Monitored alarm recommendations for ST integration

I’m in the market to dump Vivint and replace them with a more cost effective monitoring solution. We have an old 2GIG panel and ideally I’d love to find some company that could utilize the existing system to reduce the install costs. I’m also hoping to utilize the existing sensors connected to the 2GIG panel as switches to activate things via my ST hub. I see tons of threads about alarms and monitoring companies but no real recommendations on which ones are best for integrating with ST.

In the end, if I have to simply dump the old system to get decent integration then so be it. However, I don’t want to trade $70/mo with Vivint for another $50-75 per month with another company and a long contract.

Thanks in advance for any feedback/suggestions.

I was just looking at this. Konnected.io was something I just started to look at. looks promising. pays for itself in 2 months on old service.

are the existing components wireless or wired?

AFAIK, there are only two ways to get central monitoring that’s integrated with ST. Neither requires a contract, I think.

You can use the built-in smart home monitor and pay 20 bucks a month for the optional monitoring service provided by scout.

That would be for burglary only, and frankly, smart home monitor is a joke of a security system. You can read other threads going back years to find out why. But you can use any z-wave or zigbee sensors that can pair with ST.

In the last year or so, ST and ADT released a co-branded hub/alarm panel that features optional central monitoring for burglary, fire or both. This one is far more legit, among other things it can fall back to a 4G connection to transmit security/fire alerts if your internet or the ST cloud is down. Combined burglary/fire monitoring is $35 a month last time I checked.

One catch there is that you have to buy the purpose-built sensors for this version of the ST hub in order to take advantage of the ADT side of things. Any z-wave or zigbee sensor will work with the ST side of things, i.e. for automations, but will not work with the ADT-specific security features.

@mvermef I believe that Konnected, as it is currently designed, can make use of your old wired sensors, but is 100% dependent on smart home monitor to do anything. That’s something they’ve mentioned they’re working on for a future version.

That is not a monitored service. That just uses your wired equipment and exposes it to ST.

Didn’t know that and that isn’t widely advertised, probably on purpose. I’m glad I found this out now because I was thinking of moving to the ADT panel. Thanks!!

not that big of deal IMO. The ADT sensors are about the same price as z-wave or zigbee sensors and can be used both for ADT security and in SmartThings automations.

That’s if you’re starting from scratch, yes. But if you have a full system and just want to replace the hub with a panel to add the ADT monitoring then you’re looking at replacing a LOT of sensors. Like I said, I am thinking of SWITCHING to the ADT panel.

True. The OP may be starting from scratch, so for him not a big deal.

Submitted without comment.

I dunno, if a new customer checks out smartthings.com/adt then all they’re going to see is the ADT branded sensors, and as @Automated_House mentioned they’re about the same price as many standard z-wave or zigbee sensors.

But if you’re planning to upgrade from another version of the ST hub, then yeah I agree it’s annoying that you’d have to replace some of your pre-existing sensors if you want the monitored ADT intrusion alerts.

That kinda depends. You only need to replace the sensors that are needed for intrusion alerts. Some people use motion/contact sensors for lighting, or just as a convenience notification that a window’s open and it’s going to rain. No need to replace those.

Edit: we also don’t know yet whether the OP is starting over from scratch. He mentioned a 2gig system that he has currently, not a ST hub. And we haven’t heard back from him yet after @Automated_House asked for more info on the sensors that are currently being used.

Yes, and as I’ve stated twice now, I was thanking you because that’s exactly what I was thinking of doing. But if I’d known I was going to get raked over the coals I wouldn’t have thanked you. I won’t in the future.

Um, ok.

Not sure why you’re upset. No one’s raked you over the coals. Your situation and experience upgrading to the ST/ADT hub may differ from that of others, that’s all I’m saying. I apologize if that’s not how my comments came across.

If you’re not interested in discussing this further then I’ll leave it at that. Have a nice day.

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Just a few things about the ADT panel.

There are 3 levels of monitoring for it.

  1. Just fire/carbon monoxide (non intrusion basically) it is 14.95 a month
  2. Intrusion protection which is 24.95 a month
  3. Both which is 34.95 a month.

Both option 2 and 3 have 6 month prepaid options which lowers the price a bit as well.

I have found the ADT sensor to be as cheap as pretty much the cheapest zwave and zigbee sensors. Right now the door/window sensors are on sale at best buy for $20. I have found it pretty hard to hear that in the past. Even without the sale they only go up to 25.

If you do try the ADT panel take a look at my smart app ADT Tools as it may help improve your integration with Smart things.

I am all in with the ADT panel and have no complaints. I was originally looking at SHM as part of smartthings, but there was to much hacking to make it work as a well rounded security system. The ADT panel checks all the boxes. And with the improved integration with ADT Tools I wrote there is a ton of things we can do to enhance integration.

What you have to keep in mind is there are two kinds of alarms setups for intrusion. One is based on perimeter, the other is based on motion internal detection.

They function differently depending on what mode the alarm is in. For instance if you have the alarm in armed stay your motion sensors are turned off. That is so you can still move around the house. If you only got a few door sensors for the doors and then set the alarm to arm stay you could in theory have someone break in through a window while you are home have a home invasion. Just some food for thought when thinking about what sensors need to be replaced. I spent more on sensors then I did for the initial panel. I had to get 18 door/window sensors so it does add up. We just need to look for sales. Check best buy and amazon frequently

Agreed. If I were going to switch to the ST/ADT hub I’d think hard about which motion sensors I needed to trigger intrusion alerts in armed away mode to save a few bucks, and stick with regular z-wave or zigbee motion sensors in areas that are needed for lighting/other automations.

Hey again… Sorry for the delay in responding to this thread I started. Let’s see if I can cover everything with this post…

First off, I currently have a SmartThings hub, v2 I believe, bought from best Buy a couple months ago. I am however not married to it as I think I could still return it for store credit to use on other switches, sensors, etc.

As for the wired/wireless sensors… I’m pretty sure that the door sensors are all wired as I see the little magnetic contact disk thingy in the edge of the door and door frame on our 3 entry doors. Similarly, the downstairs windows all see to have the little contact disk in the bottom of the frame also so I’m guessing these are wired too.

As for my current “smart” devices… Right now I only have about a dozen light bulbs and only a couple of routines setup for a few of these. I also have an Echo Dot that I’m doing a tiny bit of voice stuff with at the moment with some of these lights. Again, nothing here I’m heavily invested in so I could totally start over with the ADT route.

Now, I believe that the fire/smoke detectors are wireless and Z-wave connected to the existing 2GIG panel. I would hope that these might be able to be connected to a new ADT panel to save a few bucks on equipment on that side.

One other thing that will impact the alarm side functions… We have a large dog, about 85 lbs Akita, so interior motion sensors for security are going to be out of the question.

Thanks again for any feedback. I’ll be more diligent about checking this thread daily.

Look into this for using your wired sensors with the V2 hub

If you go the ADT route, you own’t be able to use any existing security or smoke/co sensors for the ADT side.

Does this qualify for the home owners insurance discount? I’m honestly not sure if the discount is worth it or not. Guess I need to call my insurance agent to find out how much that discount equals to each month.