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worth it or basically a false sense of security?
House alarms
- Thread starter vansmack2000
- Start date
Worth it IMO. Some people know the alarm can give them 3 or 5 minutes and they are brazen enough to stay in the house that long and keep trying to rob you before they have to leave, but the normal burglar would probably get scared enough to just run upon hearing the alarm.
I got robbed last year for 20+k ouch. I HAVE an alarm but didn't arm it when I left the house. Now I do, thanks. lol
There are different types of alarms that you can get for other areas of your house like fire AND burglar. If there's a fire in my house (smoke alarm goes off), the fire department are immediately dispatched.
With the regular burglar alarm part, they call you first to give them the passcode. If you don't know it, they send the cops. That is the 3-5 minutes I was talking about. PLUS the alarm is loud enough to scare someone away.
You can have motion sensors in the living areas of the house and contacts on the doors and windows, AND glass breaks on the windows.
If any part of the system is "opened", then the alarm will sound. Then the keypad(s) which can be mounted anywhere in the house, will show what "zone" is faulted. Such as "Front door", "Back door", "Master bedroom motion", Lving room smoke detector"... etc...
I enjoy the 2 second tone that the front or back door makes when opened during the day when the alram is not armed. I can be anywhere in my house and know if someone came into the front or back door. It's just a little alert that I've grown accustomed to and like. The keypad makes the very low tone and I know a family member or someone has walked in. I could be in the basement or wherever. Without the tone at the keypads, I'd never hear the front door opening. It's cool.
Also, at night when the family is going to bed, you can bypass the interior motion sensors (press 2 buttons) and only have the perimeter doors, windows, glass breaks on. This way if you are walking around inside at night, like going to the kitchen for some water or drugs etc... the motion sensors won't be triggered but the outside (perimeter) is still "alarmed" in case someone tries to break in through a window or door, glass.
Bottom line, if I had my system ON when I left, the guy wouldn't have stayed in my house for half an hour like he did. He went through 3 floors of everything I had. Found all my jewelry, cash, credit cards, electronics, financial papers, everything. With the alarm sounding, either he will not hang around that long or the cops will come because they were dispatched or your neighbors will come because of the loud alarm. Mine actually says "Burglary Burglary, You have violated a protected area. The police were called. LEAVE IMMEDIATELY!" lol Really freaking loud. Then it just does the siren for a while, then back to that phrase.
I got robbed last year for 20+k ouch. I HAVE an alarm but didn't arm it when I left the house. Now I do, thanks. lol
There are different types of alarms that you can get for other areas of your house like fire AND burglar. If there's a fire in my house (smoke alarm goes off), the fire department are immediately dispatched.
With the regular burglar alarm part, they call you first to give them the passcode. If you don't know it, they send the cops. That is the 3-5 minutes I was talking about. PLUS the alarm is loud enough to scare someone away.
You can have motion sensors in the living areas of the house and contacts on the doors and windows, AND glass breaks on the windows.
If any part of the system is "opened", then the alarm will sound. Then the keypad(s) which can be mounted anywhere in the house, will show what "zone" is faulted. Such as "Front door", "Back door", "Master bedroom motion", Lving room smoke detector"... etc...
I enjoy the 2 second tone that the front or back door makes when opened during the day when the alram is not armed. I can be anywhere in my house and know if someone came into the front or back door. It's just a little alert that I've grown accustomed to and like. The keypad makes the very low tone and I know a family member or someone has walked in. I could be in the basement or wherever. Without the tone at the keypads, I'd never hear the front door opening. It's cool.
Also, at night when the family is going to bed, you can bypass the interior motion sensors (press 2 buttons) and only have the perimeter doors, windows, glass breaks on. This way if you are walking around inside at night, like going to the kitchen for some water or drugs etc... the motion sensors won't be triggered but the outside (perimeter) is still "alarmed" in case someone tries to break in through a window or door, glass.
Bottom line, if I had my system ON when I left, the guy wouldn't have stayed in my house for half an hour like he did. He went through 3 floors of everything I had. Found all my jewelry, cash, credit cards, electronics, financial papers, everything. With the alarm sounding, either he will not hang around that long or the cops will come because they were dispatched or your neighbors will come because of the loud alarm. Mine actually says "Burglary Burglary, You have violated a protected area. The police were called. LEAVE IMMEDIATELY!" lol Really freaking loud. Then it just does the siren for a while, then back to that phrase.
vansmack2000
New member
did insurance cover the loses? or did they say since you didnt actually set the alarm they found some BS loophole? (ie they set the policy @ a lower rate assuming you would set the alarm?)
