Avaya Partner Door Phone Problem 1

[Dexman]

Last month, I installed an Avaya Partner door phone for a client. The install went without a hitch. The user, subsequently, requested a second door phone be installed at a different entrance.

I ordered the second door phone from my vendor, but the unit arrived without the RJ-11 jack harness and a foam gasket with screw holes that did not line up with the holes on the unit or the mounting box. The grill has a slightly different pattern than the one on the first phone as well.

I contacted the vendor, who then checked their stock. I was told that the phones they had in stock were just like the second phone, without the harness and the poorly fitting gasket.

The instruction booklet that came with the first door phone has a date of 12/2003 on it. The unit was made for Avaya by Bogen. The instruction sheet that came with the second door phone has a date May 6, 2003, but no manufacturer name.

Does anyone know if Avaya had a run of door phones with the poorly fitting gaskets and the missing harnesses? If so, was this the reason they use Bogen to manufacture these door phones?

The vendor is going to try to locate an Avaya door phone exactly like the first one and get it out ASAP.

Paul

 

[hbiss]

Good question. Avaya has gone through several vendors since they do not make the doorphones themselves.

The original was made by Harris (back when Avaya was AT&T) and is now made by Valcom Page Pac (pagepac.com)-

These are nice. If you have to replace one of the originals (since no way will the Viking fit or you just want a better unit) get it from Valcom. These mount very nicely to a standard electrical box either flush or surface.

The doorphone that Avaya currently supplied until recently is made by Viking-

These are almost impossible to flush mount and will only mount to the supplied aluminum electrical box which is OK for a warehouse but not on a residence. The shield pictured is not supplied with the unit.


The original (and Valcom I think) doesn't have a jack but instead has a screw terminal block. The front is stainless steel and is separate from the doorphone itself which is completely enclosed in a plastic enclosure.

The Viking manufactured one has an exposed PC board and speaker permanently mounted on the back of a stainless steel plate which serves as the front panel. For connection it has an RJ-11 jack on the end of a short wire.

The Bogen appears to be very much the same as the Viking and I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't the Viking with the Bogen name on it and a redesigned front panel since it looks like it will mount to a standard 2 gang electrical box. Avaya probably went this route after getting lots of complaints about not being able to directly replace the original.

Sooo, which ones do you have?

-Hal

 

[Dexman]

The unit that went up without any problems looks just like the bottom picture (except it says Avaya as opposed to Bogen).

The face of the unit that came missing the harness, roll of sealing tape and supplied an ill fitting gasket is laid out like the bottom unit as well, but the grill pattern looks like the middle picture and it is labeled Avaya as well.

I did test the unit by stripping off the ends of the wires and secured them in the barrier terminals. It worked fine, but the poorly fitting gasket renders the unit unusable as it will be mounted on the outside of the building.

The thing that threw me for a loop was that the instruction sheet that came with the unit has a diagram that features what looks like the harness that came with the first unit.

The vendor that I purchase stock from said that they have gotten reports of ill fitting gaskets and missing harnesses.

I suspect that their remaining stock consists of Viking-made units and I lucked out when they sent me a Bogen-made unit. Maybe Avaya was getting too many complaints about the Viking version and switched to Bogen. So far, the Bogen version has worked quite well and gets a thumbs up from the client (and me).

The pictures and descriptions are great! 2 thumbs for Hal