Any home security firm recommendations?

[soreshins]

About to buy a house and looking for a decent alarm system. Any Cp recommendations for good home security firms in Calgary?

[Northendzone]

We use counterforce - it is your basic home alarm system. Doors are wired, plus there is motion doctors on the main floor and basement.

I am sure we pay less than $40 per month.

I have thought about switching to vivint, as they have lots of cools bells and whistles and an app for the mobile phone, but I beleive it costs around $80 per month.

[Hockeyguy15]

We are with United, pretty standard stuff that was already wired when we moved in. Haven't had any issues with them at all, but have only had 1 alarm when my sister in-law was watching our place and forgot her code.

[Nyah]

We use Vivint, and our bundle is only $42/month...I think. It's awesome, I use the app all the time. All our doors & windows have sensors on them, and we have glass break sensors on the main floor & basement. One thing I highly recommend is keypad door locks, we got these instead of cameras. We had friends helping us with renovations throughout last year, and we were able to set up each of them with their own pin number to the house for when they were coming to do work when we weren't there. As soon as they're done you can go on your phone and inactivate the pin number. You can also see when people are coming & going. The guy who installed our system was telling us a story about how one of his friends has Vivint, and they had a dog walking company looking after their dogs during the day. He busted them skipping out on their dogs a few times a week (but still charging full price) because he could see on the app that they weren't using the code he programmed them to access the house. You can get motion sensors too, but they were out of the question for us because of my two psychotic cats. I've had to call customer service twice since getting it installed over three years ago, and they were efficient & helpful. Highly recommend.

+ The panel is really nice too, it's a sleek touch screen that isn't as bulky as some of the other ones I've had. You can customize the background on it to suit your house. Kinda cool.

[Northendzone]

^ wow, vivint is a lot cheaper than i tought as i am sure thier sales rep told me it was around $80/month.

[soreshins]

Thanks. Will definitely look into Vivint

[me_dennis]

Vivint is only that cheap if you have a landline and if you get their most basic package. I do admit they have a lot of cool bells and whistles for their smarthome package, but that would run $70+ a month. I had a vivint salesman come to my door to explain their packages. One thing I really liked was the doorbell camera and the ability to control the thermostat and door locks with a smartphone. But the monthly cost was more than what I was willing to spend.

I ended up going with ADT Pulse system and we pay $56 a month after GST.

Our system includes:
One motion detector
4 door and window contacts
One keypad - basic keypad because we use our iPad in the bedroom to arm/disarm
One thermostat - controlled via the ADT pulse app
One glass break sensor
GSM module - no landline required
One wall outlet module - allows lamps, small appliances etc to be turned on/off via smartphone app
One door lock - allows door to be locked/unlocked with smartphone app
Monthly monitoring
Free installation - promo package from the Calgary home and design show

Overall I am enjoying the ADT pulse system. The app allows me to see history of when a door is opened/closed and being able to lock and arm the system while away from home is what was really important to me.

There was the option for CO/smoke detector monitoring and flood monitoring but we opted out of those because we have CO/smoke detectors throughout the house.

I went with ADT because it has been around for so long and I know a lot of people who recommended it.


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[GP_Matt]

Can't most of those bells and whistles be purchased independently of an alarm company?
Nest thermostat, Weiser door locks, Chamberlain garage door monitors, water detection, nest smoke detectors all operate on the existing wifi network with no monthly cost.

Spend a few bucks up front and save on a lifetime of monthly payment.

[Nyah]

Ahh yes, sorry - I checked again and our monthly rate is $62. The $42 was for the first year only. Still totally worth it though.

[Ashartus]

If you're interested in the bells and whistles, see if your insurance company will give you a discount. Mine offered something like $150/year off if we have smoke/CO detectors, flood detection and camera linked into a security system on top of the regular discount for having the monitored security. We wouldn't get that discount if we just bought those things separately though.

[Gillam49]

Pretty sure I'm going with ADT. I had them come over and go over the plan. Basically getting what me_Dennis has. Lots of Break and enters lately, and I work a fly in fly out schedule up north with my Gf home alone all the time.

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[OldDutch]

I have posted in several other threads, but I am still with Concept Security and Alarm. Their $30/month monitoring that has been just as if not more reliable than ADT. I went through a break in with ADT and they take your money fine, but they are very slow to respond to an alarm if you pay for guard service.

In fact my wife and I made it back to our house 30 kms away, 30 mins faster than their gaurd who was less than 10kms. He then showed up, shrugged and said "yep it is a break in better call CPS". That was it.

Honestly, save your money on the bells and whistles and get a solid company. ADT is not in my experience. Way too many problems. Plus when you have an issue they tell you to handle it yourself. Service calls take weeks. Concept is a small business owner who shows up same day for any service calls you have. Way better.

[MikeMc]

I have Vivint and am basically happy with what I get for my money. The keypad door is cool/helpful, I feel my kids are safer in the house at night and we use the camera in the baby's room to monitor when he's sleeping or messing around.

The few times the alarm has been triggered Vivint engages immediately and they have been courteous (aka not dbags).

The one thing I will flag is the contract term. The standard term Vivint sales pushes for (and don't mention until the contract is out) is 5 years, which is freaking insane for a door to door sale. I was able to get it to 3.5 years which is still too long in my opinion but I have a friend who had the package already and had done my research. In retrospect I'm sure i could have gotten it down to 2 years if I threatened to walk away from the deal.

[Ragz]

Has anyone checked out Think Protection is was started by Ex CEO of Alarmforce - Joel Matlin

How about Rogers home monitoring?

[BsFaninCGY]

For anyone looking into home security, give this AMA from Reddit a look. A former cat burglar tells what slowed him down and what made him skip a place all together:

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/commen...t_burglar_ama/

[fredr123]

Originally Posted by BsFaninCGY

For anyone looking into home security, give this AMA from Reddit a look. A former cat burglar tells what slowed him down and what made him skip a place all together:

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/commen...t_burglar_ama/

Where the hell is his response to ume7's question?

[Ragz]

Originally Posted by fredr123

Where the hell is his response to ume7's question?

I think it is;

Originally Posted by Reddit

[–]taw4ama_CatBurgler[S] 118 points 4 years ago
I'm going to give you the best advice for home security you will ever get: Window laminate.
Alarms, dogs, all of that are either useless or reactionary. The only thing that ever really shut me down were laminated windows.
A crook's biggest weapon is speed, and their biggest enemy is time. If somebody were to try to break into your home and ended up hitting a window that was laminated, they would, in almost every case, run off.
It isn't even all that expensive, especially since you only need to laminate the first-floor windows (and any windows on a first-floor roof on a two-story house, such as a porch or deck roof).
Don't waste money on alarms or dogs. Spend it on good window laminate put in by professionals, and you will be much safer.

[soreshins]

Ended up going with ADT. The rep was really good, not pushy at all. They came and fitted the system within 4 days of us signing up and did a good job. The pulse system is easy to use and overall I'm impressed. $50/month.

[Ruttiger]

Wife and I have been discussing this recently as well. We're a single income household so budget is a concern. Pricing looks good here: http://www.calgaryalarm.com/special-offers/

Thoughts?

[KTrain]

Originally Posted by BsFaninCGY

For anyone looking into home security, give this AMA from Reddit a look. A former cat burglar tells what slowed him down and what made him skip a place all together:

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/commen...t_burglar_ama/

"What is the most expensive cat you ever stole?"