best home security system?

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dgosborn

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stolip
What do you guys like. Most of what I have seen is watered down toy stuff.
 
None, big waste of money.

The average home burglary lasts something like 5 to 10 minutes while the average police response time is 30 to 45 minutes.

And, in many cities, the amount of false alarms have required police departments to put on add'l staff and/or provide less services on far more important tasks...like fighting real crime...instead of chasing false alarms.

Or, worse, at my house, the nearest neighbor is over 1/2 mile away. The average police response time is two weeks. A home security system would do me a lot of good! :wink2:
 
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I have ADT with the cell-link transmitter. Got one live alarm. Sheriffs deputy responded quick enough to catch the burglar. Damage was minimal and he is still paying restitution. In another case it allowed me to take care of a case of employee dishonesty. The break on equipment insurance pays most of the premium. Has been a worthwhile expense so far.

If you build a house, put in wired sensors. More reliable and saves you changing a lot of batteries. For monitoring, there are cheaper companies than ADT, you tend to be on your own for your equipment. Local companies will typically use the same monitoring you can get for $9.95 from alarm.com with their own equipment maintenance and installation services and re-sell it for just a little bit less than ADT (fewer stupid TV ads sto pay for).
 
John221us said:
Actually this, plus motion lights around the perimeter probably make the most difference. The motion lights will spook a lot of would be burglars.
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And a home security sticker on each door. Don't have to have a system to buy a sticker...they're available pretty much everywhere.

And a pump shotgun for when you're home.
 
Large, black dog works very well.
 
We have cameras recording all outside doors & windows, and anyone driving in, wiith the recording device inside a 1,000 pound safe. :D. We also have glass breakage alarms, temp alarms, and I can watch the cameras from anywhere their is phone service.

Also have a 12 gage as a back up, and a .45 as a final solution. ;)
 
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Doesn't even need to be a large, black dog. Ours is the nicest, friendliest Golden Doodle you'd ever hope to meet, adores kids, looks like an oversized Muppet. But when someone is outside the house, you'd swear there's a Rottweiler in the place trying to get out so he can kill, dismember and eat someone. We don't need an alarm - hell, we don't even need a doorbell.
 
Alexb2000 said:
Agreed. I have two. I'm surprised that you don't also given your love of redundancy.:)
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We did. Duke, my first dog and the dog who got me in animal rescue (as well as was the inspiration for Cloud Nine) died on August 26th. When I adopted him at 1 year old, he'd spent 6 months in the shelter. I'd never had a dog before. He was 8, and had a huge growth on his spleen that had ruptured and was causing massive internal hemorrhaging. The 100+ lb puppy.

Duke and Duchess were a great pair. Duke was all bark, and Duchess is the bite that backed him up.

I miss my puppy. :(

doglovesyou.jpeg
 
Ted DuPuis said:
We did. Duke, my first dog and the dog who got me in animal rescue (as well as was the inspiration for Cloud Nine) died on August 26th. When I adopted him at 1 year old, he'd spent 6 months in the shelter. I'd never had a dog before. He was 8, and had a huge growth on his spleen that had ruptured and was causing massive internal hemorrhaging. The 100+ lb puppy.

Duke and Duchess were a great pair. Duke was all bark, and Duchess is the bite that backed him up.

I miss my puppy. :(

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Great looking pup, it's so damn hard to lose them. Seems they're never with us long enough.
 
Mine is hooked to Alarm.com which gives me iMMEDIATE notification even before the thing has timed out enough to call the cops. It also uses a cellular link to notify the central station.
 
My favorite ADT story:

We bought a house in Springfield, MO about 10 years ago that had an ADT system in it (the seller was the prosecuting atty for the county).

Shortly after we bought the house, I got a call from ADT trying to sell us on their monitoring services. I listened to their sales pitch, asked questions, and after I had all the pertinent information, I told them "no thanks, if I monitor, I'll go with Atlas Security". I had already spoken with Atlas, a long time local company with a great reputation, and their price to monitor was about 15% that of ADT's after a $100 fee to to change the guts of the main panel because ADT's is proprietary.

