get ADT alarm sys or self monitor?

[luv2liv]

im told ADT works with the cops so the response time is much faster.
while if i self monitor, the cops might not even come, is that true???

my friend got this unit. it will txt/email him or up to 10 people if the alarm goes off. no more monthly fees from any monitoring services

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EI69TAY?psc=1

 

[Markbnj]

Do you have a lot of crime around you? Recent burglaries? A lot of the homes around here have these systems but as far as I know in the 12 years since we moved here a few busted mailboxes is the worst crime that has been committed.

 

[DeadFred]

Get a man eating dog, that way there will be no bodies to deal with afterwards.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

2/3rds of burglaries are through unlocked doors/windows.

Your neighborhood matters too. In Seattle, for instance, some "beats" have almost 10x as many burglaries as others. (I just skimmed it; smallest number I saw was 9, biggest was 88. In Minneapolis, the disparity is similar, but I found numbers for Seattle first.)

Lock your doors and don't live in "that" neighborhood, and you'll probably be fine, with or without an alarm.

Or buy some ADT stickers on eBay.

 

[spacejamz]

There are cheaper monitored alarms than ADT...Simpli safe is completely DIY and gets recommended alot...

all monitored alarms have a central station that will call you and your designated contacts before calling the police. The response time will depend on fast they call you after the alarm is set off before calling the police as well as how far away from the police you are.

If you self monitor, the police will only show up if you call them after you receive an alert (or are you asking if you call 911 and say that you receive an alert, will the police respond to that?)

 

[dave_the_nerd]

http://www.cracked.com/article_22458_our-mistakes-kill-you-5-lessons-adt-alarm-technician.html

 

[RossMAN]

There are cheaper monitored alarms than ADT...Simpli safe is completely DIY and gets recommended alot...

all monitored alarms have a central station that will call you and your designated contacts before calling the police. The response time will depend on fast they call you after the alarm is set off before calling the police as well as how far away from the police you are.

If you self monitor, the police will only show up if you call them after you receive an alert (or are you asking if you call 911 and say that you receive an alert, will the police respond to that?)

This.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2419528

 

[balloonshark]

Get a man eating dog, that way there will be no bodies to deal with afterwards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtlxfR1B4qs

 

[boomerang]

im told ADT works with the cops so the response time is much faster.
while if i self monitor, the cops might not even come, is that true???

my friend got this unit. it will txt/email him or up to 10 people if the alarm goes off. no more monthly fees from any monitoring services

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EI69TAY?psc=1

Does ADT subsidize the cops? No, of course not so why would they give ADT customers preferential treatment? Will the cops respond if you call them saying your alarm system is going off? That depends on the area in which you live. You should call them and find out.

I have the same board your friend has. It only interfaces with specific models made by DSC and Honeywell/Ademco. So yes, you can self monitor. Do know that the method of communication is through the internet. So, if your internet is down you will get nothing. If your power is out you will get nothing. If the thieves cut the cable line coming into your place you will get nothing.

There are highly reputable companies out there that you can have monitoring through for $7.95 per month and sometimes less if you pay in full for one year. Find out how much your insurance will go down as it will help offset that meager cost.

 

[luv2liv]

Does ADT subsidize the cops? No, of course not so why would they give ADT customers preferential treatment? Will the cops respond if you call them saying your alarm system is going off? That depends on the area in which you live. You should call them and find out.

I have the same board your friend has. It only interfaces with specific models made by DSC and Honeywell/Ademco. So yes, you can self monitor. Do know that the method of communication is through the internet. So, if your internet is down you will get nothing. If your power is out you will get nothing. If the thieves cut the cable line coming into your place you will get nothing.

There are highly reputable companies out there that you can have monitoring through for $7.95 per month and sometimes less if you pay in full for one year. Find out how much your insurance will go down as it will help offset that meager cost.

ok. i will call the cops n ask what their policy is when i monitor my house from afar.
which companies are reputable for $8/month? i might go with that instead. thanks for the advice!

 

[boomerang]

ok. i will call the cops n ask what their policy is when i monitor my house from afar.
which companies are reputable for $8/month? i might go with that instead. thanks for the advice!

I was with these people for many years. But my memory failed me, it's $9 a month.

http://alarmrelay.com/ AFAIK, they only do land line monitoring but you should contact them because they may offer internet monitoring now.

If you go with a system that the EyezOn board that you linked to will interface with, you can get texts and emails and you can also have internet monitoring with them. I moved to them when I dropped my land line.

http://www.eyezon.com/?page_id=246 $8.99 per month because we plan on moving at some time in the near future and I didn't want a three year contract at $8.50 per month.

You and only you can decide what level of security gives you comfort. You can have monitoring through the cellular network with a backup battery that will not rely on a line into your home that can be cut. Options and cost is what it comes down to.

Oh, and remember that if you do self-monitor, dialing 911 when you are in Phoenix and your home is in Scranton won't cut it. You would want the local number which may be a number for dispatch that covers a wide area. I know this would be down the road but file it in your memory bank.

Concerned about fire? Think about incorporating smoke detector(s) into your system. You will know that there is a fire and that the FD will be needed. The cops don't like showing up for fires and the FD doesn't like showing up for burglaries. Your insurance company will love the fact that you have a monitored alarm with fire reporting capabilities.

 

[Aikouka]

Your insurance company will love the fact that you have a monitored alarm with fire reporting capabilities.

That's something that's making me curious about this whole thing. The house that I'm buying is already equipped with ADT, and as long as I keep it in service, I get a discount on my home insurance. Although, ADT is something like $30-50 a month depending on the level of service, and I think the discount is only about $15 per month. So, if I went with Simpli Safe, I've got an upfront negative drawback in that I have to pay for the hardware, but it's priced well enough; however, even with their top package, I could save money per month.

