Home Alarm Systems

[Squidley]

I have a question for the masses, as I know we have a greatly diversified group of folks here. The new house that Lonna and I are moving into, has in the past been burglarized and they stole copper wire and such. We are going to install an alarm system as the owners of whom we are going to purchase it from in a couple of years, have agreed to split the install cost in half with us.

 

We checked into ADT, and I guess they think their stuff and product is gold. Price was not what I would have thought and they were very pushy to have it installed immediately. There also was a quote from FrontPoint security, lots of the bells and whistles like ADT, but more reasonably priced.

 

My question for y'all is, have any of you dealt with this FrontPoint and or other security companies, and what insight can you pass on to me about the industry for those of you in the know?

[cecdoo]

Pretty sure that is Dan (Stardbog) specialty if he dont reply, you could shoot him a pm. Buddy

 

Craig

[Caveman]

Squid, my brother in law owns a company in College Station/Bryan. Does a great job and is very knowledgeable and competative. Mine has a 4 camera system with DVR and motion detector with computer access, etc. Of course I got a family discount. He works all over, Houston, Bryan, etc. Has Las Vegas experience, man what else can I say. His name is George. If you want to talk to him, give me a call and I will get you two together. My number is in my profile. Carl:thumbsup2:

[Condor]

When I had the camera biz I had everything alarmed. Motion detectors in the garage and living room, and all the windows and doors. Around here the majors will install a system for practically nothing if you sign up for the monthly monitoring service which is usually the highest around. It's almost like a cell phone contract. I've seen ATD around but the other you named is not familiar and probably local to your area. I had mine system installed by a private local for a reasonable price, and the monthly was fairly low too. I let the alarm expire after reducing the big camera inventory but still have the big ol' alrarm bell under the eave by the front door and stickers on the windows. At least I think it's a deterant....

[Caveman]

Yeh, I pay about a dollar a day for monitoring but I get about a $200.00 reduction on my home insurance, so that's not a bad deal.

[Marcarl]

Now this is in Canada, but, we have a small outfit that installed all of our security and then we are monitored by who we want or who he might suggest. Works for us and we now have 2 new customers,,, so a win win.

[TDunc]

I had my own alarm business. 30 years industry experience.

Let me cut to the chase. If you go with ADT or most any other National companies, you are locked into their product of you ever want to change companies. If you go with a local, check his license and make sure you tell him you want to make sure that at the end of the contract that you are free to go to whoever you want without having to change any equipment. Many of the nationals get private labeled and proprietary programming so that no other company can program or monitor it. Get at least three quotes.

I never did the "free install" or cheap install price. (all types of marketing strategies) I would have had to lock in my customers to multi year contracts. The free installs usually do 2-3 doors, a motion a smoke detector and a keypad or two. This is very basic protection.

I just let my company speak for itself and required only yearly renewable contract. I monitored for 18-24 dollars a month depending on what we were doing for the average home.

For a GOOD proper system you can look to spend to spend approximately .75%-2.5% the cost of the house to be properly protected.

I NEVER pressured anyone.

Good luck with the hunt.

I hope this helps.

[barend]

Hey Squid,

 

This may not do you much good but Brenda andI went with what was possibly the most expensive one. The reason was that it provided us with a system which operates even when the power is down or the phone line is cut. It also helped that Blue Ridge Security was neither pushy, nor boastful; simply to the point and matter of fact. They even offered a monthly service plan based on how much we opted to pay for the install. We wound up with two motion sensors, two glass breaks, 7 door sensors and I think 26 window sensors. Think we paid $2500 for the install.

[Skid]

I have a company called Castle Rock now, used to be call Security America. So far I'm pretty happy with the service. Fire and burgulary both and got 10% off house insurance. The house and garage is protected. You've been here so you know the property. I got mine under $300. If you want more details just give me a call. Also most will have a battery backup for when the power is off and they will work with cellular so you don't have to worry about phone lines.

[Gary N.]

Brad, I was told to beware of the smaller no name or at least unfamiliar companies. They sometimes monitor from their basement at home and use their kids to watch the computers. Don't know if it's true or not but that's what I was told to watch for. The company I went with has several call centers spread out across the country that do the monitoring.

At my place, we have the doors all switched and motion detectors in the living areas and basement. The shop has door switches and motion detectors as well. I have key pads at the front, back and shop doors. I also have fire and sump pump failure detection. It cost around $1000 to install and $30/month to monitor. As an incentive they gave me 6 months free monitoring and $50 for every new costumer I send them. Plus we got the usual discounts on the home owner policy.

You wouldn't believe the system they have in the place we are visiting in Africa. Security here is very important. They have outdoor motion sensors, bars on the windows, doors are all switched, windows are all switched, vibration monitors on the windows and a high voltage electric fence all around the perimeter. This is as close to jail as I ever want to be. They did shut the interior motion sensors off so we could leave our room when I get up in the morning.

[CaptainJoe]

Try Suddenlink.

Thats what my daughter has, and i can tell you for fact certain it works... I set it off thursday while there to fix a plumbing problem...

She had given me the wrong code... Oooooooops...

[Snaggletooth]

My in-laws had some problems in their area and went with ADT years ago. Full boat, all entry doors, all windows, motion detectors in main rooms and the other odds and ends. And of course those famous stickers for the windows.

 

Didn't help a bit. Most the break-ins in that area were smash & grabs. By the time the security company caught the intrusion and made their call to the house and notified the police it was over. Damage was done and they were gone. They were broken into about a dozen times with the system. Three times while they were home in bed.

 

I got a call from ADT one night (I was their backup, 4 miles away) at 2:00 AM and ran over there. Back door had been kicked in. I called ADT and shut down the alarm. I waited another 45 minutes for the LEO's to arrived. Not real effective IMHO!

