is home alarm monitoring really worth it?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Dec 18, 2012
Messages
1,327
Location
Washington for now
my mom has been with brinks now ADT for 25 years. she pays about $40 a month for monitoring . this is with the old system installed 25 years ago. in all the years she has had it she has been fortunate there have been no break ins. But she has had a 4 false alarms. each time it took the police hours to show up.

when i got my home i did a self install alarm DSC system . its always been monitored by me via telephone in the begining and now upgraded with cameras and internet monitoring . this was 20 years ago and its still running strong. 20 years ago it probably cost me about $500 in materials to do the install. so in these 20 years i have saved monitoring fees

Seeing how slow the response is of the police , i always question if its worth it to have a monitored alarm for mom. i can upgrade her old one and reuse some of the stuff for less than a years monitoring. the new ones are even easier than in the past to program. back then it was hex this and hex that

So what has your experience with monitoring been? has is ever saved your home from break in?
 
I've had a couple false alarms on my alarm system and the police showed up very quickly.

It's like any other type of insurance. Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. I pay $25 a month for monitoring.
 
My sister got Simplisafe for her condo. It's 15/ month and while simple it's quite functional. Simple enough to set up and more importantly simple to use. If I was going to get a system that's what I'd get.
 
I have a sign stating camera in use. Everyone asks if I have cameras recording so I show them all cameras that are seen
 
There are many other companies out there that do monitoring starting at $9-$15 a month. ADT is the best known, but their higher prices pay for the all the advertising that they do.

Hard to say if they're really worth it, even if they never go off, if a thief sees a system, they don't even try to break in so of course it may seem like it's not doing anything. If that's the case, you could always still have an alarm system, but not pay for monitoring. I sell houses all the time and the new owners tend not to activate the old alarm system, but they still have the old system in place.
 
Some folks in the hall above my sisters condo got hit by pros last winter . Florida of course, gated community. These guys came right up the escape stairwells with a quick jimmy of the door. 1130 AM too broad daylight on a weekday. A doctor had a video can and the first out of the stairwell ducked his covered head and pointed to it and they all went down the hall staying mostly out of camera. They had cased the place a few days earlier riding in on spendy bicycles dress like real bicycle loving yuppies.. Faces always so any cameras wouldnt be very visible with hoodies and partial masks. . Likely they recorded the surrounds to study at their leisure.
Real pros these guys likely Russian mob. All looking like special forces dressed like dandies. When they came back they snuck right in, trashed the place and out in short order . The dr had a rooftop cam that recorded them leaving. They were driving a stolen ( plate legible)high end Mercedes ( not the cheap versions you usually see here). Pretty ballsy right, coming in a hot car in the middle of the day. I thought u it odd they'd make a ransack mess ( has to be loud).: I sort of wondered what the owners really had they wanted.
Anyways one local resident was a retired Long a island Detective. He made sure the cops got all the info pics and such. He was far less than impressed with their response to it all. Probably Russian mob , have a nice day. It gets worse . Ask anyone from around the local area , IT NEVRR HAPPENED! Cops make nothing much of it , newspapers don't say a word so nobody gets to know. Gotta watch out for those tourist dollars ðŸ¤and property values🤫. Nobody wants to rock the boat. They'd rather just let it go on so limp wristed politicians, the cops, realtors ect. Keep looking good and property values keep going up. I've seen the same thing go on here in the boondocks. If you weren't in or knew folks in LE no one finds out to any great extent.
You can pretty much assume these sort of things happen all over all the time randomly. While nothing guarantees burglars won't hit you if nothing else it'll likely make them hit your neighbor instead.. Anyways, something to consider when you are pondering the need for security.
 
SimpliSafe and Ring have decent systems with reasonable monitoring. The Ring sensors look like they are from the 80s but monitoring w/ cell backup can be $100/yr including video doorbell service. ADT and Vivent have good integrated services but can be $50+ a month.

I just use a Blink camera which has a motion sensor. Cops are more likely to respond with priory if you have confirmed video.

Most break-ins happen in daylight and are likely just some junkie looking for cash/coins/gift cards since there are traceability rules with pawn shops. My relative got hit and they went right past his dSLR and Milwaukee power tools. Took some coins and an old roller suitcase. Cops are less likely to question someone with old luggage. I think the window repair was the biggest loss.

