Browse Forums Safer Living 1 Oct 20, 2013 9:08 pm Today we heard an advert for ADT on the radio which was a sort of weird coincidence as we were just discussing home security systems. So after a fair bit of research I'm wondering what the point of a system that calls your phone is, if it triggers? Naturally if not home that's one thing, but if you are home, do you really want a phone call or SMS to let you know you are not alone? That aside, a lot of the monitored systems seem to have pretty hefty contracts bundled with them, along the lines of 3 years. Is this just the hit we need to roll with to have something more autonomous? Re: Alarm System - Monitored or Other? 2Oct 22, 2013 10:59 am ismithers Today we heard an advert for ADT on the radio which was a sort of weird coincidence as we were just discussing home security systems. So after a fair bit of research I'm wondering what the point of a system that calls your phone is, if it triggers? Naturally if not home that's one thing, but if you are home, do you really want a phone call or SMS to let you know you are not alone? That aside, a lot of the monitored systems seem to have pretty hefty contracts bundled with them, along the lines of 3 years. Is this just the hit we need to roll with to have something more autonomous? Well the other part as well is that would you even have the alarm on if you are home? How would it know not to trigger for someone at home as opposed to an intruder? Generally, I think the ADT ads on the radio are quite misleading - if you are home and an intruder breaks in, the alarm is not going to trigger unless: 1) You have it turned on (which would be odd....) 2) You have a panic button located within arm's reach The only advantage of having a monitored system is that you will have someone drive past your home when the alarm is triggered. Perhaps that would be useful if you were away on holidays? You would hope that regardless of monitoring, an intruder would flee when an alarm is triggered due to the noise/attention it would draw..... Re: Alarm System - Monitored or Other? 3Oct 24, 2013 12:13 pm Serenity_Now Well the other part as well is that would you even have the alarm on if you are home? How would it know not to trigger for someone at home as opposed to an intruder? The alarms are zoned. You would arm the windows and downstairs motion sensors, and then upstairs motion would be off. So that way you can move around upstairs, if you need the bathroom or something, or the kids get up. But you don't go downstairs without disarming. Also it covers intruders coming through the windows which have sensors on them. Re: Alarm System - Monitored or Other? 4Oct 24, 2013 12:40 pm I'm not very convinced about monitoring the alarms really. We used to have one monitored in my parents house and when we accidentally set it off the security system would call us first to see if everything was okay. (Having said that I answered the phone and said I set it off accidentally but surely a crook could do that too...?) By the time they actually get out to the house (in their teeny woosy security cars) I don't really see how it could be useful.... any thieves would be long gone surely...? Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Alarm System - Monitored or Other? 5Oct 24, 2013 2:11 pm EmyN I'm not very convinced about monitoring the alarms really. We used to have one monitored in my parents house and when we accidentally set it off the security system would call us first to see if everything was okay. (Having said that I answered the phone and said I set it off accidentally but surely a crook could do that too...?) You need to repeat a code word normally EmyN By the time they actually get out to the house (in their teeny woosy security cars) I don't really see how it could be useful.... any thieves would be long gone surely...? This is where silent alarms are better. The burglar gets all nice and comfortable in your house if they don't believe they're detected. Depending on response time of course they could well be there still going through your stuff. Years ago my parents place was burgled while they were out of town. They were clearly in the house for hours - got themselves drinks, went through everything, loaded up a van full of stuff they figured they could offload, defaced other stuff in the house. A monitored silent alarm would have caught them. Similarly, a friend of mine had his house completely emptied while he and his wife were at work, right down to clothes. The house was totally emptied. Neighbours assumed it was a moving truck and they were moving out. It's the loud unmonitored alarms that are useless. Nobody ever pays any attention and you're relying on your neighbours to care enough to bother to look for you. They don't. Completed a knock down and rebuild in northern Melbourne. Handover completed 27/09/2013 and now moved in. Re: Alarm System - Monitored or Other? 6Oct 24, 2013 2:54 pm Bluesuede It's the loud unmonitored alarms that are useless. Nobody ever pays any attention and you're relying on your neighbours to care enough to bother to look for you. They don't. Hmmm I respectfully disagree with this. Friends were recently broken in to and the alarm set off. It was obvious the back door had been jimmied but as soon as the alarm went off the burglars must have ran for it because nothing was touched anywhere in the house. And their neighbours went over to the house shortly after the alarm went off. We know our new neighbours and I sure wouldn't ignore a prolonged house alarm going off next door and I don't think they will either. I'm not sure about the silent alarm and "catching" the crooks either. Have you seen the calibre of security guard these places tend to send out? Cute little weedy adolescents who can't even grow facial hair. They have no taser/gun etc. They drive Barinas hahaha. Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Alarm System - Monitored or Other? 