Is it worth paying £20 per month for a monitored alarm system like this one https://simplisafe.co.uk/
or just stick with DIY self monitored with eg smarthings plus sensors, camera etc.
I’ve never heard of them but if they’re anything like ADT then I’d recommend your own smart system.
ADT claimed that you had a monitored system, which was true to a certain extent because they can remote into it. However, if your alarm goes off they simply text and you get a robo call to tell you. This is because they claim that they’re no longer allowed to alert the police on your behalf.
So in my opinion. A smart alarm will do this without the ongoing cost and arguably better too. Then combine it with at least one smart camera and you can see if there is an actual issue and deal with it yourself.
SimpliSafe has a pretty major flaw:
1 Like
if I’m in another country or county how to I call my local police if I see someone has broken via my alarm/cameras ?
how does the alarm company call your local one from their call centre?
Also why can’t ADT call the police on your behalf.
Edit- seen this looks like they can call the police
. https://www.adt.co.uk/home-security-monitoring/police-response
I’m waiting for Ring to release their alarm system in the UK. They have stated this will happen in 2019.
If the pricing structure for monitoring matches the US it will be bundled with cloud storage of camera recordings perhaps for a fee as low as £10/month. However they haven’t said anything about UK pricing yet.
Thanks all. At present choice for monitored system in UK is limited. The old players may not be that smart and verisure etc charge a lot per month. In US they have competition from nest secure and abode inspite of that simplisafe is quite popular. On their website they say that they will call all the contact numbers first but if they can’t and see activity in the camera will call the police. These have battery and 3g SIM backup as DIY ones can simply be stopped by a fuse etc outside or in garage. Still thinking
Also the timeline for ring isn’t certain. I don’t think their is much official from them and a lot of speculation. Last I heard they were looking for partners etc in UK to monitor
They have definitely stated they are planning to launch in UK this year (and still state this on social media when asked). Of course, planning to launch is not the same as will definitely launch, but it’s more than speculation.
Ahhh that’s what I thought but if you break it down…
That’s through holding a sequence of keys on the fob/box and only while your obviously in the property. Kind of like a panic alarm that silently alerts them that you’re in immediate danger.
This is the automated call and texts thing I was talking about. So if you’re out and the alarm goes off it robo calls you, then after 3 attempts of you not answering it starts working it’s way through your list.
They could well have changed it now but this is what it was like for me a few years ago 
Hmm. Difficult decision then. Go for this, get DIY with smart hings or wait for ring. The thing bugging me more is that if they cut the power to the house all the system with no battery and SIM will fail
ADT had a battery backup and I’m sure all your smart devices like ring will alert you to power failure too.
I know all my Nest devices do this 
I agree they alert to power failure. I wonder though how I will respond if there is just s power failure and an away. With battery backup they should still get alarm triggered and also know about door entry etc through SIM. I know Verizon also install smoke release to deter burglars.
If you are in another county, still within the UK then you can call 999 and you speak to the local police force for where you are and they will take all the info as normal and assign the response to the force for where you live. The issue is, this takes time and also a burglary in progress where there is no threat of harm to anyone then it will be a grade 2 response, meaning not that high.
Alternatively, or if you are outside of the UK then you can Google the non-emergency number for the police force for where you live and then call them. You will be redirected to the 101 hotline for your force and they will triage your call, if you say burglary in progress then they will transfer you to a 999 call handler. Again though, no threat of harm to a person then it will be grade 2.
Story time here:
Person in America had reason to believe person in UK had taken an overdose.
They called 911 and explained the situation. 911 operator took all the information, but didn’t have the address. Only the suspected overdose’d person’s IP address. This IP address and the persons name were then given to the City of London Police.
City of London Police traced the IP address and contacted the Local police force and dispatched officers on a Grade 1 call.
It was 118 minutes before officers arrived at the persons home.
1 Like
I believe there are certain criteria that an alarm has to meet before a monitoring company will call the police automatically, it used to be 2 sensor knocks and the system needed to be installed by an accredited body. If you meet this, you would most probably get a discount on your insurance.
However, any alarm (with reason) would be a deterrent and hopefully make the burglar pass your house.
I have 3* euro locks and a good quality smart alarm and Blink cameras. Not Fort Knox, but like I said, the measures would hopefully be a big enough deterrent.
If I was going Pro Monitored, then I would go ADT.
Burglar alarms were rated the 13th in a list of deterrents for burglars from Co-op Insurance (it is a 2017 article). The public tend to ignore them, the police don’t tend to attend due to stretched resources and most burglars are in and out in quicker than any response time anyway.
Top 10 deterrents for home thieves:
- CCTV camera
- Sound of a barking dog
- Strong heavy doors
- TV which is turned on
- Locked Upvc windows
- Cars parked on driveway
- Overlooked property
- Surrounding fences
- Gates outside of the property
- Motion activated security lights
1 Like
I have thge full system in UK if anyone has any questions on it feel free to ask me !
I have this system and it cannot be replicated.
Infact you would need to know I had the system, know where my device was but also where it was in relation to the base station, deactivate it without my motion camera spotting you first, get in and by then the other devices would kick in anway
What do you think about it?. Is it worth the £10 odd per month or just get a good unmonitored system
I think it’s brilliant in all honesty. Much better than the yale or other systems it does so much more.
If not wanting to pay the £20pm for full monitoring I wouldn’t do it though.
If you have any specific questions just let me know re function etc
I use them and think they’re great. While £20 is quite a lot, it works well. The hardware is fairly well priced. The more cameras you attach to the system the better the value (the price does not go up per camera). The camera quality is ok (in my view better in Live viewing than recorded), but ultimately allows you see if you’ve had a false alarm or not. But would not reply on this to identify somebody in the dark.
I’ve only had one false alarm since installing the system (12 months ago) and very quickly (I estimate within a minute) got a call from the monitoring service telling me they could not see anyone in the property on the cameras).
I’ve tried to setup other systems such as Smart Things to act as an alarm, but had not end of problems, with the sensors for these systems seem to be far less reliable in my experience.