I'm a quality manager at a cable distribution company. I review every inbound shipment before it reaches a customer—roughly 200 unique SKUs a year, from fire alarm cable to high-voltage cable that arrives on its own truck. In 2024, I sent back about 8% of first deliveries due to spec mismatches, damaged drums, or paperwork that didn't match the product.
The question I get most from contractors isn't about high voltage cable. It's about fire alarm cable: is Prysmian Airguard worth the premium over a generic alternative?
I'll compare them across four dimensions that matter after the cable leaves the warehouse:
- Fire performance — what the cable does when everything around it burns
- Consistency — what actually shows up on the spool
- Field verification — how it behaves when you test it with a 117 multimeter
- Total installed cost — including the costs that don't appear on the invoice
Fire Performance: When It Has to Work
The entire purpose of a fire alarm cable is to keep the alarm system alive while the building is burning. Prysmian Airguard is a fire-resistant cable, rated to maintain circuit integrity under fire conditions per BS 5839-1—the code of practice for fire detection and alarm systems. I check the batch test certificate against the datasheet before I approve a shipment, every time, and the results are consistent. This cable holds its circuit.
Generic PVC alarm cable melts. There's no polite way to say it. PVC breaks down well below the temperatures of an actual fire. The circuit shorts, the panel loses its field wiring, and the building occupants lose their warning. That's not a manufacturing defect. It's the wrong cable for the job.
So why does anyone install it? Because it's cheaper, and because on the day of installation, nobody is imagining the building on fire. I get that. But I've also stood in a client's room after a failed fire inspection, watching them realize that the cable they saved money on is the reason the system doesn't meet code.
Verdict: If the building needs a working alarm during a fire, Airguard is the only serious option.
Consistency: What Shows Up on the Spool
This is the dimension most buyers don't think about until the job goes sideways. When I receive a drum of Prysmian Airguard, the conductor diameter, insulation thickness, and resistance values match the datasheet. Batch after batch, from different Prysmian plants, the product behaves the same. That consistency matters on site: terminations fit, loop resistances are predictable, and the cable pulls the same way it did on the previous floor.
With generic cable, I've measured sheath thickness varying by 15% between runs. At least, on the drums that came through our dock—I can't speak for every supplier out there. I've also seen copper that wasn't annealed properly. It springs back when you bend it and works loose at the terminal block. To be fair, not all generic cable is bad. Some of it is perfectly fine for short, accessible, non-critical runs. But I can't tell from the outside which supplier is shipping the good stuff this week.
I'll admit that I used to think verifying every delivery was overkill. I changed my mind after skipping it once and approving a batch of generic cable where the insulation thickness drifted between samples. The contractor found out during testing—loop resistance out of range, terminations failing, two days of rework. The supplier said the cable was "within industry standard." So was the invoice, I suppose, but the rework cost more than three times the cable.
Verdict: The consistency of Prysmian's global manufacturing shows in the measurements. Generic cable is a gamble with no reliable datasheet.
Field Verification: What Your Meter Tells You
Testing is where a lot of arguments start. Most technicians I work with carry a Fluke 117 multimeter—it's the go-to field meter for electrical troubleshooting. It measures continuity, resistance, and voltage, and its low-impedance (LoZ) mode eliminates ghost voltages, which are the false readings you get from induced voltage on long cable runs.
Here's what I see with Prysmian Airguard: the readings are boring. Continuity is solid, insulation resistance is high, and if something tests wrong, it's usually the termination, not the cable. That's the mark of good cable—it doesn't keep you guessing.
I remember one site where the electrician was certain he had a bad run. His 117 was reading voltage on a conductor that should have been dead, and he was ready to pull out 60 meters of newly installed Airguard. I switched the meter to LoZ mode, the reading dropped to zero, and the cable turned out to be fine. A parallel cable in the same bundle was inducing a phantom voltage. We saved a day of rework, and the cable stayed in the ceiling.
The surprise wasn't that the cable was good. It was how close we came to replacing a quality product because of a wrong test method.
Verdict: Quality cable makes your meter readings predictable. Cheap cable manufactures false negatives—and every false negative costs a labor hour.
Total Installed Cost: The Number That Matters
Here's where the comparison gets interesting. Prysmian Airguard costs more per meter than a generic alternative. I'm not going to argue with that. But price per meter is the wrong metric for a cable that gets installed, tested, and then has to work for decades.
People assume the expensive cable is expensive because of the brand name. Actually, it's the other way around: consistently manufacturing a fire-resistant cable costs more, which is why it earned a brand reputation in the first place. The reputation is the result, not the cause. When a cheap cable fails early, the cost is never the cable itself—it's the labor to trace it, the downtime of the system, the truck roll, and the client's lost trust.
That's the efficiency argument in one line. Standardized quality removes decisions that shouldn't exist. My team's inspection turnaround improved noticeably once we stopped debating whether out-of-spec batches were "acceptable." The spec is the spec. Less ambiguity, faster approvals, fewer surprises on site.
I still kick myself for a job where we pushed a lower-priced alternative to hit a budget number. The client wanted to start on site, the loop test was marginal, and we approved it anyway. Two callbacks later—one for interference, one for an inconsistent sheath thickness that had nothing to do with the interference—nobody was saving money. The cable got replaced with Airguard, the redo cost more than the original price difference, and the client remembered the failure long after they forgot the price.
Verdict: If the only number you compare is the price per meter, the other numbers—rework, callbacks, failed inspections—will find you.
When to Choose What
If you're installing fire alarm circuits in a building where people need to evacuate during a fire, choose Prysmian Airguard. I'd say that whether or not my company sells it. A life-safety circuit isn't the place to experiment with a lower price point.
If the run is non-critical—a bell circuit in an accessible ceiling void, a temporary install, something easy to reach and fix—then basic cable is reasonable. Just ask for the datasheet and verify the batch when it arrives.
One last note on why this matters outside the panel. Everyone checks "what is on my wifi" when the internet slows down. Your phone shows full bars but the call drops. The wifi is the interface, but the cable is the foundation—every access point, every VoIP phone, every device on the network hangs off a physical wire somewhere. If that wire is inconsistent, the network is inconsistent, no matter how good your wireless gear is.
Prysmian's high voltage cable business gets the attention, and rightly so—that's where the engineering gets genuinely difficult. But the same manufacturing discipline shows up in their low-voltage products like Airguard. Quality culture doesn't switch off when the voltage drops.
My job isn't to sell the most expensive cable. It's to make sure the cable you install works—and works when it has to. I've tested generic cable that was fine. I've tested branded cable that exceeded its spec. But when a client asks whether the fire alarm will still work in a real fire, I'd rather hand them a manufacturer's test certificate than a guess.