7Oct 24, 2013 6:02 pm Bluesuede EmyN I'm not very convinced about monitoring the alarms really. We used to have one monitored in my parents house and when we accidentally set it off the security system would call us first to see if everything was okay. (Having said that I answered the phone and said I set it off accidentally but surely a crook could do that too...?) You need to repeat a code word normally EmyN By the time they actually get out to the house (in their teeny woosy security cars) I don't really see how it could be useful.... any thieves would be long gone surely...? This is where silent alarms are better. The burglar gets all nice and comfortable in your house if they don't believe they're detected. Depending on response time of course they could well be there still going through your stuff. Years ago my parents place was burgled while they were out of town. They were clearly in the house for hours - got themselves drinks, went through everything, loaded up a van full of stuff they figured they could offload, defaced other stuff in the house. A monitored silent alarm would have caught them. Similarly, a friend of mine had his house completely emptied while he and his wife were at work, right down to clothes. The house was totally emptied. Neighbours assumed it was a moving truck and they were moving out. It's the loud unmonitored alarms that are useless. Nobody ever pays any attention and you're relying on your neighbours to care enough to bother to look for you. They don't. Disagree as well.... A screaming alarm outside the house may be ignored by neighbours (depends on the neighbours I guess) but having a couple of screamers in the house makes it pretty uncomfortable for thieves to hang around for too long. On top of this, you can have the alarm send an alert to your mobile which you then use to log into the alarm system, see which areas have tripped and see what's going on via remote cameras. If it's a false alarm, you can re-set the system or worst case, you are being burgled, you can ring the police and tell them exactly what's happening, what they look like, etc. Just my 2c worth...... ----------------------------------------------- http://pab34newdigs.blogspot.com.au/ ----------------------------------------------- Re: Alarm System - Monitored or Other? 8Oct 24, 2013 6:19 pm EmyN Bluesuede It's the loud unmonitored alarms that are useless. Nobody ever pays any attention and you're relying on your neighbours to care enough to bother to look for you. They don't. Hmmm I respectfully disagree with this. Friends were recently broken in to and the alarm set off. It was obvious the back door had been jimmied but as soon as the alarm went off the burglars must have ran for it because nothing was touched anywhere in the house. And their neighbours went over to the house shortly after the alarm went off. We know our new neighbours and I sure wouldn't ignore a prolonged house alarm going off next door and I don't think they will either. I'm not sure about the silent alarm and "catching" the crooks either. Have you seen the calibre of security guard these places tend to send out? Cute little weedy adolescents who can't even grow facial hair. They have no taser/gun etc. They drive Barinas hahaha. Your story aside, an unmonitored alarm relies on firstly your neighbours to be at home when you're not, and for them to care enough to risk confronting a possibly armed intruder, and not be annoyed at yet another instance of an alarm going off creating noise pollution and them simply choosing to ignore it because it's not their problem. Perhaps your neighbours - if they're actually home and not off at work - might care enough, but many don't give a toss. Are all of your neighbours going to respond if the ones either side aren't home? Are they going to go wander into your backyard and check your doors and windows? Your opinion of the entire workforce of security guards as being weedy adolescents without facial hair and driving Barinas is a straw man argument at best. Monitored security are contracted to respond 24x7 and investigate. I think perhaps that's a little more reliable than hoping someone else will be home AND be brave enough to go wander over and look for a burglar. But hey, we all have our opinions Completed a knock down and rebuild in northern Melbourne. Handover completed 27/09/2013 and now moved in. Re: Alarm System - Monitored or Other? 9Oct 24, 2013 6:32 pm My weedy adolescent comment was meant to be a interesting, descriptive comment on my take on the general ineffectual nature of the "security" involved rather than an actual description. Just sharing my take on it all. I don't expect everyone to feel the same. Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Alarm System - Monitored or Other? 10Oct 25, 2013 6:54 am 2 identical houses on a street, one has an alarm (obvious by the box with the blue flashy light mounted to the exterior) and the other house does not. Which house do you think would most likely be targeted by a burglar? 3 friends of mine have been burgled in recent months. 2 didn't have alarms and they lost all their jewelry, money, laptops, ipods etc. The other had an alarm and the thieves left with NOTHING. I know which houses I would rather have!! The kids accidentally set off ours after they ran into the house before I had a chance to disarm it. Trust me, you can't stay in the house with that noise going on, and it WILL make neighbours look...as it doesn't happen very often. But I guess I'm lucky to have neighbours that are home all day, too Henley - Wilshire Mk 3 ... I love my house!! Site start: 4th Feb 09 Handover: 10th Sep 09 Blog: http://stormygirlscastle.blogspot.com/ Build Thread: viewtopic.php?t=7166 Re: Alarm System - Monitored or Other? 11Oct 25, 2013 8:48 am Thanks for all the posts guys/girls, it's good to get some pros and cons for sure. I think I'm tending to err on the side of a monitored system, with a loud siren and some obvious visible presence outside the property so that hopefully it puts people off. Re: Alarm System - Monitored or Other? 12Oct 26, 2013 12:24 pm Distinctive opinions and insight, but we only aim at one thing, and that is to secure our loved ones. If ever I'll choose a loud screaming alarm, because I know my neighbor very well, and I'm sure that they care enough for us, and we are to them as well. Re: Alarm System - Monitored or Other? 