Modern Alarm system upgrade?

[Garett]

My 10 year old DSC has been acting up, I'm running 4 keypads and wired sensors. I'm thinking about replacing the whole system in favor of something with modern features. I'd like to be able to see whats happening from my smartphone.

Whats the best bang for the buck system out there? Is anyone here using a Skylink Wireless system? I know it's been around for several years. I see they are inexpensive, the reviews online are mixed.

I want to monitor 2 garage doors, 4 man doors and likely 4 motion sensors, 0 window sensors.

TIA

 

[ctgoodman]

This will be an interesting thread. I will be looking for something modern for my shop. I however do have a current DSC system in the house that this far has about 6 years of reliable service with two keypads and all wired sensors. I did a couple of years ago add an envisalink module and am self monitoring with alerts in text message, email, and push notifications through EyezON.

www.eyezon.com

 

[Falcon67]

We just bought Simple Safe - seems good enough. Quick install, all wireless, way less $ than Vivnt.

 

[Tmart86]

If you already have DSC and wired sensors just update the panel to a modern wired system from DSC etc. they all offer smart phone app and wired sensors are less hassle than wireless

 

[polizei1]

I'm going to get Ring, it's owned by Amazon and the ecosystem is impressive. Professional monitoring is $10/month, and that includes as many devices (cameras, doorbell) as you want. Add more as you see fit, it's a modular system.

I work with alarms everyday, nothing will beat a proper, professionally installed hardwired system. That said, those are often very expensive to setup and maintain.

 

[nh_yota]

The benefit of a hardwired system is that component interfaces are fairly standardized and if you need to swap them out you have more choices because you're not locked into one vendor.

 

[chinboys]

Second thumbs up for SimpliSafe. But it now seems Nest from Google and Ring from Amazon are also getting into the home security market.

 

[biggziff]

I'm going to get Ring, it's owned by Amazon and the ecosystem is impressive. Professional monitoring is $10/month, and that includes as many devices (cameras, doorbell) as you want. Add more as you see fit, it's a modular system.

I work with alarms everyday, nothing will beat a proper, professionally installed hardwired system. That said, those are often very expensive to setup and maintain.

Ring is basic, consumer level stuff. You'll hate the lag on the motion events from the cameras. I've pulled more of this stuff out and replaced it with Unifi camera systems then I care to note. Stay away from Ring if you're serious about a security environment.

 

[alberto]

I've been studying this for a while now. There's a big rabbit hole for you to go into; you can go as deep as you dare. Here's a ok article responding to your question: https://reolink.com/use-upgrade-existing-home-security-alarm-system/


I have had a wireless system currently at a commercial office for 2 years (DIY install, monitored by a third party) and I have been studying what to do for a residence. The wireless system I have is about 2 years old and has worked great so far. Ironically today I got the first false alarm from the system in that time period.

One of the first things you'll want to decide is if you want to use a wired system or a wireless system, or a combination. Since you already have hard wired sensors installed, it might be worth keeping some or maybe all of them. If you have good, hidden wired door and window sensors, I would reuse those.
The wireless door and window sensors are very ugly and very visible. You'll also need to decide if you want to go DYI or professional install and if you want to self monitor or use a central station.

If you have interest in selecting and putting together your own system (panel, door and window sensors, motion detectors, cameras, smoke and fire detectors, etc), I suggest checking out alarmgrid.com and geoarm.com (don't recommend ordering from geoarm, as I just had a bad experience with them, but their web site has a lot of information on a lot of products). You should surf their sites, and either of them provide tons of information about their products and monitoring services and they help without much if any sales pressure. These guys seem to concentrate primarily on wireless systems, but you can configure either a wired or wireless or combination systems with them (you have to get a device that translates the hardwired signals to wireless). If you get monitoring through them (they do not have any long term contract requirements), they use the Alarm.com monitoring and phone app system, which is the same as Frontpoint (below) uses.

If you want a pre-curated DYI system where someone has done most the brain damage for you might look at Frontpoint.com or Simplisafe.com, for example. These two are wireless only set ups (as far as I know). These guys mostly let you pick from a limited, preselected menu of sensors, panels, etc. They tend to be a bit obscure as to what exactly you are getting until you ask specifically, but frontpoint has great customer support (I've not tried simplisafe). Frontpoint does require a monitoring contract. Simplisafe does not appear to. The one positive with both these guys is that it is a pretty turn key set up, other than having to install it yourself, so they limit what sensors, sensor types, etc. you can choose from. As far as I know, both of these are wireless equipment only.

If you want to keep your entire wired system, there doesn't seem to be a lot of DYI options. In fact, I wasn't able to find any; it'd be great if someone can find one and let us know.

 

[Jazzman442]

I use to do wired alarms for a living many years ago. Still the best options for a ton of reasons. if you all ready have the wire use it. The one I used were purchased by Honeywell and you can do it your self as well:

https://www.security.honeywell.com/All-Categories/intrusion/control-panels/burglary/ademco-vista

 

[jonshonda]

There are lots of threads on here already, but my current thinking is maybe Abode system as you can utilize zwave and ifttt protocol to tie into other systems.

 

[Fasthotrod]

If you are looking for a DIY way to replace it with something smart-enabled, check out the Konnected alarm panel system. It re-uses your old window/door sensors and alarm, perhaps even the motion and/or smoke detectors.

https://konnected.io/products/konne...?utm_source=st-community&utm_campaign=post220

I haven't gotten into it yet, but it looks pretty cool... the thought of connecting via my phone or a tablet mounted on the wall seems slick.

Hope this helps.

Mark

 

[zeke67]

I have a wired system, vintage 1992. With some wireless added around 2008. I have about 20 zones including window and door reed switches, glass breaks, smokes, several motion detectors and 3 key pads. It's about 20 zones, although that's not a fair representation because the wired zones represent a bank of windows in a given room whereas the wireless windows are each pane. It's a ADT Safewatch 3000 panel now, but that was installed some time after the original system was wired. Any good panel can interface to existing wiring.

I agree with the comments about a wired system: if you have one, keep it. Mainly, the wiring is very reliable. It's the switches that fail in time. They are easy to replace. With a wireless system, the sensors are visually clunky. Batteries last a long time, but when you have 30-40 sensors that need batteries, that's not a fun day.

I have added the ADT Pulse system and some of their house branded Z-Wave devices. With the phone app. One thing to pay attention to: some of these monitored systems allow you to connect open market devices, but you pay a bit higher monitoring fees. When you buy their house branded devices, you pay more for the device and the installation, but they connect it to the system and the monitoring fees are a bit lower.

I've found that they let me do my own work and what not and then I pay a truck fee to have a guy come out and program the panel to accept the sensors if I need to. For instance, if have a bad window sensor, I can replace it. If I want to add a motion detector and I add it to a current zone, I add it. If i want to reprogram a zone, then I need their guy to come out.