Intercom system for workshop?

[Jason White]

I'm looking for a wireless intercom system so my wife can call me in the shop from the house. My shop is in an attached garage, but I don't want her sneaking up on me when my hands are close to spinning saw blades.

I see both FM and "wi-fi" types on Amazon. Anybody have one in the shop? If so, does it work well? I think something with a flashing light as well as audible signal would be good for the shop, as I often have headphones on while running loud machines.

Jason

[Chip Lindley]

Jason, don't you have a cell phone? Everybody else does! Why be redundant and spend bucks for short range wireless communication??

[Jim O'Dell]

Well, I don't have a cell phone, and I don't want one. I always know when the LOML walks into the shop. She ALWAYS turns the stereo off. Not down mind you, off. Dead giveaway even with ear protection on. The big trick is getting her to turn it back on when she leaves. About 50/50 with out me prompting here at this point.
Otherwise, I have one of the cordless phones (note to self...left on charger last night) that has an intercom feature on it where she can call me. There is the ringer and a light on the tip of the antenna that flashes. Jim.

[Steve Mostoller]

I have a Radio Shack, FM wireless, 3 channel intercom. If i recall right i paid about $100 for the 3 unit system. I have one in my woodshop, one in my garage and one in the house. The woodshop is about 150 feet away from the house and it works great. It doesnt have a flashing light, but it does have a tone alarm.

[David DeCristoforo]

This...
http://www.thunderpowermegaphones.com/ThunderPower1000
...should do the trick. No wiring needed.

[John Coloccia]

I have some V-Tec cordless phones with handset to handset paging. Works for me.

[Don Selke]

Ditto on the cordless phones with intercom option, It works well for me.

[Dave Lehnert]

We use a set of radios like this at work. Works very well. We can go two miles away and still talk to each-other like we were right there.

http://www.amazon.com/Midland-GXT100...9640977&sr=8-2

[Ken Fitzgerald]

We bought a set of 3 cordless phones that came with 2 remote chargers and a base station.

The phones have a built in phone to phone intercom.

Got them at Costco at a reasonable price.

[Jeff Mackay]

I thought about this in other shops I've had. For me the cordless phone option worked, but with ear protection, it was hit or miiss. In the new shop, which is under my garage (spancrete panels on the garage floor), I'm effectively working in a bomb shelter surrounded by 12" to 14" of concrete, top, bottom, and all sides. No reception from anything wireless at all--no wireless network from the house, no wireless phone, no cell phone.

I thought about hooking up a doorbell that would activate a strobe light when pressed, and even pre-wired for it, with a wire to the kitchen. But then either the drywall guys drywalled over it, or I tiled over it. So maybe a second phone line?

Jeff

[AL Ursich]

The Radio Shack wireless version operates over the electrical lines.... Any building on the 220 Volt side of the Pole Transformer will get reception. So that Bomb Shelter works shop might just work fine with the power line type.

I have the 2 channel version with lock and call button. I sometimes listen to my CarveWright machine in my Laser Shop working next door in the wood shop. It works to the house too so give it a try.

Buy one from Radio Shack. If it does not work, take it back.....sitting outside the shop door.

For guys that have a shop phone, they make a remote Ringer with strobe light on it.

Another option is a floor mat security switch hooked to a light or bell....

Radio Shack also sells a device called a Reporter. It is a Wireless IR motion detector and switch that runs on 4 AA batteries. They last a year.

The Receiver works up to 1000 ft and rings a buzzer. It has a set of contacts on the receiver that lets you wire a light to the contacts.

The receiver will receive up to 4 sensors and beep once, twice, 3 times and 4 depending on what sensor goes off. We use them on a long driveway so a 1 beep then 2 beeps = someone entering... Leaving 2, 1 beeps...

Good Luck,

AL

[Jim Rimmer]

In a previous shop I installed a wirelss doorbell. There was a window in the kitchen and the shop door. When it rang, I stepped to the window and some very basic hand signals got the message across - shoveling air food towards the mouth, a hand to the ear replicating a phone call, or the ever popular beckoning finger. Nothing else was really needed. And they're cheap.

[Bill Huber]

I use the cordless phone system, it works well and also gives be a phone when I need to call someone or someone calls me.

I do have a cell phone but I leave it in the house a lot of the time, so I don't get calls from work.

I got mine form Best Buy, they are the Uniden 5.8 GHz and cost about $50 for a base and 2 phones. I got them for the shop mainly but now I have added 3 more and do not have any other phones in the house, just cordless phones.

The sound quality is really great and they are not like they used to be when there was noise and static in them.

[Dave Sharpe]

I've used the radio shack version that transmits over electrical lines with good effect in the past. Now I use a FRC radio system - a base unit that's wall mounted in the shop, and two handhelds in chargers in the house. LOML just picks up a radio and emits a "YooHoo!" into it to get my attention.
It was originally bought as an "elder monitor" (kinda like a baby monitor, but in reverse) when my terminally ill mother lived in the house with us - she could use the base system to call for assistance when we weren't nearby. Worked so well, we re-purposed it after she passed away.

[Peter Quinn]

This...
http://www.thunderpowermegaphones.com/ThunderPower1000
...should do the trick. No wiring needed.

I love that. LMAO presently. That really ought to do it. My wife always says I don't hear what she's telling me, maybe that's whats been missing?

My shop is in the basement, so my wife practices the heal to floor technique to reach me. We go with a level of alarm from one to three heal kicks. A three heel kick says "get the heck up here the world is ending". Amazing how loud a stomping foot can be when you are below it. Sounds like the thunder of the Gods. Perhaps I could market a slip on weighted boot heal for the purpose?

Otherwise ditto on the VTEC phones. Works for more complicated communication. I like the strobe light or flashing wringer idea. Of course they only work when I am not ignoring the call.