13Oct 28, 2013 11:36 pm ismithers Serenity_Now Well the other part as well is that would you even have the alarm on if you are home? How would it know not to trigger for someone at home as opposed to an intruder? The alarms are zoned. You would arm the windows and downstairs motion sensors, and then upstairs motion would be off. So that way you can move around upstairs, if you need the bathroom or something, or the kids get up. But you don't go downstairs without disarming. Also it covers intruders coming through the windows which have sensors on them. Really? That seems like a lot of trouble.....do people really do this i.e. turn on the alarm for downstairs whilst they sleep? And with regards to monitoring, again - the aim here is to get a response unit to check on the house in the event of a break in. So, how would an intruder know whether the alarm is monitored or not? With the noise the alarm would be making, I doubt anyone would want to stay inside the house for long! You would hope that an intruder would be running off ASAP once the alarm is triggered, not hang around to see if a response unit rolls up to check! I'm not saying a monitored alarm is pointless - personally, I don't see the value in it but that's just me Re: Alarm System - Monitored or Other? 14Oct 29, 2013 12:08 am Serenity_Now ismithers Serenity_Now Well the other part as well is that would you even have the alarm on if you are home? How would it know not to trigger for someone at home as opposed to an intruder? The alarms are zoned. You would arm the windows and downstairs motion sensors, and then upstairs motion would be off. So that way you can move around upstairs, if you need the bathroom or something, or the kids get up. But you don't go downstairs without disarming. Also it covers intruders coming through the windows which have sensors on them. Really? That seems like a lot of trouble.....do people really do this i.e. turn on the alarm for downstairs whilst they sleep? Absolutely! Getting robbed while you are not home is one thing but a home invasion in the middle of the night, no thanks. Arm the entire house except for our bedroom and ensuite. An easy setup so that it's either one button on a keypad or key fob remote, or access a button on a phone app. ----------------------------------------------- http://pab34newdigs.blogspot.com.au/ ----------------------------------------------- Re: Alarm System - Monitored or Other? 15Nov 04, 2013 11:25 am We are planning on installing an Alarm system (the noisy type), but unmonitored. We will purchase one that contacts our mobile, should the alarm go off. The other thing we are installing is internal and external motion cameras, also connected to the mobiles. So should the motion sensor go off the cameras will start recording, the cameras can be checked by a phone or tablet to see if there is need to call the police. Re: Alarm System - Monitored or Other? 16Nov 12, 2013 1:37 pm Agape We are planning on installing an Alarm system (the noisy type), but unmonitored. We will purchase one that contacts our mobile, should the alarm go off. The other thing we are installing is internal and external motion cameras, also connected to the mobiles. So should the motion sensor go off the cameras will start recording, the cameras can be checked by a phone or tablet to see if there is need to call the police. How much would it cost an alarm system in the house? Re: Alarm System - Monitored or Other? 17Nov 12, 2013 1:56 pm So we've just got our alarm system organised for our new house. They offered us two keyfobs to go with it - I presumed it must have had a little codepad or something on it but it's just a one button disarm! Does anyone else find that incredibly unsafe - we often go out all as a family and leave our second set of keys behind. It's usually on a kitchen table. Even if we put it away in a drawer in the wardrobe or something I'd always be worried about someone finding it and easily turning the alarm off. And what if we're home? Should we both sleep with the key under our pillow? A weird chink in the armour in my opinion. We'll manage with a keypad I think... Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Alarm System - Monitored or Other? 18Nov 12, 2013 9:44 pm Having had experience with the key fob alarms, I'm not a fan. They can arm or disarm when you don't want them too, or you least expect it if they accidentally push up against other keys or stuff in your pocket or handbag. It's happened several times. Any people left in the house, if you've gone out and accidentally armed it in your pocket, suddenly get a rather deafening fright! Henley - Wilshire Mk 3 ... I love my house!! Site start: 4th Feb 09 Handover: 10th Sep 09 Blog: http://stormygirlscastle.blogspot.com/ Build Thread: viewtopic.php?t=7166 Re: Alarm System - Monitored or Other? 19Nov 12, 2013 10:03 pm If you do decide to go with a monitored alarm just don't go with ADT. When the alarm triggers they'll send you an SMS advising that the alarm has gone off. If they don't get a response that's the end of the service - no one sent around to check, nothing. Re: Alarm System - Monitored or Other? 20Nov 27, 2013 1:46 pm Stormy Having had experience with the key fob alarms, I'm not a fan. They can arm or disarm when you don't want them too, or you least expect it if they accidentally push up against other keys or stuff in your pocket or handbag. It's happened several times. Any people left in the house, if you've gone out and accidentally armed it in your pocket, suddenly get a rather deafening fright! I've heard similar to this, the house alarm rang, poor house maid didn't know what to do. Police officers rushed to their house, questioning the maid. Unfortunately, it turned out... The alarm was pushed accidentally by the owner himself while he was at work leaving the maid alone at home I recently went through a similar renovation and move scenario when updating our family home. We also swapped some rooms around and tackled a major… 2 9884 Once you know the basics, the rest is easy. Read my post in the thread linked below. viewtopic.php?p=1919271#p1919271 2 19497 It's all about wireless, self install now. The cost/benefit of wired setups for the house are no longer what they used to be. Lots of wireless options. Eufy, Arlo and… 2 9780 |