Tell me about your home alarm system
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Anonymous
| Who do you use, and what do you pay each month? We are brand new home owners and will be moving in March. I've lived in secured apartment buildings for so long, I think I would like to get an alarm system if they aren't cost prohibitive. |
Anonymous
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In my experience, some people are expensive on the install but lower on the monthly fee and some are cheaper on the install and higher on the monthly fee.
We currently have ADT. The install was about $3,000 for a pretty elaborate system. The monthly is about $70, I think. We are moving to a house with one that has lower monthly fees and a local company, but the install cost for a system not as good as what we have now is about $6,000. I honestly wished I could have convinced my husband to let ADT do the work and get the better system (monitored fire, etc.), but this guy also sells audio visual stuff and DH cut a package deal. Sigh. Shop around and figure out what you want and what worries you. On top of the obvious things, we also had extra contacts put on the windows, including on one of my DC's rooms because it was theoretically possible to climb up to the second floor on that side of the house. That extra peace of mind was worth it to me. You could argue all of it was silly, though, because we always have one or two huge dogs, and those are the best deterrent! Good luck OP. I hope others can give you more data. |
Anonymous
| I used Guardian and was happy with them. In addition to the alarm system, I had a heat detector installed. The idea was if there was a fire why we were not home, the system would automatically go off and alert would be sent so the fire dept could respond. |
Anonymous
| We also have Guardian. We have ADT in the past ut installation was more than double or our new home so we opted to go with Guardian. Monthly fees are about the same around $40. |
Anonymous
| We have SafeMart - wireless system, monitored smoke detectors, easy affordable install, 19/month monitoring including cellular. |
Anonymous
the installation fees seem very high (no esperience here, I just thought they were in the 1000K range). how large is your home. we have a 3bd around 1800 sq and I was thinking to get an alarm, but we cannot spend that much. I fully agree about the dogs, I grew up with dogs and nobody could get by our front door, especially at night, without them barking furiously and waking everybody up |
Anonymous
| We also use guardian. Installation is pricier than adt, but equipment is much better (you want a GE system) plus you can choose a system that you can monitor and arm via smartphone. There are also several companies now where you can self-install and save a few bucks. |
Anonymous
| English foxhound |
Anonymous
| PP with ADT here. Current house is about 3800 sq ft and new one is larger. The key, though, is the options you pick. In the current house, we had contacts put on 6 exterior doors plus all basement and first floor windows plus two of DC's windows, plus a motion detector and a mobitored smoke and CO2 system. You can easily do 2 exterior doors plus a motion detector for a lot less. It really depends, as I said, what you are worried about. We travel some so we were looking for "fortress", if you will. Good luck! |
Anonymous
| We have a totally @&$ up one from GE that chirps without stop every night just after we fall asleep. When the robbers come, we will be up waiting. Unless I rip all the wires out of my walks first. |
Anonymous
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I had the ADT guy come and give me an estimate. one thing stuck with me. 'the best distraction is the sign. if you have a sign, 90% of the criminals will avoid your house b/c it's not worth the effort.' So I surfed the internet and found a sign for 12 dollars. Then stuck it in the front yard. Then DIDN'T install an alarm b/c I figure 90% of crooks are freaked out by the sign. My house hasn't been broken into yet.
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Anonymous
I agree with this. We moved into a house with an elaborate ADT system and we haven't activated it. I find them more hassle than they are worth. We have the ADT signs up and two big dogs. The house down the street was broken into had an alarm system and they were in and out within ten minutes. The other thing that has stood out to me is that, unless you have a wireless system which is an even higher monthly fee, all they have to do is cut the phone lines to prevent the call going out. I'm not technologically savvy but I think I could figure out how to do that. |
Anonymous
| We have Potomac Security. Cannot recall all of the pricing when we did our research, but I think the install was more expensive then the competitors, and the monthly slighly less. Anyway, we've had this company at two houses now and have been extremely satisfied with the service and the equipment. |
Anonymous
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We moved into a house that already had the install. We called ADT to come out and reactivate it. That cost something nominal (maybe $100?) and we now pay $33 a month. ADT told us that we saved "a lot" of money by not having to do the install.
The previous owners had discontinued the security system. They secured the basement windows with sticks (placed so that the window can't be opened from the outside) and installed motion detector lights on each side of the house. I think that is pretty effective and I probably wouldn't have needed the ADT system, but my husband travels so it made me feel better to have the security system. I also like the other features of the system. There is the fire detector thing and the emergency button. In the unlikely chance that I opened the door to a bad guy, I would like to think that I can at least get to the emergency button on the security device. |
Anonymous
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Simplisafe.com
DIY and cheap monthly fee. |