The ADT guys bluntly stated "if you don't use our services we will come to your house and remove the system because it's a leased system."

"Oh really?" said I "do you know the real estate laws in Missouri? i.e. that anything attached to real estate becomes part of the real estate when it's sold? If that was a leased system then I guess you need to get in touch with the seller because you apparently have a legitimate beef with him. But now I own this system, it's no longer yours. Show up at my door and I will have you arrested".

They did.

And I did. (well, except the cops wouldn't arrest them, they said it's a civil matter...really?...they're trying to steal my property)

I won't do business with any of Tyco's subsidiaries either personally or professionally. They screwed up a lot of good companies including Simplex/Grinnell, Ansul & Chemguard.

They've been listed on various top ten lists of companies "fleecing America" over the years, especially their ADT division.
 
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I agree with Tim, these alarm companies are a ripoff. One of my commercial building neighbors had the whole ADT system, cameras, alarms, etc. He was assured that in the event of a robbery he would have evidence, quick response, etc. Some thieves came on his lot, broke into storage containers and stole about $100K in tools. It took them over an hour to do this. The police drove by with a spotlight on in response to the alarm while the thieves were there, but didn't come in or even get out of the car. So at least he had them and their license plate on high res night vision cameras, right? Well after a long bunch of talking with the police they did, NOTHING! Bottom line is they don't care about burglary, that's what insurance is for.

IMO for home, get yourself a gun and a dog.
 
Geico266 said:
We have cameras recording all outside doors & windows, and anyone driving in, wiith the recording device inside a 1,000 pound safe. :D. We also have glass breakage alarms, temp alarms, and I can watch the cameras from anywhere their is phone service.

Also have a 12 gage as a back up, and a .45 as a final solution. ;)
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Wow. And I thought Detroit had a crime problem. I'll stay away from Nebraska.
 
Geico266 said:
We have cameras recording all outside doors & windows, and anyone driving in, wiith the recording device inside a 1,000 pound safe. :D. We also have glass breakage alarms, temp alarms, and I can watch the cameras from anywhere their is phone service.

Also have a 12 gage as a back up, and a .45 as a final solution. ;)
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Wow, I'd hate to live where you live and need all that.
 
Alexb2000 said:
The police drove by with a spotlight on in response to the alarm while the thieves were there, but didn't come in or even get out of the car. So at least he had them and their license plate on high res night vision cameras, right? Well after a long bunch of talking with the police they did, NOTHING! Bottom line is they don't care about burglary, that's what insurance is for.
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So in other words, your building neighbor has a problem with a poorly run local police department/prosecutors office, not the alarm company right ?
 
weilke said:
So in other words, your building neighbor has a problem with a poorly run local police department/prosecutors office, not the alarm company right ?
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What good is an alarm if the police are scared, or don't respond appropriately? I believe the police departments not placing much priority on an alarm is more prevalent than those departments that do. The thieves wore hoodies (big surprise). The prosecutor said the camera images would have to be clear daylight close ups of the thieves faces before they would be any good as proof of ID. Point is ADT sells you something they know won't work the reasons don't really matter. It's like me selling a Mogas STC to you, promising to save you tons of money. However, I know that no airport in a thousand miles of you has Mogas. Is that the airports fault or mine for selling you a false promise?
 
Matthew said:
My brother had a Rot and a Dobie.

The Doberman was the guard dog. I don't think it barked, either. Anyone messing with that house would lose a limb without warning, and the Rotweiller would finish the job.
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Had a doberman when we were growing up. She was the 7th kid. Would wrestle and play with everybody. But if she thought some one was hurting another, the aggressor would find doberman teeth wrapped around their ankle, not breaking the skin, just holding them....if they tried to move she'd just add a little more pressure until they quieted down.

The rottie in the picture 'Madeline' aka Maddog. had a protective bark that would literally rattle your sternum.
 