Nothing beats a dog with a deep bark.
 
Originally Posted by Driz
Ask anyone from around the local area , IT NEVRR HAPPENED! Cops make nothing much of it , newspapers don't say a word so nobody gets to know. Gotta watch out for those tourist dollars ðŸ¤and property values🤫. Nobody wants to rock the boat. They'd rather just let it go on so limp wristed politicians, the cops, realtors etc. Keep looking good and property values keep going up. I've seen the same thing go on here in the boondocks. If you weren't in or knew folks in LE no one finds out to any great extent.


In case you haven't noticed, newspapers are folding every day and the ones that exist have less and less people on staff. Also realtors don't discuss crime, that's the responsibility of the police department. The standard response we're supposed to give is that if you're worried about crime, check with the police department, they keep statistics on all the crime. When was the last time you checked with the police department to ask about things like this?
 
There is zero evidence or data to support that central station monitoring has any effect on crime/burglaries/B&Es period. In fact, the only advantage comes in the forum of an up to 10% annual homeowners insurance premium discount and that has more to do with fire department notification and smoke detector connectivity.
A home security system with a loud siren and strobe is all that is needed.
 
Last edited:
Simpli-Safe has worked for me at $15/ month. Last year a sensor fell off a door one night when I was 10 minutes away. Got a call from Simpli Safe and the police were there before I got home, it works. Lesson learned, I got rid of the double sided tape and screwed everything down.
 
Last edited:
SIMPLY SAFE, HA! Its ... SIMPLE for ANYONE to DISARM WITHOUT using a code.
It doesnt take the place of a professionally installed alarm system. I stress professionally. (notice my screen name?)

So here you go, this is why your Simply Safe system is not that safe, maybe not all thieves know it but a good many do, just like all up and coming young kid thieves may not know it YET.

Ok, you are away from home and you have your Simply Safe alarm system set.
A thief enters your home, the entry delay count down timer starts, which normally reminds you to disarm the system.

But the thief has no code to disarm the system right? Big deal.

All the thief has to do is pick up the Simply Safe "cone" while the system is counting down its entry delay and stick the cone in the refrigerator AND the System is disarmed, as it can not send out a signal to its central station because the refrigerator blocks the cell signal.

You can test it out yourself, try it on your Simply Safe, as the count down timer starts, throw it in the refrigerator and let it go off, no one will call you.
For others, you can test it out, stick your cell phone in your refrigerator, same deal, your cell phone loses coverage. Zero bars.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by alarmguy
All the thief has to do is pick up the Simply Safe "cone" while the system is counting down its entry delay and stick the cone in the refrigerator


Doubt a thief has the time to go searching around a house he's never been in for it, and then find the refrigerator too.
 
If all you have is window and door sensors that go off when opened, then they are virtually worthless. Burglars just break the window and alarm doesn't go off. You need sensors that can tell if window is broken and motion detectors inside the house.
 
Originally Posted by Burt
I You need sensors that can tell if window is broken and motion detectors inside the house.


I imagine you can't have motion sensors if you have pets?
 
well it depends who replies to the alarm, sometimes the police are so busy with other calls they never get to your alarm call

my alarm is monitored by a local security contractor, if the alarm is tripped they show up first before the police

and they are quick, the last time it went off they were at my home in about 7-8 minutes
 
Originally Posted by Donald
I would guess the police delay is more to do with the individual police dept than the monitoring company.

Precisely. I was a cop in a large city. I can guarantee that many residential alarms go with zero PD response. Suburban PDs respond but it's more about fine revenue to most being false alarms.

Thieves seek the path of least resistance. A good loud siren/strobe is good enough for 99% , although having an app or some form of personal notification via smart phone is a great plus.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by atikovi
Originally Posted by alarmguy
All the thief has to do is pick up the Simply Safe "cone" while the system is counting down its entry delay and stick the cone in the refrigerator


Doubt a thief has the time to go searching around a house he's never been in for it, and then find the refrigerator too.

Exactly, only a dumb thief is going to spend time looking around to find your base station counting down. They will grab your pillow cases, fill them up and they will be gone in a few minutes.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top