That’s great… if you’re there. I have the same thing, but my concerns are primarily what happens when we’re gone. The system also provides monitoring for smoke and water. I have water sensors next to the washing machine and the water heater. Smoke detectors stationed through the house near the originals.
Most break-ins are smash and grab. If there’s an alarm attracting lots of attention, they’ll turn tail and run. I also have a camera inside, but that’s a different company as SS hasn’t released theirs yet.
Sure, there are technology limitations.
If you buy one of these (which I have), you might want to also have a camera system set up. If you have a visual on a criminal in your home the police will respond immediately.
I purchased this system straight from SimpliSafe about a year ago. I have expanded the system to over 20 devices now. I have 5 devices in a detached shop with multiple walls about 20 feet from my house/base Station and it picks every one of them up.
I have never had a problem with their outsourced dispatch. I have received calls from them many times because of mistakes on our part and the number of different devices I have on the system. I have door, smoke, water, windows, and motion sensors. I have had them call in less than 5 seconds more than half the time( never more than 10 seconds) that we set it off accidentally.
Someone made the comment that they call the homeowner before they call the police…uhmm, that is a requirement to keep false alarms down. The response time of police to respond after they get contacted, has to do with the number and priority of calls the Dept. has going on at the time. Police know that over 90% of alarm calls are false alarms. So they are actually classified as a low priority call with most departments.
As a former police officer, ADT used to be the King and I was locked into 2 different contracts for a total of six years. After using this system, I am more than pleased with it and I have their most expensive package which is still much cheaper than ADT or any other system that I know of. I have well over $600 in my system and I would do it all over again.
One suggestion I would make though…I would not trust the double sticky tape, even though it is strong, the sticky sometimes gets compromised. I used the sticky to hold them in place, but used the screws also. They should never fall off.
We also have a big dog, just turn the motion detector upside down. She has never set the motion off even when she jumps up on the couch. Now the one in the hallway that is installed upright, that is a different story if someone does not close the gate. That has accounted for at least 3 police dispatches at first until we broke that habit.
Previous post, I am installing an IP High Res camera system all around my house now. That is the exception to the police priority. Normally, like I said earlier, alarms are normally low priority, however, if someone sees them go into your home or if you see someone in your house on your phone app after an alarm and you convey that to the police department, it then turns into a High priority call. For officer safety and other drivers on the road, please never misrepresent that, you could be charged and it is not worth it just to get them there faster. I have had it happen in more than one occasion. I charged the last one. There was no forcible entry, they had no video on iphone that they told dispatch they had. The whole thing was a false alarm that got blown out of proportion.
A couple of questions:
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If you do NOT pay for the monthly monitoring, can you still use the apps to arm / disarm?
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If you don’t pay for the monthly monitoring, can you still get alerted somehow (text, e-mail, ?) if the system alarms?
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How big are the window / door sensors? We have nice, wood grain windows and trim and am just wondering how big the ugly white plastic bit will be…
The Amazon product page has dimensions for the sensors listed as 2.5"x3" and 2"x3". You might find out more about alerts from SimpliSafe’s website. Hope that helps!
Thanks!
As to your first 2 questions, the answer to both is “no”. Any notifications or control go through the cell connection. Without monitoring, the cell connection will not be connecting to anything. Those features are part of the monitoring plans. Notifications/text alerts start with the $19.99 plan, and the app control comes with the $24.99 plan (which includes features of the lower plan too). Check with your insurance company to see what kind of discount you would get with a monitored alarm, and see if there’s a discount for having smoke and water detectors too. I got a 5% discount for a monitored burglar alarm, and 5% for a monitored smoke/fire. The 10% discount makes up most of my monthly $14.99 fee, so I’m only paying a couple dollars a month. Well worth it.