Home Alarms

[betamax]

I was talking with my homeowners insurance company and they mentioned that I'd save $400/year if I had a monitored alarm installed. Since monitoring is only $30/month and the installation cost $150 or so, it didn't seem like that bad an idea. We got a nice deal with ADT through USAA.

Interesting thing is the $400/yr is for burglary only. I'd save another $50/year for monitored smoke, but I'll have to figure out what the alarm company wants to 'monitor' the smoke detector. I'm surprised the smoke doesn't save more money than just $50.

I wasn't real interested in an alarm, but I make money by having it, so why not?

We haven't armed it except for seeing how it works. We'll use it for vacations, but I don't know that we'll use it much the rest of the time. Besides, our dog hates the beeps. :)

Anybody else have an alarm in their house?

[Makita]

Just a black lab-Border collie Mix.

I am not even sure I know WHERE the keys to our front door are. Used to have one on my key-chain until we went on vacation a few years ago. Removed it cause we left it in the car for when we got back. (less crap to carry and lose, just having to carry a car-key.

[leahn]

Correct me if I am wrong, but you will spend $510 the first year, which is more than $400. You'll net $40 each year after that. So, in like 3-years you will break even.

All for the privilege of false alarms.

Cops will write you up after 3 false alarms, too.

And they will respond slower.

**scam**

-John

[leahn]

FWIW, if a siren goes off next door... really loud, I probably will go grab my shot-gun and investigate. Mainly because I have lived next to them for 20 years. No monitoring company can do that.

-John

[Kablemodem]

I was just about to post a thread for a recommendation for an alarm company. Have you had ADT for long?

[leahn]

No. I wouldn't have them, or any alarm company.

If you are not tech savvy enough to do your own monitoring, buy a dog.

-John

[Marc]

We had ADT, but we left them when they played some sneaky pricing games trying to increase the price within our contract. Our contract was for 3 years, but we were allowed to leave after 2, and that's when they tried to raise the rates... a very silly move.

We switched to NextAlarm (http://www.nextalarm.com/), an online-based monitoring service. They're much cheaper than ADT, as little as $11.95/month if you prepay for three years ($14.95/month for one-year prepaid, or $17.95/month). I have access on the web to monitor the system, and they've been good about notifying the police for when we had a break-in, and otherwise calling us when there have been "trouble" with the system (low batteries in our wireless sensors, or otherwise "tampering" with the sensors without having put the system into a "test" mode).

[Marc]

Oh, and false alarms haven't been an issue for us since getting the system in place and adjusting our motion detectors for our animals.

In addition to the police notification, we also get fire response if the smoke alarms go off. That's a lot better than a simple battery-operated smoke alarm. We've actually had ours go off the very first night we moved in since we were doing a cleansing ritual and inadvertently made too much smoke from our sage smudging. Unfortunately for us, we didn't yet have the deactivation code for the alarm, so we had no way to turn off the alarm and were quite surprised to see the police and fire responders show up at our doorstep within a few minutes.

[HeyItsCory]

More trouble than they're worth IMHO. Your millage may very. I think my ADT sign does more good than my girlfriend insisting we arm the alarm when we're going out for a walk for 15 minutes. Then have to come in, rush to put down everything in your hand while the panel beeps at you and then disarm it. The creepy red lights on the motion detectors are frightening at night. The thin wires or tiny, flimsy sensors stop working and it costs you $100 for them to come out, plus the replacement parts.

If you can find a better deal on the alarm, go for it, but if it were me, it offers no peace of mind (the opposite in fact) and would SOOOO not be worth saving $40 a year three years down the line (and who knows if the insurance savings or monthly monitoring fees would stay where they are now.)

[FourOhFour]

My parents had ADT at their vacation home... 'cause that's what the builder installed. I'd recommend against them; pricy and they sent the police to the wrong house...

[Twink]

We currently have Brinks monitor our home but will be changing over to a less expensive monitoring system through our EMC. Fire was automatically included when they installed the system - maybe that had something to do with requirements in this area. I just assumed that was standard.

