Swann Home Wireless Alarm System

It should read “By positioning the Windows 8 Stickers in visible locations around your property you send a strong message to potential burglars & greatly decrease the chances of being broken into.”
Yes, if a would be burglar were aware that the electronics in your house are running Windows 8, that in itself is a big deterrent.

I before E, except after C

Sorry…

That’s correct. I installed one and only use it when leaving the house for long periods (i.e. only when leaving overnight). So I purposefully installed the keypad and siren in a hard to find area away from the door and use the remote key chain dongle to disarm it when I return. The siren is routed under a heavy piece of furniture, so it is not readily accessible even if located. I am hoping a potential thief who won’t know what system I have installed isn’t going to stay and go searching around the house for a phantom siren.

It’s kind of like the knock-off approach, where the apparent value of a knock-off is derived from the original product. If you buy a fake Rolex, if other people think you have a Rolex, it probably doesn’t matter as much if it keeps good time.

However, I will say that when I was testing it one day someone (who should no longer have a key but for some reason still does) stopped by my house and I had mentioned I now had an alarm but didn’t tell them the code or anything. And they figured out how to disarm it, because when I got home the siren plug was pulled from the unit.

Oh, that’s weird!

…or when sounding like A, as in neighbor or weigh.

That’s “niether” “sceintific” nor “sufficeint”.

just wondering if anyone here at woot has had any experience with this unit. i’m not so sure i trust the reviews since my husband bought into an alarm system for our home after seeing almost perfect, stellar reviews on another system. turns out that the manufacturer of the system we bought pays people for writing good reviews for them. :frowning:

bcraig15, since you have one, can you tell me if you don’t arm the system, will the base unit still report using the LED to tell you if the door is open or closed? I don’t need the alarm feature, but I need a base unit that can tell me if the door is open or closed. Thanks.

I’ve always believed “too good” of reviews are just as bad as bad reviews. I always like to look at the bad reviews and judge them. If someone says “this is stupid, it doesn’t spit out flying unicorns” then i write them off because I wouldn’t expect it to. However, when someone says something such as “I disliked it because the hinges are made of plastic and the safe can be broken into in seconds”, that becomes a negative review that ads value.

Same thing with positives- if its TOO positive, its useless. When someone says they liked how certain features worked, but other issues were doable, then it becomes helpful.

Reviews themselves aren’t magic bullets, but good information can come out of them!

My concern is that my cat might set the motion detectors off? I have a small house, and have been looking for something simple just in case, so considering this.

If your looking for a monitored alarm I can help you. Ive worked for ADT for 4 years ill hook you up email me my user name at gmail.com

I think a system based on a Mac rather than Windows 8 would be much better. You might have to pay more for it though,… But don’t you typically get what you pay for?

At first I thought it said “Windows 8” stickers, which is also a good deterrent against theft.

My favorite Woot!, one I already purchased and the price hasn’t gone down. Here’s my thoughts:

#1. 50% of the reason I got this is for the stickers. Plenty of poor people have home security systems too. It doesn’t scream “Hey I’ve got good stuff”, it politely suggests “Hey, there’s a decent chance there’s some kind of deterrent to thievery in here, why not check out the neighbor’s house who has no indications of having said deterrence?”

#2. There is a 30 second delay for ARMING only, once it’s armed, there’s no delay when you trip a sensor. That means you can’t walk in the house and rush over to the pad to type in your code before it goes off, it’s just going to go off immediately. I put the pad and siren inside my water heating tank room. I left the door sensor off my front door, because it’s unlikely someone would break in where they can be seen from the streets. Therefore, IF I don’t have the key fobs (which negate the “No trip delay” problem if you have them), I can open my front door, and walk to my utility closet without tripping any alarms. Punch in the code, done. Someone who isn’t already aware of the sensor’s positions, or was trying to get in through a back door or window, will trip one of the sensors almost immediately. MY house’s layout lends itself to this setup quite well, but it seems likely most people’s houses could have it set up in a way where you can get to the pad (if you know where it is) without setting off an alarm.

#3. Yeah, it doesn’t dial out. If it did, it can either call me at work, in which case, great, I know my house got broken into about an hour earlier than I would have. If it dials 911 or a security company, great, the police get there when I do and I don’t have to wait the hour for them to come write the report. Dialing out isn’t going to save anyone’s possessions, thieves know roughly how long it takes for there to be a response and they’ll be out long before then. The control pad does show if an alarm went off at any point, and tells you which sensor went off, so you can check for false alarms or whatever when you get home.

#4. Even IF dialing out did something useful, the thieves certainly don’t know mine doesn’t do that. Any benefits I’d get from the dial out (the thief running away immediately) I get from this setup. The siren is LOUD and very easily heard even through the walls (being behind a wall does make it harder to pinpoint where it is, so that’s a plus)

#5. If all three of my (small, ~15 pound) dogs stand in front of a sensor, it does make it go off. A single large dog might cause false positives. I am not terribly impressed at the passive sensor’s sensitivity (it seems too high). My dogs are crated while we’re gone so I don’t really have to worry about it, but if I had a labrador that roamed through the house while I was gone, I think this system would be pretty useless to me.

In summation, I think for 50 bucks this is a fantastic deal. Look folks, if someone knows you have nice stuff and wants to get in, they’re GOING to get in, whether you have some fancy ADT setup or this thing. They’ll be in and out before anyone can respond. If some meth head tries to bust into your place to find some stuff to steal, the siren or the stickers are going to scare them off (again, not fancy stuff like dialing out or home monitoring) and your stuff will likely be safe. And no home security system, of ANY kind, will protect you 1/4 as much as simply locking your freaking doors and windows.

For 50 bucks, even the placebo affect is worth it (Although I honestly do believe the vast majority of potential robberies would be foiled by this thing if set up properly)