Samsung SmartThings ADT Wireless Home Security Starter Kit - Worth it?

So, I am currently paying $50 per month for professional alarm monitoring including a smoke alarm.

I have it integrated into SmartThings so I can Arm and Disarm based on my location, routines, and using Alexa and google home. But I don’t think I need professional monitoring because we have cameras and there is almost someone home all the time.

I have looked at the Samsung SmartThings ADT Wireless Home Security Starter Kit in the past because I wanted an alarm system that works seamlessly with SmartThings. It was too expensive back then but now since it looks like this is being discontinued (only $99 now!) I wondered if it’s worth it to save $600 per year in my case and have better integration.

Currently, I have a V2 hub that has all of my devices. I don’t want to have to do everything all over again and I prefer to have my hub hard wired. But I do have some specific questions before I buy:

  1. Can I continue to use my current hub and just add the alarm system into my current hub or must it use the hub built into the unit?
  2. If I cannot use my existing hub with the alarm system can I easily move everything to the alarms hub?
  3. Is everything compatible with a V2 hub compatible with the ADT Hub?
  4. Since the ADT Hub only connects via wifi (similar to V3 hub) is there any lagging compared to a wired connection?
  5. Can I use whatever sensors etc that connect to SmartThings if I am self-monitoring with the ADT Alarm System?

If anyone has one and can answer those questions that would be great!

Most of the questions you were asking about functionality are covered in the following community FAQs. (The topic title is a clickable link)

Before you start though, I will say that the ADT model hub has to be a replacement for your existing hub. You don’t use them both together. The ADT dual logo sensors use a completely different proprietary frequency, neither zwave nor Zigbee, so you have to have that model hub in order to be able to communicate with those devices. And those are the only devices that can trigger notification to the monitoring center.

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And the following community thread is the long discussion thread by people who have actually purchased the system. So they can answer more questions there. :sunglasses:

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As far as “easily move” devices from one hub to another, nothing has changed in that regard. Smartthings does not provide a migration tool. They’ve often said they want to, but they’ve never done it. :disappointed_relieved: So you have to individually exclude each device from the old hub and then individually add it to the new hub. And rebuild all of your automations. It’s very annoying, but there are certainly people have done it, and again you can ask in the discussion thread to see what kind of experience people had.

I think that I will just add sensors to my current SmartThings set-up and use the already built-in functionality in the App using the Home Solutions Smart Home Monitor. Then I can save $600 per year for the professional monitoring and the $100 for the SmartThings ADT system. We never touch our alarm system now so there is no real point to have that type of alarm system anymore. Just need to buy some window and door sensors, smoke alarm, carbon monoxide, and maybe some leak sensors and be sure that someone has there phone on them to react to any alerts since it will be self-monitored.

Let’s see if I can answer your questions

I do not believe that you can use your current hub and just add the alarm system to it. However you can add the new hub to your account as another location.

Anything that is not specific to alarm such as contact sensors motion sensors etc will easily carry over so your outlets plugs switches and other various sensors would absolutely carry over easily.

As far as you are alarm functions you will need to use the smart things ADT dual branded sensors in order to trigger functions from within the panel. So anything that will trigger an alarm has to be dual branded. If you have existing smart things sensors you can still use them just not for alarm function. For example I have 2nd generation Iris sensors that I use to log when people access certain rooms and cabinets around the house so for example the garage workshop which my cat like sneaking into if I can’t find the cat I can look at my events and say OG there is motion in the garage when there shouldn’t be it’s not going to trigger an alarm but they will let me know that the cat is most likely hiding under my table saw.

I cannot attest to connection speed from wired smart things to the wireless connection to the new hub however comparing these 2nd generation Iris hub to the ADT smart things hub I see no performance degradation whatsoever as a matter of fact the ADT hub is considerably faster but then again I also have a fast network. So if you’re running wireless G you may actually be much slower than I am

I believe I have already answered your last question but let me reiterate the ADT alarm function must be triggered by ADT branded smart thing sensor’s.

