Security system arming delay when using STHM?

[JDRoberts]

@georgeh

FWIW, IMO ST is insufficiently robust to meet the requirements for a real security system. Its fine for a “best effort” approach, but just be clear on its limitations before investing too much effort. Many posts on the topic can be found. My personal favorite is the perennial dysfunctionality of the IOS mobile presence detection, which I gave up on as a method to reliably arm/disarm STHM.

This.

Unlike Ring Secure and other security systems, smartthings is not UL listed for security, and can’t be because of several important missing features.

1. it’s very cloud dependent. All notifications require an active Internet connection. The app requires an active Internet connection. And There’s no way to arm/disarm it without an active Internet connection. In contrast, even the quite inexpensive Ring system has a cellular option for notifications and can be armed/disarmed without the Internet. You do lose most of the app functions if the Internet is out, but the core security functions on ring continue to operate.

2. there’s no battery backup except for the now discontinued V2 model. Most security systems switch over to battery use for 24 hours if the power goes out. Even the V2 didn’t meet UL requirements because it didn’t last long enough.

3. the company can and does push out hub firmware updates that can take your system off-line any time without pre-notification. Usually it’s only off-line for a couple of minutes, but it can be more than that, and that’s not what you want in a security system. But with smartthings, there’s no way to defer or deny system updates.

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Smartthings can give you useful convenience notifications and often serves well in addition to a separate dedicated security system. You can create some partial integrations with quite a few other security systems if you want. You can find project reports on various integrations on the following list. Some of them will only work with the old architecture but several of the more popular ones have been updated to the 2023 architecture.

https://community.smartthings.com/tag/project_security

In any case SmartThings certainly shouldn’t be your primary security system, and Samsung knows that. The terms of use that you agreed to when you first set up your smartthings account say the system should not be used for anything which might affect health or safety.

Also, it should be noted that you cannot get a security certificate to use to get a discount on your homeowners insurance If smartthings is all that you have. The discounts aren’t big, and they do vary from insurance company to insurance company, but they can be enough to help pay for professional monitoring if you want that. Ours offsets about half off the monthly cost of the professional monitoring through one of the inexpensive dedicated systems, and every bit helps.

Obviously, what system you use is a personal decision, and smartthings may be all that you need/want, it’s just important to be aware of why it isn’t a UL listed security system when you make your choice.