I have stickers and a few assorted weapons. San Diego charges anyone with an alarm system an annual fee to cover any police response that might be needed. Actually, San Diego charges a fee for all government services except for trash pick up. Free trash pick up was put in the original city charter that our city leaders have been trying to find a way around ever since.

They are paid with our taxes, they operate out of buildings that our taxes paid/pay for, including all utilities, we pay for every single piece of equipment that they use, but yet they charge us additionally for any "services" they provide.

Assohles.

-John
 
Howard Wilson said:
Had a doberman when we were growing up. She was the 7th kid. Would wrestle and play with everybody. But if she thought some one was hurting another, the aggressor would find doberman teeth wrapped around their ankle, not breaking the skin, just holding them....if they tried to move she'd just add a little more pressure until they quieted down.

The rottie in the picture 'Madeline' aka Maddog. had a protective bark that would literally rattle your sternum.
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They had a miniature pinscher at the time, too. They'd put my nephew on the couch in his little carrier right after he was born and tell the dobie to "watch the baby". He'd stand guard right next to the couch. If the min-pin got too close, the doberman would pick it up in his mouth, carry it across the room, set it down, then go back to the couch. You did not mess with that dog when he was on duty.
 
DaleB said:
Doesn't even need to be a large, black dog. Ours is the nicest, friendliest Golden Doodle you'd ever hope to meet, adores kids, looks like an oversized Muppet. But when someone is outside the house, you'd swear there's a Rottweiler in the place trying to get out so he can kill, dismember and eat someone. We don't need an alarm - hell, we don't even need a doorbell.
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This. I also have a Golden Doodle muppet. He understands the social contract and does a great job of patrolling the house.
 
Alexb2000 said:
Point is ADT sells you something they know won't work the reasons don't really matter. It's like me selling a Mogas STC to you, promising to save you tons of money. However, I know that no airport in a thousand miles of you has Mogas. Is that the airports fault or mine for selling you a false promise?
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It is the buyers fault for not having an understanding of what he is buying. As I said, I had two incidents where an alarm system allowed the recovery of what was stolen, one of the perpetrators spent 18 months in the clink.

Whether it is worth it, depends of course where you live/work. One of our locations is in a county of 105k, both the sheriff and the prosecutor are elected. If they didn't pay attention to property crime, they would soon see the support from the local business community dry up. One other county where we do business has about a population of 900k, policing is done by a marginally functioning police department headed by corrupt political appointees. In that location, a better investment than an alarm system are steel doors and a good vented safe to hold the computer equipment.

In my home(s), I would have the alarm system even if it was not hooked to a monitoring center. What good is the response that I can mount if it is delayed until someone walks into my bedroom ? With alarm and cameras, I get a head-start.
 
Howard Wilson said:
Had a doberman when we were growing up. She was the 7th kid. Would wrestle and play with everybody. But if she thought some one was hurting another, the aggressor would find doberman teeth wrapped around their ankle, not breaking the skin, just holding them....if they tried to move she'd just add a little more pressure until they quieted down.
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Friends of ours had a couple of Rotties. We were well-known to them, and they were all friendly when my wife and I came over.

Once, I was play-chasing one of the couple's kids. The kid was screeching with excitement. One of the Rotties ran up next to me and just shoved me away. Knew me but didn't like what was happening, reacted with the minimum level of force to solve the problem. Smart dog.

Neighbor was beating on his wife one night, and she escaped to my friends' house. The dogs were NOT happy, but let her go past the fence to the house without hindrance. But they didn't let the man in.

Ron Wanttaja
 
timwinters said:
And a pump shotgun for when you're home.
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Many gun writers have pointed out that a semi-auto shotgun is better than a pump.

If you get into a firefight with an armed intruder and you are struck in the arm, your pump shotgun is now useless becase it takes two good hands to operate. A semi-auto only takes one. :wink2:
 
Ted DuPuis said:
We did. Duke, my first dog and the dog who got me in animal rescue (as well as was the inspiration for Cloud Nine) died on August 26th. When I adopted him at 1 year old, he'd spent 6 months in the shelter. I'd never had a dog before. He was 8, and had a huge growth on his spleen that had ruptured and was causing massive internal hemorrhaging. The 100+ lb puppy.