 

[boomerang]

That's something that's making me curious about this whole thing. The house that I'm buying is already equipped with ADT, and as long as I keep it in service, I get a discount on my home insurance. Although, ADT is something like $30-50 a month depending on the level of service, and I think the discount is only about $15 per month. So, if I went with Simpli Safe, I've got an upfront negative drawback in that I have to pay for the hardware, but it's priced well enough; however, even with their top package, I could save money per month.

It's tough to figure out what the "right" choice is. In my case, I've lived in the same home since 1987 and I had an alarm system installed sometime around 1990 after a break-in. At that time, everything had to be hard wired, wireless wasn't even on the radar. The panel, the guts, have been replaced and there is a story behind that but all my sensors are original from the initial installation. Except for one of the magnetic door switches I replaced today.

I'm not going to rip out or disable what I have to purchase anything that's new on the market. It makes no sense. What I have performs just as I need it to. If needed, I would replace the guts of the system again or individual sensors. But I would stay hard wired because to move to wireless, replacing the sensors I currently have would be very expensive. Easily over $1K.

I have three swing doors on either magnetic or jamb switches.
I have one slider on a magnetic switch.
I have two motion detectors.
I have seven windows that are low to the ground with glass break detectors.
I have four basement windows protected with what are essentially trip wires.
I have one smoke detector.
I have one rate of rise heat detector next to the furnace in my unfinished basement.
I have two keypads with panic buttons for police, fire and ambulance.
I have an extremely loud siren.
Why trash all that for a new system? But that's my situation.

When the guy that sold me my system originally was out explaining it to me he made a lot of sense. He pointed out the desirability of keeping the bad guys out of the house altogether. Why take the risk of having a confrontation of some sort? That's why the perimeter is highly protected and two entry doors are on a delay to allow for entry and disarming, but everything else will trip instantly. The motion detectors are really just in place as a failsafe.

The typical burglary is performed by drug addicts and is done during daylight hours. They are looking for items to steal that they can sell for pennies on the dollar to fuel their drug habit. These are not the smartest people. Put up a sign, put on stickers but the alarm itself should be very loud, in every way possible should go off instantly and should be backed up by the dispatch of the proper authorities. Hopefully they will be deterred. But if not, they should not be given free reign. When I got broken into, the bastards opened a can of tuna, got out some bread and made themselves some sandwiches, plus stole everything they could easily resell and damaged the door jam kicking in the door.

 

[slightlyhuman]

House I just bought had a previous ADT system. I'm just going to power it back on and only use it as an alarm system that won't call out to ADT, free99.

 

[NutBucket]

There would be no reason to replace hardwired with wireless stuff unless the wired stuff is failing. My house had an hardwired ADT system. Then it was upgraded to a 2GIG panel (which is a wireless system). They have modules to allow integration with wired sensors so now the system is a combo of wired/wireless.

I definitely would not want to sign any sort of long term contract. 2GIG panels work with Alarm.com and there are lots of companies selling monitoring. I found one that charged less than $30 a month for cellular monitoring and only paid for 3 months at a time.

 

[Raizinman]

I had ADT come in and wire the entire house, doors, windows, glass break, fire, etc. and utilized them with their two year mandatory contract. After the two years, I switched over to self monitor and used all their hardware they installed in my house. Granted if someone breaks in only an internal and external alarm will sound, but because of our friendly neighbors, they would immediately call the police and come out with guns. We all watch each others homes. So, as someone else mentioned, it does depend on where you live.

 

[NutBucket]

Oh, and when I had a false alarm it took PD about an hour to respond. Food for thought....

 

[slightlyhuman]

I had ADT come in and wire the entire house, doors, windows, glass break, fire, etc. and utilized them with their two year mandatory contract. After the two years, I switched over to self monitor and used all their hardware they installed in my house. Granted if someone breaks in only an internal and external alarm will sound, but because of our friendly neighbors, they would immediately call the police and come out with guns. We all watch each others homes. So, as someone else mentioned, it does depend on where you live.

Bingo, how would a burglar know if the system is dialing out or not? Unless he's there for blood, I don't see any part-time crook sticking around after a siren goes off.

 

[NutBucket]

I had ADT come in and wire the entire house, doors, windows, glass break, fire, etc. and utilized them with their two year mandatory contract. After the two years, I switched over to self monitor and used all their hardware they installed in my house. Granted if someone breaks in only an internal and external alarm will sound, but because of our friendly neighbors, they would immediately call the police and come out with guns. We all watch each others homes. So, as someone else mentioned, it does depend on where you live.

I would still want at least self-monitoring so I would be alerted to it going off. That can be had very inexepensively.

 

[Blanky]

All these systems seem to cost a lot for what you really get. Cheap ass door alarms for $10 on amazon will alert you when you're asleep, at which point you can immediately call the cops.

And for when you aren't home why not have multiple cameras and a txt alert when movement is detected in a certain area? Startup cost is similar to a an alarm system with no ongoing costs and something you can benefit from more often; eg monitoring of outside of your house for example.

 

[pauldun170]

Get a man eating dog, that way there will be no bodies to deal with afterwards.

Actually, dogs are what all my LE friends recommend.
Every one of them.

 

[luv2liv]

And for when you aren't home why not have multiple cameras and a txt alert when movement is detected in a certain area? Startup cost is similar to a an alarm system with no ongoing costs and something you can benefit from more often; eg monitoring of outside of your house for example.

i have cameras. motion detection is lousy, providing too many false alarm.

 

[NutBucket]

I agree. You really need both; alarms to to positively detect a problem and cameras to hopefully record the perp.