Our house is in a nice neighborhood but there have been some break-ins over the past few years (mostly to unmonitored homes). Ours backs up onto a natural area so there's no one behind us to watch and our house sits a little further back from the road from the ones next door so they don't really see back there either.

The only false alarms (if you can call them that) are the ones we caused ourselves by opening the back door without disarming first and those we knew how to cancel. Trevor always rushes from the front door to the panel when we come in but the house ain't that big and when I'm alone I take time to put my stuff down and walk back to the panel and shut off the alarm. I think you can set the amount of time you want to have to turn it off. Ours is about 45 seconds and that's plenty of time for me.

I think as the economy continues to tank my thought is there are going to be more break-ins so I'm happy to have the alarm.

[stevel]

I installed a Smarthome SecureLinc system (http://www.smarthome.com/73903W/Smarthome-SecureLinc-Wireless-Home-Security-System/p.aspx) (same as Visonic PowerMax), which uses wireless sensors. Cost for the basic system with some sensors is $400. Monitoring is by Watchlight for $9/mo. It works well and I know the monitoring works - the other day I forgot to call the monitoring company before changing the battery in one of the sensors (it had lasted 5-6 years) and this triggered a tamper alarm - next thing I knew there was a knock on the door from one of the town's finest.

[Marc]

I'm surprised that Watchlight didn't call you first before calling the police. I would think that it was standard practice to check with the home owner.

[Philosofy]

An alarm is a must at our house. My wife had a friend who was killed by a stalker, so she's very paranoid. We have ADT, and I would have switched over pricing issues, but since our alarm has wireless detectors, we can't without a new install. It seems if the house was hard wired, it would be no problem, but the wireless systems are proprietary for each company. We had some false alarms and some other problems, and when I bitched, ADT lowered the price.

[Marc]

I don't understand what the wireless sensors have to do with being locked in to ADT. Our system is wireless, installed by ADT, and we switched. As long as the main system is supported by the monitoring company, they shouldn't care what kind of sensors are being used.

The one downside for us to switch to NextAlarm is that one of the reasons they're less expensive than ADT is that it's more of a DIY setup, so I have to reprogram the alarm system if a change needs to be made. Fortunately, I have the programming manual, so I was able to figure out how to do it, but it's certainly not a trivial task. I'm not sure that the programming manual even covers everything. :(

[Makita]

Just curious, what happens if the Crooks cut your phone line, or tie up the phone line, so the system can not dial out? (before the alarm/warning goes off)

[FourOhFour]

Just curious, what happens if the Crooks cut your phone line, or tie up the phone line, so the system can not dial out? (before the alarm/warning goes off)

Depends on the system. Years ago, my parents paid for a dedicated line for the alarm that was always active... if the cable were cut, the line would hang up which was treated as an alarm. I believe this was monitored by the PD itself, too. They've discontinued this service.

Some systems can connect over the internet (if that isn't also cut) or using a cell phone. If you are worried about a cut line, look into the cell phone option.

Otherwise, the siren will still go off, but the monitoring company won't know about it.

[Marc]

Cutting the phone line is effectively a disconnect from monitoring. Professional thieves would consider doing this, as long as the potential problem of doing their job in an environment where the alarm was going off wouldn't otherwise be a deterrent to unscrupulous activities.

Yeah, we could've paid for cellular backup (it was $8/month from ADT, as I recall), but it wasn't an option we would pursue.

In our home, we have three lines from Verizon... one copper and two fiber. They'd be busy for a short while cutting all the lines if they wanted to be safe.

[stevel]

Regarding calling first - they dispatch first and then call if it's a type of signal that could be trouble. They did call me just after the officer arrived. In such cases, time matters.

Some systems can use cellular networks. For my house, cutting the phone line would be trivial. To be honest, I'm more worried about fire than breakins.

[JAB]

We have a wireless ADT system. You can purchase additional sensors without going through ADT. ADT appears to simply resell Ademco systems, which in turn, appear to be made by Honeywell. Setting up the sensors is fairly straightforward, but not for the technically challenged. Typically, you are better off purchasing through ADT while under contract with them.