 

When they looked for something better, as stated, they would have had to change the entire system.

 

I went a different direction with my place after my neighborhood started having problems. It's self installed and not monitored but seems to be an effective deterent.

 

I installed switches at entry doors and garage door that set off a siren. A 132 db siren. I installed wireless cameras with night vision at the outside of the garage and one inside. Two cameras in the house, one pointing towards each entry door. One camara inside the front window pointing at the front porch. With the infrared lights on the cameras they are quite noticable at night.

 

The cameras are tied into a VCR to record when I'm gone or I can check the cameras from my room. Someday I'll convert to a digital system I can monitor by remote. I've got a few nice vids of people I didn't know in my driveway and porch a few times in the middle of the night and when they noticed the cameras they were gone. Had one attempt to open my garage but when the siren fired off all I got was a blur running from the driveway.

 

Not fancy, not expensive, but damn! It's loud! That seems to do the trick. The neighbors don't care much for the noise but they all came out and checked their cars when it went off.

 

So in my opinion, NOISE and being seen walking out with the Mossberg in my hand is the best deterent. If they think I have video of them, all the better.

 

You got a dog? A big noisy, hungry dog? Even better.

 

 

Mike

[Flyinfool]

Also you need to check your local police policies.

The city of Milwaukee got so fed up with false alarms from the monitoring companies that they will no longer respond to ANY alarm until it has been verified by a human on site that there has been a break-in. This means that the security company has to call you first to verify the break-in and if you do not answer then they have to have someone drive over to your house to verify the break-in BEFORE the police will do anything. This renders the monitoring all but useless. On the police side they claimed that 90 something percent of the security calls were false alarms and it was keeping cops from real problems.

 

I agree that deterrence is far better than waiting till they are already in.

Obvious cameras, a loud alarm, Outside lights with motion detectors, will make them go next door or down the block to an easier target.

A big dog that has a known record of going thru the front window to get at the bad guy before he even tries to get in helps to. http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=57090

[Trader]

We had a local LEO come to a workplace safety fair and discussed alarm systems.

He told us one of the worse is the LIVE 2 way communication system.

One here in Canada is ALARM FORCE...he said it is where those monitoring the house can talk to you and listen in you while you are being robbed.

 

He also said sirens and flashing lights are a good thing...but are often ignored by neighbours.

How many times have you heard alarms in parking lots and paid no attention?

[BoomerCPO]

Squid....PM me yer new addy and I'll air-drop a dozen armed pygmies right to yer front yard.

Boomer....who sez dem pygmies are crack shots at the crotch of all intruders.

[FROG MAN]

I've had good luck with a big dog and buck shot. When your not at home just turn on the shooting sound effects connected to the motion sensors.

[Freebird]

When we lived in Dallas, we had a full blown state of the art security system. All doors and windows had sensors. There were glass breakage detectors. There were motion sensors...you name it. We armed the system before leaving on a vacation once and we weren't gone a day when we got a call from the police department. They had responded three times to an alarm at our house and the last time, heard a loud screeching sound from inside that was setting off the glass breakage detectors. Well, at the time we had a very large Umbrella Cockatoo that apparently did NOT like being left alone. She was screaming loud enough to set off the detectors. The police told me that if they made another trip to our house for a false alarm that they would have to start charging us. I told them to ignore all alarms until we returned. I don't think we ever set it again after that.

 

Luckily the system was already installed before we bought the house so I wasn't out any money.

[Sailor]

Don't have any alarms here. Never locked the doors. Leave the keys in the truck. Never had any problems. Did have a large dog though for several years. Kept the deer out of the garden.

[Snaggletooth]

I've had good luck with a big dog and buck shot. When your not at home just turn on the shooting sound effects connected to the motion sensors.

 

Sumtin like dat....

 

Way back when I was a young fella in my first place I had a friend with two red dobbies. Man those dogs could raise heck when upset. We got them down in the basement studio one day and ran the mics on them. Got a nice tape of two very unfriendly sounding dogs. You could almost hear the drool hitting the walls.

 

Hooked up a mercury switch (see, I told ya it was long time ago) on the storm door and to a power relay that kicked on a reel to reel deck. (another old hint)

 

Anybody that grabbed that storm door uninvited got a amplified blast of the "Hounds of Hell". It was quite entertaining to watch.

 

But the cat saw no humor in it all. It got the point where I thought I was going to have to put the litter box and the food bowl on top of the book cases. For about 6 weeks I never saw the cat set a paw on the floor. Just jump from one thing to the next. Nervous lil critter.

 

Mike

[Squidley]

Thanks Fellas, I appreciate all the input and I'm looking at a couple of options. It's not that I'm really worried, but meth is everywhere and they have broke into this house before to steal copper wire. I know that a loud alarm will scare off 99% of would be burglars, I just want a little peace of mind...Thanks again for all the responses

[Aussie Annie]

And cupcake.... it's your hard earned stuff -- why should they have it??

[Kregerdoodle]

S & W 44mag, 8in barrel and XTC Hollow points.... they wont rob you twice!!! or Boomer has a Great Plan!!

[Skid]

I definately recommend an outside siren with any system...... just saying.

[dacheedah]

Check with your 911 Director or Coordinator to see if your PSAP (911 center) monitors any alarms. If they do find out what vendors connect them. That will give you the best personnel for monitoring and police / fire / ems response. I know that most of our villages, city and county require permits to assure the alarm meets standards. Those that don't can cost you alot in false alarms and fines. Technology is far better today than a few years ago, some alarms contact your smart phone, stream video, give water or power out alarms and have the ability to receive medical distress alarms.

[99silver]

Dang, Brad what did ya do move back to Michigan ? That sure sounds like the burbs around the mitten, I thought things were doing good in Texas ? Everybody working and so on....