Printer Friendly Forum Posts - compustar vs ultrastart

As far as reliability, ease of installation and quality of customer service which one of these two brands listed in the subject line do you guys prefer. Thank you

Well, not being an installer I only have experience with my Compustar, but it's been pretty reliable for the almost two years that I've had it. The only thing is sometimes the remote doesn't seem to register. Either it won't go through at all, or the car will arm or disarm, and the remote won't know it (2 way, obviously). My 2WSS-A is a solid unit. I installed it myself also, BTW. I did crack an LCD display on a remote, but that was going through things that no remote should have to go through, don't worry about it. posted_image

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'96 Mazda Miata

I love the ultrastart units for ease of installation, options, user friendly. All of the newer stuff is top notch. They did have some issues with their 2way remotes a few years back.

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jmacf14

How about getting replacement remotes for ultrastart. i do not see them being sold individually like some of the other brands. Where would you go for replacements?

i love installing ultra, the basic 1270 and 2250 are bullet proof. as for remotes just hit me up with a pm and i can get them for ya. the 1 ways are cheap. i have only had 2 people ask for another because they broke it. i drove over it, with a different car,lol. the other was really beat and cracked and glued up so the battery was dead and he couldnt get it out. another great thing is u can use different remotes with different units...

For the Compustar units, they will not honor ( the company itself ) warranty if you try to install it yourself unless the shop you buy it from honors the warranty for you. The units are really good and reliable, but installation I have heard from newbie's is hard to decypher because the installation manuals are made for installer who know what they are doing with the units. I have only had a few Ultra Starts installed under my belt but they were pretty good units as well. Guess the deciding factor for you would be price and warranty ( if used ).

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Jeff
Velocity Custom Home Theater
Mobile Audio/Video Specialist
Morden, Manitoba CANADA

I thought just about every company wouldn't honor the warranty on personally installed units.

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'96 Mazda Miata

Ok but say I wanted to get replacement 2 way remotes direct from ultrastart, do you think they would send me one? I tend to need a couple over the life of the alarm

Also in your opinion is it worth getting the 2wss-as from compustar or would it be advisable to get one of their new pro models like the pro2w900 system. Thank You

csnut18 wrote:

Also in your opinion is it worth getting the 2wss-as from compustar or would it be advisable to get one of their new pro models like the pro2w900 system. Thank You

It's up to you and what you want as far as range and also the new PRO series come with 2 year warranty on the remote controls where as the non PRO series only come with one year.

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Jeff
Velocity Custom Home Theater
Mobile Audio/Video Specialist
Morden, Manitoba CANADA

I thought the range is 6000' for both the 2wss-as and the new pro spread spectrum units. Where am I wrong?

The new pro spread spectrum units are not available yet ( at least not in our neck of the woods ). It's suppose to have 6000 feet of range where as the 2FM-AS-PRO only have 5000 feet and these are Canadian version numbers not US models.

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Jeff
Velocity Custom Home Theater
Mobile Audio/Video Specialist
Morden, Manitoba CANADA

2 way remotes are NOT cheap. i dont think ultra would let u buy directly but i am sure u can warrenty directly if there is a problem with a remote. just give one of us on here a shout can get ya one.

Both are great reliable units. We carry Ultra Start and use it for most of standard installs. They install quick and stay problem free. Compustar gives you all the features that someone looking for more in an alarm or start. More speciality features.This why we carry both to cover all options any customer may desire

Just an added note that the new 2WSS-AS systems coming out will have a true two way range of up to 6000 feet. Models other than the 2WSS-AS have a longer out going transmision range and lower receiving range.

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Jeff
Velocity Custom Home Theater
Mobile Audio/Video Specialist
Morden, Manitoba CANADA

We did ultra's for awhile, units were tough and reliable. We ran into issues getting product several times and after bouncing through distributors we tried to go direct. AST was reluctant with direct buyers, they gave us more distributors numbers. Fed up with this we got hooked up with compustar as a pro dealer. Product is always there when ordered and tech support has been great, no leaving messages on an answering machine. And no the ss models aren't out here(us) yet. So form a dealer stand point compustar is the way for my shop.

if u know what ur doing and dont need a tech, ultra all the way. the units are bullet proof. only problem i ever see is a customer comes back it wont start after i changed the battery. uhhh did u read the manual or see the sticker on the drivers door on the inside it say to put in service mode before unhooking the battery. the reason it remembers the tach signal. so if they do this after 1yr i charge 1/2hr labor of $22.50 while i take 2 mins to reprogram with there key,antenna button and key fob. if people could just read,lol...

Compustar Pro remotes only have a one year warrenty on them. The two year warrenty was just small talk at first. im pretty sure they decided to go with the one year warranty.

the brand that i would chose is compustar all the way. There one way systems are super solid. And the cosmetics of there remote are nice. Ultra start just looks cheesy. I've seen some of there remotes and im not impressed. But hey, it works you know.

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"dont ground out!"

We had problems with Ultra 3 or 4 years ago where the non-alarm units would spontaneously start thinking that they were alarms and would flash the parkinglights and honk the horn if you started it with a key without disarming first. I am sure they cleared this up since then, but that was annoying as hell.

Have you guys tried Autostart brand? We sell a ton of those and they are awesome. They only claim 3500 ft of range at the top end, but I have gone head to head with compustar inside of buildings and have won every time.

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Northstart.....or start it your damn self.

i have installed ultra for about 4 yrs now and the only problem they had was about 3-4yrs ago was a bad batch of antennas. they would flash parking lights and beep when sitting or while driving but only a couple times. easy fix unplug antenna unstick from windshield then restick new one and plug in problem done.

i have never used a ultra start that looked "CHEESY" i use 1270 and up. the brains are smaller than most and the fobs look more factory. the nice things about the ultra's is user friendly shock sensor, no drilling holes for led or valet button it is all in the antenna.

on the 1270TL model you use...

1) what color is the LED on the keyfob (mine are blue/green)

2) what color are the two twin LED's on the antenna? (mine, again, are blue)?

Reason I ask is b/c on the website, they state that the led's are red. Thanks

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