False alarms have not been an issue. We have an entry/exit delay set and the system actually waits a few seconds before calling the monitoring station, so if you're fast, you can disarm before the call completes.

We're using wireless key fobs to arm/disarm, so it's easy to disarm from outside and there's no rush to disarm upon entering the house. We're also using the cellular phone and battery backup.

Two very serious complaints about ADT:

1. I find it absolutely impossible to get ADT's attention for additional sensors or anything involving sales, while an active contract is in place. ADT sales cares about one thing and one thing only: signing monitoring contracts.

2. We needed compact window sensors, since we have double-hung windors. ADT refused to provide the ones we wanted, even though there are two models available that would have worked. In both cases, they said they wouldn't sell the sensors because the battery life was too short. After researching the sensors, I think they didn't want to sell them because they didn't have them in stock, leaving me to order them and set them up myself from third parties.

Add #1 and #2 together, and you have our last experience. We installed external video cameras and added additional internal sensors. Each camera comes with its own power supply and coax cable. There is some sort of box designed to power all of the cameras with one power supply and simplify the cabling. The cameras were on one order; everything else was on another, for some technical reason.

ADT was supposed to sell the power supply/cable widget to us and install it, but it was on the order with the window sensors. While ADT didn't charge us for the unwanted window sensors, they canceled the entire order second order, meaning we didn't get the power supply/cable widget. However, because we renewed our monitoring contract on the order containing the cameras, repeated attempts to get ADT to sell us the remaining items have been met with complete and total silence. Their sales department doesn't even return our phone calls.

/jab

[BeanMeScot]

My alarm install was included with the building of the house. I contracted with the company to start the alarm service and pay for the extra equipment to make it work, including 2 keypads. Once I was done paying for all that, I negotiated a $19.99 a month rate. I thought about going to NextAlarm but the price was close enough to be more of a hassle to change than to stay.

I stopped arming it during the day when one of my cats tripped it. I have pet sensors but I think he still set it off when he started climbing on the entertainment center. There is no motion sensor when it is armed and you are the house so he doesn't trip it.

[TheDewAddict]

I can't remember what the company is right now, but my dad bought a cellular-based system for use in the houses he flips. Everything is wireless, so he can just move the system from house to house. He can remotely arm/disarm it, and see an activity log, all through the internet. Since it's cellular-based, there is no phone line to cut. It has a battery back-up, so cutting the power is not an option either.

[testify4]

I installed a Smarthome SecureLinc system (http://www.smarthome.com/73903W/Smarthome-SecureLinc-Wireless-Home-Security-System/p.aspx) (same as Visonic PowerMax), which uses wireless sensors. Cost for the basic system with some sensors is $400. Monitoring is by Watchlight for $9/mo. It works well and I know the monitoring works - the other day I forgot to call the monitoring company before changing the battery in one of the sensors (it had lasted 5-6 years) and this triggered a tamper alarm - next thing I knew there was a knock on the door from one of the town's finest.

I installed a Visonic Powermax and think it's great. It has so many options and is very configurable. I'm self-monitored (it calls my cell an instant after an alarm trip) but am considering adding monitoring.

[stevel]

I installed a Visonic Powermax and think it's great. It has so many options and is very configurable. I'm self-monitored (it calls my cell an instant after an alarm trip) but am considering adding monitoring.
The Watchlight monitoring I got through a link on the Smarthome web site is very good as well as reasonably priced. I'm thrilled with their service.

[testify4]

The Watchlight monitoring I got through a link on the Smarthome web site is very good as well as reasonably priced. I'm thrilled with their service.

At $9/mo, that would be on the top of my list- it sounds like they've reacted quickly when your alarm was tripped. I'd like the homeowner's discount, too!

Right now, it's piece of mind knowing if someone enters my home while I am away, but all they would get is a remote siren (VERY loud!) and strobe until I called the police.