Duke and Duchess were a great pair. Duke was all bark, and Duchess is the bite that backed him up.

I miss my puppy. :(

View attachment 32111
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I'm so sorry to hear about Duke. It sounds like he had hemangiosarcoma, cancer that affects the spleen, liver, and heart. My German Shepherd Boris died of hemangiosarcoma five years ago. He was the best dog.
 
One house we lived in had ADT, and we tried it for one whole week before canceling. It was useless. The motion detectors were useless because had dogs, and I said this to the ADT guy, and he said we should isolate the dogs in the garage. It was 95 degrees outside and the garage wasn't air-conditioned, and I said no way am I putting my animals in a dark hot airless garage.

I've had between one and three German Shepherds, and they are very good at keeping weirdos away.
 
Capt.Crash'n'Burn said:
Many gun writers have pointed out that a semi-auto shotgun is better than a pump.
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Well, except that you don't get to "pump" a semi-automatic from the other room. 90% of intruders will get the hell out of Dodge when they hear a shotgun pump.

It's fairly loud and it's very distinctive.

At least mine is.

As an aside, if you have kids, shotguns are far safer than handguns. The shot won't go through walls with enough force to seriously injure someone on the other side. Plus you don't have to aim.

My 20 ga is cut off to 18.00000000001"
 
timwinters said:
Well, except that you don't get to "pump" a semi-automatic from the other room. 90% of intruders will get the hell out of Dodge when they hear a shotgun pump.
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Or they'll turn around and shoot you now that your concealment is blown.

If you want to scare people, wear a scary mask (or record the sound and play it through a stereo).

And, if you have kids, shotguns are far safer than handguns. The shot won't go through walls with enough force to seriously injure someone on the other side. Plus you don't have to aim.
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You are reproducing two of the most common myths about shotguns out there.

You may want to go to a private range with two sheets of drywall and test that concept from different distances (if you shoot an ammunition that won't go through drywall, it won't do much good on an intruder, if you shoot something that works on anything bigger than a squirrel, it'll go right through the wall, particularly at short range). Oh and the 'you dont have to aim' thing. Shooting a duck at 50 yards with a pattern is different from shooting at a human silouette at 3-5 yards. No difference in your need to aim between a handgun, evil black rifle or shotgun.
 
timwinters said:
Well, except that you don't get to "pump" a semi-automatic from the other room. 90% of intruders will get the hell out of Dodge when they hear a shotgun pump.

It's fairly loud and it's very distinctive.

At least mine is.

As an aside, if you have kids, shotguns are far safer than handguns. The shot won't go through walls with enough force to seriously injure someone on the other side. Plus you don't have to aim.

My 20 ga is cut off to 18.00000000001"
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Yeah, but if they get the hell out of Dodge, they get to intrude on someone else's domain. If they don't hear the "chk-chk" sound, well, you know... ;)

Of course I have all of the above, and the .40 with 15+1 along with a second magazine that sits right next to my head. The shotgun is in the closet and that door it right next to the bedroom door (for now). So it's easier for me to grab the M&P. They also make frangible bullets that basically come apart as soon as they hit anything, so no worries about it going through multiple walls. Of course, in my house, I also have interior block walls, so not really a concern.
 
To go back to the OP's original question: Find a local security company that's been around the block. Not ADT, not SimplySecure, not any of the big companies, someone who's done it a long time and isn't sitting in a call center in India.

They have knowledge they'll happily share with you about what works and what doesn't, and access to better quality gear. They'll also ask you the right questions like, "What are you trying to secure? People? Stuff? What's the value of the stuff? Is it insured? Is any of it "irreplaceable" to you? Etc." They'll also discuss the real-world limitations and benefits of anything you choose, including how to mitigate specific issues with other things, behaviors, whatever.

Like a lot of things, DIY might not be the best way to go. Hire a pro.
 
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