Home alarm systems

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338lapua
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Re: Home alarm systems

#16

Post by 338lapua »

It has the cell link inside the unit, no phone or internet needed. Today was nice, I got to tell Cox to go to hell and cancel their asses, new customers get much better plans than the customers of 25 years like myself. Simplisafe will be here in a couple days and I should have it up and running in about 3 hours.


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brandyspaw
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Re: Home alarm systems

#17

Post by brandyspaw »

Good info. I've been looking for a new system lately as well.

I had a security system for my old house that I purchased from a local company with those 3 year contracts. When I could finally get rid of them I found a cheaper month to month alternative but that company kept raising their prices for monitoring. What started out as a good deal became expensive pretty quickly. It seems that many of these companies are running on an antiquated business model and not realizing that with the newer systems and smart phones consumers can install and monitor their own systems pretty inexpensively.
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338lapua
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Re: Home alarm systems

#18

Post by 338lapua »

I got the original ADT deal through USAA. Somehow it creeped from a guaranteed rate of $19.95 a month 25 years ago to $45 a month today. I will say I was impressed with their attempt to keep me as a client today. I did pay a few service calls over the years which she said I should not have paid and on one service call they charged me for batteries which have been included for the entire term. She told me today they were going to ship me a box of CR123 batteries to make it right as I have replaced at least 50 batteries over the years, usually at 3am when they run a system test. I got offered their new system with wireless connection to monitoring with up to 5 cameras for the same price with no contract, I was shocked.
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338lapua
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Re: Home alarm systems

#19

Post by 338lapua »

Got it today. Installed it this evening. It was very simple to install. Took about 2 hours to turn on base station, turn on keypad, install glass break sensor, install 2 motion detectors and 9 entry sensors. Sensor has a light that lights up when within range of magnet and when out of range. Also tested every sensor and it sets off alarm within a second of door or window opening. Same for motion detectors. Now to turn on monitoring.


Only complaint is the double sided sticky tape they use, it is not very sticky so I will buy a roll of better tape tomorrow and reset sensors.
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338lapua
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Re: Home alarm systems

#20

Post by 338lapua »

Now monitored. Testing is easy. Use the keypad to enter customized entry codes for master code and individual entry codes. You can do it all yourself, if you can use a smart phone you can do this.
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Re: Home alarm systems

#21

Post by Tenring »

Thank you for the Simplisafe review 338, I am still on the fence as too which unit we will go with. Still leaning toward Ring, but have not pulled the trigger yet.
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Re: Home alarm systems

#22

Post by superduty38 »

Thank you for the review, 338lapua. Our internet connection is really poor out here, so any system that uses internet would not work well. Please keep us all updated on how the system works for you.
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338lapua
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Re: Home alarm systems

#23

Post by 338lapua »

Had one little glitch where it was saying it could not connect to monitoring center and they overnighted me a new cell module for Verizon but it is now working properly. 15 arm and disarms and connecting every time but I will replace the card as they say Verizon has better coverage.

Heard a noise Saturday night but didn't see anything, the keypad had fallen off the wall with their 4 pieces of tape on it. Replaced their tape with 30 pound double sided and I thing the wall with come off with it if it falls off again.

On my account page I found a log page where it shows all arm and disarm events as well as what pin number was used by user. Kind of nice to be able to add users and subtract them at will.
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Tenring
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Re: Home alarm systems

#24

Post by Tenring »

Purchased a Ring alarm and have had it up an running for about a week. The app is very user friendly and alerts are almost instant. Changing the batteries in the future looks to be the only down side I can see.

Picking up a ring doorbell this weekend and it will tie right in with the alarm system.

Very much liking the system so far.
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Re: Home alarm systems

#25

Post by Flash »

Put up a Reolink wireless IP camera outside yesterday. Got the camera tucked away where you have to know where it is to see it. It's PIR (passive infrared) and sends a push notification to my iPhone within 2 seconds or so of someone walking in front of it. Detection out to 30 feet per the specs but I'm only using around 12' or so. It also sees/records out to around 30' at night in total darkness. Remoted a solar panel to keep it charged up. and it kind of looks like a decoration with nothing around it at all instead of looking like a solar panel. Got a 30' cord I snaked to the camera but it's all under the eaves and you have to be standing next to the house to see it. This thing is great.

The pic is a stock pic and not my installation and the solar panel in the pic looks like a solar panel but mine doesn't.
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Tenring
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Re: Home alarm systems

#26

Post by Tenring »

Had the Ring doorbell installed for awhile now and gotta say it is great. Uses the same app as the alarm, quality video and with instant notifications.

Signed up for the $100 a year monitoring which warranties all my my equipment. Much less than the hard wired system I had in my last house and like the Ring system much better.
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Eleroo
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Re: Home alarm systems

#27

Post by Eleroo »

I have had both systems. Simplisafe is great and you can’t go wrong with it. I had their first gen system. However, when we moved a yr ago, I opted for the Ring alarm because of the cost. $100 per year is substantially less than paying $25/month (the plan we had with Simplisafe) Both are great though.
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Re: Home alarm systems

#28

Post by TacMedic »

Monitor it on your own with NO fees. Samsung SmartThings with Konnected.

https://konnected.io/products/konnected ... gL7SPD_BwE
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Re: Home alarm systems

#29

Post by electrohawk »

I too went with Ring. Went with the Yearly $100 as well, as it covers as many camera's / devices as you want. Storage of video is on their site, so even if they steal your camera's there is still evidence. Also, with a police report for a stolen Ring item, Ring will replace it free.

While I mainly got it after a rash of car break-in's in my neighborhood, it is also great to see when the Amazon package comes, the Floodlight Cam is great to also light up your front porch automatically when you come home. They also have smoke/CO2 sensors and standard alarm sensors for things, and you can either have them monitor all the stuff, or you can just have it send events to your phone. Also great to see when your kids come home from school.
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Re: Home alarm systems

#30

Post by cool arrow »

electrohawk wrote: January 23rd, 2020, 12:31 pm I too went with Ring. Went with the Yearly $100 as well, as it covers as many camera's / devices as you want. Storage of video is on their site, so even if they steal your camera's there is still evidence. Also, with a police report for a stolen Ring item, Ring will replace it free.
That $100/yr was a big selling point for me versus Cox.

If you opt in for the neighborhood function in the RING app, it will give you local crime reports too. I opened the area to 5mi radius and was blown away by how many things are going on in my neighborhood. I will NEVER go without an alarm again after the posts that I see.
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