Good House Alarm Company

[darklord700]

The previous owner wired the house by Chubb Security so naturally I am thinking of going with them too. But just wanted to start a thread discussing what every one is using or is using house alarm even worth the cost.

[psicodude]

I believe that having a system that will make enough noise to alert your neighbors is a good idea, but paying to have it monitored is a waste of time. I know 2 police officer personally, and both of them say that a monitored alarm system does nothing to deter a professional thief because they will get in and out before the alarm company does anything about it.

The problem is that the alarm company will go through several steps of confirming there is a real issue before contacting the police, and then it is still going to take the cops a few minutes to get there. Even if all of that only adds up to 6 or 7 minutes, that is probably 4 minutes longer than the thief needs to get all of the good stuff - electronics, jewellery, and cash. A case could be made for the fire monitoring aspect, but honestly, what are the chances of your place burning down? 1 in 100,000?

I would finish the system off yourself and just hope your neighbors pick up the phone when they hear the alarm.

[T@T]

Originally Posted by darklord700

The previous owner wired the house by Chubb Security so naturally I am thinking of going with them too. But just wanted to start a thread discussing what every one is using or is using house alarm even worth the cost.

I use ADT,nothing great about them to speak of but it's a simple system for $30 bucks. probably would have tried "alarm force" but the annoying commercials turned me off.

[Robbob]

Originally Posted by psicodude

I believe that having a system that will make enough noise to alert your neighbors is a good idea, but paying to have it monitored is a waste of time. I know 2 police officer personally, and both of them say that a monitored alarm system does nothing to deter a professional thief because they will get in and out before the alarm company does anything about it.

The problem is that the alarm company will go through several steps of confirming there is a real issue before contacting the police, and then it is still going to take the cops a few minutes to get there. Even if all of that only adds up to 6 or 7 minutes, that is probably 4 minutes longer than the thief needs to get all of the good stuff - electronics, jewellery, and cash. A case could be made for the fire monitoring aspect, but honestly, what are the chances of your place burning down? 1 in 100,000?

I would finish the system off yourself and just hope your neighbors pick up the phone when they hear the alarm.

I am considering getting an alarm but for the fire monitoring alone because of family pets. Honestly anything else can be replaced.

[Flames in 07]

FWIW i once had a pipe break in the basement when I was on vacation, we have a water sensor that picked it up and notified our alarm company. I was able to have that fixed while I was away, otherwise we would have come back just to see our house had floated down the street.

For that incident alone it is worth having a monitoring service for life.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by Flames in 07

FWIW i once had a pipe break in the basement when I was on vacation, we have a water sensor that picked it up and notified our alarm company. I was able to have that fixed while I was away, otherwise we would have come back just to see our house had floated down the street.

Impossible. First of all, the drain in your basement wouldn't have allowed the water level to get very high at all. Second of all, houses are full of heavy materials like drywall, which wouldn't have allowed it to float. And fourth, the water would have to be outside the house for it to float down the street.

[Flames in 07]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Impossible. First of all, the drain in your basement wouldn't have allowed the water level to get very high at all. Second of all, houses are full of heavy materials like drywall, which wouldn't have allowed it to float. And fourth, the water would have to be outside the house for it to float down the street.

For real? Houses don't float?

[4X4]

Originally Posted by Flames in 07

For real? Houses don't float?

Do you know how many screws and nails are in a house? Metal doesn't float.

[Northendzone]

We use Counterforce, the only reason we are with them because they were aligned with showcase, who wired the house. Our house has never been broken into, so the system is fine.

I once had a sales guy working our street and I told him the only reason I had an alarm was to get a discount on home insurance. The sales guy was stunned and left me alone.

There some companies out there that seem to have some cool systems that you can monitor with your phone, but they are much more expensive.

[Flames in 07]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Do you know how many screws and nails are in a house? Metal doesn't float.

Come to think of it, the fridge is maybe 150lbs. Ya. Probably would have not float down the street, probably would have just sunk into the ground.

[Robbob]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Do you know how many screws and nails are in a house? Metal doesn't float.

What about battleships our aircraft carrrier?...must be spray foam.

[Dentoman]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

There some companies out there that seem to have some cool systems that you can monitor with your phone, but they are much more expensive.

I just picked up 2 iZON cameras from www.steminnovation.com. Easy to set up, can record video, will detect motion and noise and record the incident and can be monitored with your iPhone or iPad.
They had some issues with their initial firmware, but now seem to have worked out the bugs and have updated their app as well.
They used to upload your video to Youtube but now they have their own service.
As of now, there is no extra cost for the video upload service.
Has worked very well for me.

I use ADT for my alarm. As others have said, it won't prevent a break in, but at least it will let you know if something has happened. Also have it monitored for fire. With kids and pets, gives some peace of mind.

[Julio]

You should of course dial 1-800-267-2001. Alarm Force. (Alarm Force is listed on the TSX).

[MRCboicgy]

How about just one of these



I was going to post a full-grown GSD picture, but this guy was too cute to not post instead.

[metallicat]

I bet most police officers would suggest no alarm considering, what, 99% of all calls are false alarms?

[3thirty]

just dont use front line security, we had a terrible experience with them.

[Redliner]

We're with Vivint security and they've been decent if not spectacular. Price is competitive (~$35/month) and their customer service has always been pretty good. Your contract is supposed to include the one free system install, but we moved halfway through the contract and they gave us a brand new (and way nicer) system at the new house free of charge. When it comes to monitoring I think most alarm companies are about the same these days in terms of the service they give you. Honestly though, psicodude summed it up pretty well. I used to work for ADT in their dispatch centre and the number of steps we had to go through to verify that the alarm was an actual emergency before dispatching police was borderline ridiculous - any halfway competent thief would be long gone by the time the cops actually arrived . Fire calls are immediate dispatch though, so that definitely has some value. Distress calls (from the keypad) are also immediate dispatch, so if you're worried about home invasions or that sort of thing then the monitoring is definitely worth it.