with companies that do this. First, these items don't require you to be certified on them, second they are not the same quality or price as the other systems that REQUIRE commitment and certification.
I always liked the part when my tech walked in with his LAPTOP, tools AND SPARE PARTS. In most cases we have talked ABOUT THE PROBLEM and he has an idea where the issue may be and comes ready. Very seldom am I out of service because he needs to ship back the part first. That's very good customer service!
Find a good installation company that is certified, knows the equipment well, and will provide good servive down the road. Ask them how many of the particular system they have up and running at other locations. Ask to contact those other customers. Excellent support, instalation, and programming can make a mediocre system look a lot better than a superior system that is poorly installed, improperly programmed, or poorly supported. Just my 2 pennies. That said, out of your 4, I love the Axxess and have heard great things about the Coral. I am not at all familiar with the iDCS in operation and would think that the Aspire is really not in the same league, bells and whistles wise, as the other three.
We sell Mitel and the Aspire system. I would definitley recommend checking out the Mitel 200 ICP. The 200 Platform was introduced in 1978, and has done nothing but improve and grow better with time. If it aint broke dont fix it. On the other hand seriously consider the Aspire. It's a very cost effective phone system with alot of the perks of the higher priced systems.