They paid 7-8k for a 20+k loss. pfft. They didn't really give an explanation. They just sent me a check. I didn't have receipts for 15 year's worth of jewelry I've purchased. All I had was a $2500 receipt for my camcorder and $7000 receipt for my wife's engagement ring. pfft right there is more than 8 k. There was A LOT more shit taken than just that.
btw The guy was caught and was sentenced this past Friday. lol This happened a year ago.
They took fingerprints and found him in their databas as being arrested before. Carreer criminal. Bastard! He's going in for a minimum of 5 years for this now. I'd rather have my stuff back though.
btw The guy was caught and was sentenced this past Friday. lol This happened a year ago.
They took fingerprints and found him in their databas as being arrested before. Carreer criminal. Bastard! He's going in for a minimum of 5 years for this now. I'd rather have my stuff back though.
firefighter337
New member
Fire alarm for sure. Saves lives.
Angel said:
There are arguments that would go either way. Rich neighborhoods get robbed for the obvious reasons but poor neighborhoods get robbed because they have poor people in them who may be desparate and need money etc... and it's convenient for them. An open window, door etc... Either way houses get robbed in general.
Angel said:
Everyone says that until they get robbed. I didn't even set the alarm when I went out. All my neighbors are cool. It just happened.
I would say the same thing after 37 years as of last year, BUT.... it happenend to me this ONCE last year and it's changed me forever.
It doesn't happen until it happens.
Y_lifter
New member
Unless you have glass break sensors on the windows, most alarms are mounted on the window/door frame and the alram won't go off if the window glass is smashed and the frame not moved. Agree that the door chime is nice as a way of knowing that someone has opened a door somewhere for a number of reasons.
Y_lifter said:
Yes, but most systems also have interior motion sensors. SOMETHING will get them at some point.
The best is not having them come inside the house at all. The glass breaks will do that best.
Y_lifter
New member
I would respectfully disagree with using MOST in the reference of motion sensors..
Many people don't get that feature due to it not allowing you to roam the house
when they are home and the alarm activated. Would work well if you could selectively activate it when you leave the house and inactivate that part of the system when you are at home sleeping and getting up in the night to get a drink/snack etc.
Many people don't get that feature due to it not allowing you to roam the house
when they are home and the alarm activated. Would work well if you could selectively activate it when you leave the house and inactivate that part of the system when you are at home sleeping and getting up in the night to get a drink/snack etc.
You can do that....
gonelifting said:
rnch said:
look at the two posts above yours.
You can bypass any "zone" on the system. The interior zone is bypassed at night while you're home.
rnch said:
No, at night before retiring you would turn the alarm ON. By doing that you can bypass the interior zone at the same time. The alarm isn't usually ON 24/7. It goes on when you leave the house or when you retire for the night or.... if you know you'll be home all day and want the perimeter alarmed, you'd do the same thing as when you're retiring for the night.
Mine sequence is "Interior, My code, On, Instant" The Instant is for as soon as the door(s) or window(s) is opened/breaks, the alarm sounds. There is no delay for shutting it down as opposed to coming home and it giving you 30 seconds to punch in your code.
chewyxrage
New member
GL what was the total cost for a system such as yours?
chewyxrage said:
I'm sorry, I don't know. Seriously no clue. I installed it myself wired the whole house with electric myself. I also got the supplies from my former boss who is an Electrical Contractor. I got may supplies from him and he just charged me cost for them. They were all bundled together so I couldn't even tell you how much the materials for just the alarm was.
There are companies that do it for "Free" but you need to get their monthly monitering. Be careful of the "free" installation because it's pretty bare bones. Of course you could pay more for additional keypads and sensors etc... I'm sure.
Also, if your house is already built, it is harder to run the wires of course and would be more money. Building or remodeling and wiring is much easier and cheaper.
I have 5 keypads. The "Free" installs may give you one or max two. I'm sure there aren't too many zones windows doors either.
IMO If you don't want the "Free" install, go with a regular alarm contractor first and see what their prices are. They may be cheaper than the nation chain alarm companies.
or if you're really handy, you could do it yourself. It's small wire like phone cable. Actually smaller than that. Then just get a monitoring service or someone to hook it up for you when you're done running the cables.
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