I’m not certain that this line is being discontinued he did look like there are some extremely deep discounting going on however it does look like there is something happening but inventory levels of ADT smart things products are coming backup and prices are on the rise again. If I had to guess I would say they are looking to boost sales and engagement with their platform while the Iris by Lowe’s platform was being shut down. The rebate money they sent me from Iris easily covered the ADT system at the discounted prices but would not have covered a non ADT smart things system

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There is a key factor here that I want to address that just occurred to me…

If you already have a SmartThings v2 hub, and are comfortable with self monitoring, why not just add the sensors to the v2 hub, and configure Smart Home Monitor for your self monitoring?

I am no expert here about the differences between the v2 and v3 hubs and their device compatibility, but it would seem logical to me that the current SmartThings Multi Purpose Sensors and a few motion sensors would get you where you want to go.

Now I know there are disadvantages to the regular SmartThings hub vs the ADT hub, most notably the local processing of events, If that’s your concern about local vs. cloud, then I can certainly see where you would want to go with the ADT setup. However to get alert / alarm events on the ADT hub you MUST use the ADT SmartThings dual branded sensors. There is also the entry / exit delays, and the presence of a keypad for arming / disarming and a battery backup (at least compared to the v3 hub) that are huge advantages of the ADT hub…

As far as can you move everything over to the new ADT hub easily should you go that way. I would think that it would be a matter of disjoining it from your v2 hub and joining it to the ADT hub. Anything with a custom DTH needs to be reconfigured the same way you initially configured it etc…

It would be nice if Samsung / SmartThings made a migration tool for migrating between the SmartThings hubs, so you could easily move from say your v2, to a v3, or ADT ST hub, or whatever comes next… The SmartThings ecosystem is pretty broad and inclusive, which means that ST has a LOT of development work on its plate, so I wouldn’t hold my breath for that unless Samsung / ST saw a migration tool as a way to sell additional SmartThings hardware, or reduce support calls thus reducing operating cost. There has to be a financial breakover point for it to be justifiable from a business perspective…

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Samsung has been publicly promising a SmartThings hub migration tool since 2015. It has never been delivered. ( just search the forum for “migration.“) So I wouldn’t hold my breath. :nauseated_face:

Yeah, vaporware for typical business reasons. It just doesn’t make business sense.

That’s what I plan to do because I don’t want to redo my entire SmartThings and I do not want professional monitoring.

SmartThings is actually set-up very well to do this and I won’t be limited in the devices that I can use. Plus all of the security devices can also be used to further automations. Also since I can use any device I will be able to do it for very cheap and expand anytime.

Well then, step boldly forth and start shopping for those multi purpose sensors for your doors and windows! You’ve got a great platform to work with, and yeah, I went ST, although I started with ADT ST, for the same reason, ability to automate actions based off of alarm status. I.E. turn on sirens, turn on lights, send alerts etc…

I understand Scout is going away for the non ADT ST, so paid monitoring may be a problem, but I am sure there will be other options opening up. It’s a good market for a company to be in…

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Thank you for all of your insite and information!

No problem, good luck with your project! Keep us posted on how it goes!

The smartthings models other than the ADT are OK for convenience self monitoring but can’t be considered a security system. They just lack basic features When compared to purpose built security systems like ring alert, simplisafe, Abode, etc.

Much discussion of this in the forums already, but it comes down to some very basic features which are just missing because of the cloud dependency. Again, see the comparison FAQ:

For example, if either the Internet or the SmartThings cloud is unavailable there is no way, none, to get any of the notifications that a self monitoring system would depend on. Because in SmartThings all notifications come from your cloud account.

There is also no way to arm/disarm The system locally. Again, none. Multiple postings in the forum about people who came home, the Internet was out, and the only way to get their individual sirens to turn off was to go around and take each one off power individually. :scream:

The classic app doesn’t offer a locally operating entry delay. The new app does, but doesn’t offer arm/disarm based on Geopresence.

I personally really like smartthings for convenience notifications, like getting a notification if the guestroom window is left open, rain is expected, and the guest is away from the house.

But for security, the only model I think can be a legitimate security candidate is the ADT model hub.

Plenty of people use SmartThings for convenience self monitoring, and there’s no problem with that as long as you understand that what you are getting does not meet the minimum definition of a security system for most people or for the UL standards. :sunglasses: