I have a version 2 hub, and I am moving to a new home from an apartment. I’d like a security system, but it seems the ADT hub and service is being beat up pretty bad on Amazon, and its price has been cut in half.
I also don’t really like the idea of having to buy a new hub and sensors, when I already own all of that stuff. So, what is the scoop on it. Is it really a bad system, or is it just being reviewed badly by people who don’t understand it?
The reviews aren’t terrible overall, it ends up with three stars which is very close to what Simplisafe and most other low-cost security systems get.
The bad reviews are mostly from people who are either outside the United States and didn’t realize it wouldn’t work for them or who expected more coordination with the home automation side.
You can certainly argue that that’s a failure of the marketing and product descriptions, but it’s not a failure of the product itself.
The only low-cost home security system I saw which gets significantly higher reviews is ring alarm and I think that’s because It’s noticeably lower cost than the other systems and people feel good about that so they cut some slack, and because its advertising is more reflective of what the system actually does.
The following discussion is for people who already have the system installed, so you might want to take a look at that and see what their experiences have been.
New ADT partnership, new touchscreen hub and devices (discussion thread)
Thanks JD,
I think I may decide to just go with a Nest Secure system. I already have the cameras, and I like the Google smart display integration.
Just be aware of what you’re getting. Although nest obviously does make smoke detectors, for example, you cannot use those to alert the professional monitoring center. So that takes them off my candidate list, but if you’re just looking for intrusion alerts, they might be a good choice for you.
Most of the complaints I have heard focus on the fact that the ADT side can’t be triggered from the sensors users already have. The ADT panel does work well if you are kind of starting from scratch, or are willing to understand at the least you need to put the ADT Sensors where you want to do security monitoring. Otherwise you just have to double up on sensors or not use some of them that you have that are zwave.
I have the ADT system and it has been great for me so far. I didn’t have allot of door/window or motion sensors though. Been over a year and I haven’t had any issues. I have the smartapp ADT Tools 2 to expand it’s functionality a little bit.