Hi
Forgive the long post but looking for some options and clarity on what might work for me:
Currently have a “dumb” basic ADT alarm which we stopped paying for the monitoring for so is now just an interior siren. It also stopped working the other day because the sim in it expired and now they need to send an engineer out to reset it to standalone for which they want to charge me £180 so frankly i am happy to bin this.
This got me thinking that it would be better to have some kind of smart alarm the amount it is going to cost me to get the ADT alarm sorted gets me a long way to some kind of smart system. I already have multiple Echos around the house, plus a few Eufy smart bulbs, a couple of WiFi plugs and a Nest thermostat.
My thinking is to start with i need 2 door sensors and some kind of siren. We have a large (25kg) dog so most motion sensors i have seen wouldnt work but open to suggestions on those… some kind of camera would be beneficial but maybe to add on later, plus we have a baby on the way so more sensors on cupboard doors etc… sound good but not needed yet.
I am not overly worried about having a monitored alarm, especially if i am getting notifications to my phone, either though app push notification or SMS etc… Also internet connection fairly stable so not too worried about sim back up, not being able to use the system with no internet…
So all that said, having done some research i am quite liking the idea of using SmartThings. My main motivation is notifications to my phone, remote access and expandability/ futureproofing.
I have noted the issues around when internet goes down you cannot arm/ disarm the system.
I guess my questions are:
- What is the reliability like? How often is the servier “down for maintenance” etc…
- What happens if you come home, the system is armed and the internet is down? Would the siren still sound? Are there any work arounds if the situation occurs?
- I note they used to do a presence tag to tell the system when you are home, but cant see it for sale much anymore. Does this still work with the V3 hub? Was it any good? Was it any better than using mobile phone location (motivation for asking is that phone location can be a bit spotty in my experience when using for Nest and my Neos camera)
- How do you deal with visitors who have a key but wouldnt have the app and everything set up on their phones?
- Can you use Alexa to disarm the system by giving a password or something?
- What is the arm/ disarm process like? Do you have to go into the app on your phone every time? Is the Geolocation any good? What else can you use to arm/disarm?
Any guidance, recommendations etc… you can give would be greatfully received