NEWS – With all of the gadgets and technology I have around my home, I always feel better when I have a nice and easy but effective security system that allows me to feel that much more satisfied that my “stuff” and family, of course, are well protected. In addition to the risk of a break-in, there are also risks like fire and flooding. My current security system works well, but the monthly monitoring cost that started below $30 monthly, is now above $30 and keeps climbing. For a DIY system, I was hoping for a much lower monitoring fee, and also the ability to integrate my smart home devices that are either currently installed or any new devices that I add as smart technology continues to “explode”.
Today, as I was browsing around the web, I came across the new Ring Alarm Home Security System. This system is an easy to install DIY security system, at a relatively reasonable cost. What is more attractive to me is the promise of expansion to many smart devices, and integration with Alexa. Since I currently own Alexa and a few integrated Alexa devices, this would be great. To add to the benefit, the monthly monitoring cost is only $10, which makes sense since my alarm has only required a monitoring response about 4 times in the past year. My current monitoring cost adds up to almost $400 for the year.
The Ring Alarm Home Security System provides instant alerts for open windows or doors, and motion detection, and allows you to monitor your property from any Android or IOS phone or tablet. It includes a 24-hour backup battery and a 110-decibel siren and can be linked to any existing Ring doorbells or cameras. With the starter kit, you get the base station, a keypad, a contact sensor, a motion detector and a range extender, and the system is entirely wireless.
If you are interested in purchasing the Ring Alarm Home Security System, you can pick one up on Amazon for $199 for the starter kit.
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I’ll stick to my Brinks Home DIY system that connects to a real monitoring station. Thank you.
Same as the Ring unless you opt out for the monitoring service. It’s a good think because you can choose to subscribe to monitor by paying $10/month or monitor yourself for $0/month after purchasing all the equipment.
The Simplisafe is a better system with more sophisticated features and implementation. Ring’s only advantage is cheaper (but less comprehensive) monitoring…
Not quite true. I’m testing both in my home right now. Ring has a great feature where every keypad also plays all messages, chimes, and alerts from base stations. SS doesn’t do this. SS has extra sirens (Ring doesn’t) but oddly their extra sirens play DIFFERENT sounds for chime and messages than the base, so house sounds chaotic. SS keypads look great and can mount on wall without any wires. Ring keypads can work on battery in a limited way (no lights to show status) for a while, but really they do need power so uglier to mount on a wall and have wires showing.
Oh, and Ring has one more HUGE (for me) flaw… you need to enter your PIN to arm the system. Every other alarm system lets you arm from the keypads immediately, without a PIN… you only need a PIN to DISARM the system. Ring is a real pain to type in your PIN on way out the door, vs. SimplySafe3 you just push “away” and leave.