Deciding if I need a home security system like Simplisafe. I live in a safe neighborhood and I work from home, where I am most of the time. My family regularly opens and closes exterior doors, so I wouldn’t keep the system armed during the day. At night, the doors are locked.
It’s $15 a month for professional monitoring.
The loud alarm would be a nice deterrent, although I know there are never any guarantees. A dedicated panic button is also interesting. I realize that you shouldn’t put branding outside the home because would-be burglars can hack security systems.
Considering buying just an indoor camera to alert me of movement if no one is home. Maybe even some smart deadbolt locks to ensure doors are secure at night.
Thoughts?
Only you can decide that. But I can relate some of my experience.
We moved into our current home a little over 2 years ago. We were besieged every week by door to door salesmen trying to sell us an alarm package. I turned down all of them until my wife made the mistake of agreeing (for me) to speak to one. At some point somebody mentioned that our security sign out front was old. I had left it there as a sort of 'deterrent' even though we didn't actually have an alarm at that time. So, I guess that was how it was these sales reps knew I didn't have a system.
Anyway, I had already dealt with my home ISP and their monitoring. Turned out it was just a series of home devices, no alarm, and no monitoring for an alarm. They were also inept in installing it. I had to explain to one of their techs what an internet switch was! Anyway, I took it all back.
The guy my wife agreed for me to meet with offered a decent monthly price and the equipment. I wanted a SkyBell doorcam because it's got better HD and night vision capabilities then Ring. All they had was the Ring. So, they came back once they had the SkyBell.
Then we did a dance, because the SkyBell didn't work with the security company's control app. So they had to bring the Ring back. Then they had to install a device to allow the Ring to work with our doorbell chimes. All of that took around a month and a half of multiple visits.
In the meantime, we had our patio furniture ripped off and no recording of it because the damn Ring didn't wake up when it detected motion. Nevermind that it was always going nuts with motion alerts - just not this time!
Here are some things they don't tell you.
- The devices you get or want to get may not work with their control app. What I mean by this is that I can use their control app to lock my door, arm my system or view my Ring cam. If the device is not compatible with their app, you can't control it.
- Ring is a racket. They allow the cops to review customer recorded doorcam video on request. The one upside to not paying Ring yearly is that my video isn't given to the cops.
- You have to pay for any doorcam video storage separately. I can directly view my doorcam, but to save that video and go back and watch it, I have to provide Ring with ~$30 per year.
- The majority of municipalities require you to get an alarm permit. If you do not have an alarm permit and your alarm goes off and the company calls the police, the police may not respond - because you don't have a permit. The salesguy never mentioned this to me.
- 3 year or 5 year contracts are common. You can leave, but you will be charged for the amount of time you had left. Also, what do you do with the equipment?
- If you live in a HOA, be sure to check your CC&Rs and file an architectural request if you need to. Any cameras visible from the street must be covered by an architectural request in our HOA.
