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Old 02-20-2017, 06:56 PM   #1
ricosuave
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Hi all,

Anna and I will be moving to a new home at the end of March, and I think I'd like to get some home security for it.

I have searched here, and the general consensus for paid services seem to come down to Vivint and United.

I was wondering if anyone has used either recently, and can either comment on their services, or the price that they pay. In fact, if anyone here has an in with either, or any other company, I'd love to hear about it.

I really don't know much about these systems, as I've never had one, so please, share your real world experiences in what companies to use, who to avoid, and what type of equipment and services they offer.

Thank you.
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Old 02-20-2017, 07:24 PM   #2
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We have vivint in our house.

I think it is around $55, for a doorbell camera, glass break sensor and door sensor. We also have thier thermostat.

Can access it from my phone.

No one has broken into out house since it was installed
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Old 02-20-2017, 07:30 PM   #3
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I have United. Things have been good and I've had no problems, although there hasn't been a situation where I needed to test them out.

I chose them after a robbery because they were the only company who responded to my email and answered my questions directly, rather than forcing me to call a salesperson.

Price will depend on what you want included. When I looked around, similar systems from various companies were quite similar in price.
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Old 02-20-2017, 07:30 PM   #4
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No one has broken into out house since it was installed
I do not have Vivint, no one has broken into my house since the day I chose not to install it.

In all seriousness, a friend has it and seems to like it. Gets all the door opening alerts right to his phone.
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Old 02-20-2017, 07:33 PM   #5
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My wife signed up for United. I think we pay $29.95/mth. Big touchpad, arm/disarm via app, door/window sensors.
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Old 02-20-2017, 10:17 PM   #6
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My wife signed up for United. I think we pay $29.95/mth. Big touchpad, arm/disarm via app, door/window sensors.
We have something like this with United as well.

We have the wifi version (cheaper than cellular signal), 3 doors and 3 windows and 1 motion sensor (all wireless), app access on our phones. Haven't had any issues yet, only time it went off was when my wife opened the sliding door without disarming, they called pretty much right away to make sure everything was ok.

We just wanted something basic so I didn't really look at things like doorbell camera or temperature and flood warning.
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Old 02-21-2017, 09:01 AM   #7
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Any idea how easy it would be to setup something like this without an alarm company?

Some of the wifi sensors are available for pretty cheap and I am not really sure if the monitoring is that much value.
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Old 02-21-2017, 10:20 AM   #8
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You will get a discount on your insurance if you have it monitored. You will also need to buy a panel which I doubt is that cheap.

I'm not sure if you can get access to the phone app unless signed up by the alarm company.
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Old 02-21-2017, 10:29 AM   #9
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Any idea how easy it would be to setup something like this without an alarm company?

Some of the wifi sensors are available for pretty cheap and I am not really sure if the monitoring is that much value.
I took a quick look at the united website. They want 9 bucks to monitor your video camera, per month. I'm not sure what that means monitor, are they going to tell you when there's movement?

We had an iBaby wifi camera installed until recently, I could move and monitor the camera from anywhere via my iPhone, and could set up movement or sound alerts if I wanted to, and the camera only cost $100 one time cost.
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Old 02-21-2017, 10:47 AM   #10
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I took a quick look at the united website. They want 9 bucks to monitor your video camera, per month. I'm not sure what that means monitor, are they going to tell you when there's movement?

We had an iBaby wifi camera installed until recently, I could move and monitor the camera from anywhere via my iPhone, and could set up movement or sound alerts if I wanted to, and the camera only cost $100 one time cost.
I believe the $9 a month is just for the camera (unless you pay in full). They don't monitor the camera, just the alarm.
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Old 02-21-2017, 12:53 PM   #11
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given some of the camera options out there, it might be somewhat easy to set up a system to be able to watch over parts of your house, and send motion alerts to your phone. I'd imagine you be looking at something like $800 to $1,000 or so to get three cameras, some remote door locks, something to monitor your garage door opening, an possibly a nest type thermostat, and then you would not have to pay a fee - but that would have to be balanced against the discount that an alarm system would give you on your home insurance.

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Any idea how easy it would be to setup something like this without an alarm company?

Some of the wifi sensors are available for pretty cheap and I am not really sure if the monitoring is that much value.
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Old 02-21-2017, 01:11 PM   #12
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Any idea how much the discount is with insurance companies?
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Old 02-21-2017, 01:19 PM   #13
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given some of the camera options out there, it might be somewhat easy to set up a system to be able to watch over parts of your house, and send motion alerts to your phone. I'd imagine you be looking at something like $800 to $1,000 or so to get three cameras, some remote door locks, something to monitor your garage door opening, an possibly a nest type thermostat, and then you would not have to pay a fee - but that would have to be balanced against the discount that an alarm system would give you on your home insurance.
If you're technically inclined, I think this is a good way of doing it. Forget paying some insurance company $30 a month to call the police. Waste of time. Get a home automation kit (Insteon is supposedly a pretty good set in terms of ease of setup/use), set up open/close sensors for all the doors/windows you want, motion sensors for whichever rooms you want, and have the system text/message you whenever a sensor is tripped when you're not home. If you want to take it a step further you can include an alarm if you're worried about intrusions at night too.

I'm in the process of automating my home, and it's been great so far. I get a notice on my phone whenever a door opens (so my future daughter won't be able to sneak out!), I can tweak my thermostat, etc. etc.

My system is still in its infancy though, so there is plenty more I would like to do with it.
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Old 02-21-2017, 01:41 PM   #14
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I have some home automation going but nothing ties it together very well yet.
The automated garage door opener is great, it sends me a text if I have it open for too long and I can close it from my phone.
Once there is a good standard app for a lot of these systems I think I will dive in and start fitting things out. Door locks and a water leak detector are definitely on my list.
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Old 02-21-2017, 05:10 PM   #15
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In my experience, an alarm is not much deterrent to someone breaking into your home (when you are absent).
What is does effectively do is limit the time they spend inside tossing the place.
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Old 02-21-2017, 05:25 PM   #16
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The only thing I might be concerned about a do it yourself system is if you buy it in pieces over time that things change and the pieces no longer interface as nicely as they would if you dropped the cash all at once.

These days place like Home Depot sell all of the parts so you would just need to see what is availible and how many of the pieces do you need.

I'd assume the do it yourself system would be ultimately cheaper.
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Old 02-21-2017, 05:33 PM   #17
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I went with Think Protection when I got rid of my home phone. You have to buy the equipment but monitoring is dirt cheap. Haven't had a break in so I don't know what their response is like but the app goes off instantly if the alarm is triggered. Nice to be able to arm and disarm remotely, I've never even used the touch pad.

I got one of those Q-See camera systems from Costco, it's a bit of a pain to install and configure but nothing too onerous. I can view the live video on my phone, you can also set it to alert you to motion and some other features but I didn't bother since the alarm would let me know something is wrong. I hooked the power feed to the cameras up to a BeeWii smartplug so when someone is at home you just fire up the app and kill the power to the cameras then turn them back on when arming the alarm.

I think all in the alarm and cameras, etc. cost me about $600 - $700 but now I only pay $13/month.
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Old 02-21-2017, 06:42 PM   #18
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Any idea how much the discount is with insurance companies?
It was about 10% of my home policy or $200 with RSA if I got a flood/freeze/fire sensor. So definitely worth it as it makes a substantial dent in the monthly fees.
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Old 02-21-2017, 09:22 PM   #19
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ip cameras, forward your ports, setup motion alerts
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Old 02-21-2017, 09:23 PM   #20
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https://www.aartech.ca/
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