home security

Am looking into a home security system, live in a rural fairly heavy populated area. Appreciate any feedback as to some of your experiences.
Keep our military families in your prayers.Thanks in advance.

One of my past businesses, when we lived in a city. I still live behind electronics on my mountain. That was after sleazeballs tried to get into my shop on 2 consecutive nights. Sleeping fine now.

What do you want to know? Initial choice is wireless or hard-wired. I favor the latter. If you want interior protection, and don't know what you're doing, buy dual technology detectors. Nobody wants false alarms.

Ebay's a good source for panels/systems.

We use ADT. The wireless system in case the power goes out, or your hardwire phones are down,it still works. Have had no problems and good service. Also have remotes and panic buttons in a couple rooms. Good Luck Big Irish

As Tom has said false alarms are bad. I have neighbor that has false alarms almost weekly, real PITA. I am sure that his alarm is not hooked into the local cop shop.

You may want to think about a gate security along with alarm(s), hidden safes in your house and maybe a camera.

If your neighbor has system false alarms, as opposed to user error (much more common), it's probably due to a misplaced motion detector. Single element detectors can be tripped by a refrigerator or woodstove or furnace vent, anything that puts out a cloud of warm air on occasion. Common problem for inexperienced installers, including locksmiths.

The only solution for user error is to leave the system turned off.

Part of my system is a driveway sensor, one that has no false alarms. Everybody around here knows it's there, somewhere on my long driveway, and that I'm a good shot. No more problems after I put out the word.

Central station monitoring is a whole different question. As are police fines for false alarms.

Best security im my opinion is,

when you build your house build a 10 ft pit just inside the door.

have it with 4 ft of water.

spring loaded trap door over that is hooked to a switch.
switch on when you leave and don't come home so drunk you forget to turn it off before you enter house.
I do beleive every banck should have this and every bussiness that gets robbed on ocasion.No one should know you have it and no one should come out of the pit alive.Yopu want to steal someones stuff you ain't good for anything and we don't need you in this country.
And if no one comes out alive to tell everybody else what you got it stays a security feature,if evey one knows what you have they soon figure how to work around it.

I know that the false alarms that my neighbor has is partially caused by a doorwall that moves a little when the wind blows.

I know of a police dept in my area that gives you a free false alarm visit and then $500 for every false alarm after that........A good incentive to get it fixed.

reputation for being half nuts and random automatic weapons fire seem to keep my homestead safe.

Kinda in line with this thread, need some oppinions. As you that know me we built a new retirement home in a remote area in Tennessee. About 10 miles to the neareast law enforcement.
Here is the deal the house sits 1245 ft from the road on a private concrete drive. Cannot be seen from the highway. Fence and gate at the road and sign says private drive do not enter for fear of being shot. Now two times in the last three weeks have some one come down the drive with only parking lights on only to turn around and leave quickly with their lights on. Once my grand son was up at 1:45 am (playing vidio games) and he saw them but did not turn on any lights. Second time I had installed a cheap drive way alarm and my wife got up and saw them leaving. My question is I don,t dare go out without a gun so what happens if I fire at the vehicle..say as they are leaving..? Kinda a sticky situation. I know if I call the law they will be gone before response. Maybe fire in the air.
Bot times were late at night and just a little scarry Could have been someone lost but more than likely someone up to no good. How would you guys handel it.

An excellent incentive!

Your neighbor might have a solution with an over-sized magnet for that flexing door, assuming there's a contact on it and that the door isn't popping completely open.

Once on a social occasion in a new house I was looking around, and saw a potential problem with a motion detector placement. Mentioned to the owner that if they ever had a problem, it was likely on the wall there. His mouth fell open, "How did you know?" I didn't know they'd been going nuts with false alarms, just was an obvious potential. One missed by the locksmith who had installed the system.

This is why police are so intolerant.

Without the police. Either of your proposed actions could land you in jail here.

We have 2 gates here. One's self-closing from the driveway sensor. Once closed, you have to enter my shop and know what you're doing to get it to open.

Less aggressive is a closed entry gate but then you're probably signing up for operation from the house, a more expensive installation. Will solve your problem, unless your visitors think it's fun to poke the button to wake you up. In that case you also need a timer.

Cartell driveway sensors don't false, will trigger whatever you need. I'm not connected with them other than as a customer, great hardware.
Cartell

People creeping up your driveway at night, you have some specific problems. Sounds like an electronic gate might be your best bet. Do you have somewhere to mount an infrared game camera to watch the drive? Having a photo that shows your "visotors" car would be a help.

Depends on where you live.Here in manitoba my neighbor shot at the back of a pickup with # 7 bird shot 12 gauge.The guy had just helped himself to his fuel tank and when he went out to scare him off the pickup guy desided to run him over.Taking offence to him trying to run him over on his own yard the neighbor fired into the back window right at the driver.Driver had bird shot removed from his neck and neighbor got throwen into jail and fined and all his rifles taken away.WE here have the worst laws in the world and it makes me sick.

I just signed up with ADT. Several of my neighbor's already have ADT service, and they seem happy with it. I am not as worried about me being home, with my dogs and myself being there, it's when I am not home.

my security system is a stand alone unit that does random patrolls and also works to deter vermin he is a 85 Lb. chow mix as a back up Mr's Smith and Wesson are also on retainer and if the local dirtballs know Im a slightly grumpy target shooter,well thats Ok too

Was in the buisness for a long time. With all the big national guys, ADT, Protection One, Brinks, etc. they are more interested in getting you to sign a multi-year contract than installing the best system for you.

They install "free basic packages" with an add-on or two and charge a lot for the add-ons. A good company will come in and custom design a system for your home.

Look for a local company that's been around for a while.

Hardwired is infinately better than wireless.

If you purchase a system outright you pay more up front, but should be able to get monitoring for $20 or less, versus $35 in monthly contract payment.

With the big guys you never own the system, they can, and do, raise your rates, and you have limited options as the contracts renew for like terms, usually 3 years, and your equipment is proprietary to them, only they can monitor it. With smaller local guys, if you buy the system outright and are ever dissatisfied with monitoring, any other company can monitor it.

The company I worked for still monitors for $180/yr., or $15/mo.

A good system will have all doors covered, a keypad at your main entry, and one in the master bdrm. You should have an inside and outside siren. If you're more worried when away than when you're home, motion detectors are ok, but they are the most prone to false alarms. Spiders crawl over the lens, alarm. They make supposedly pet proof ones now, but they aren't perfect and some municipalities now charge very high fees for false alarm dispatches. If you have good solid windows that are not easy to pry open from outside, glass break detectors are good. Contacts on widows are good too, as they let you know if you've left a window open, or if someone pries it open. Most companies don't like doing all the windows as it is labor intensive. And again, the big guys want in and out as quickly as possible. That's why they use wireless equipment. Screw it in the wall, put a battery in, and you're done. Fast, but not good.

What most people don't understand about monitoring is that your alarm simply dials the central station to send a signal, just like you calling someone. If the phone line is down, no signal can be sent. Phone lines are very easily disabled. It's exposed so can be cut, or more easily unpluged at the service box. There are celluar back-up systems if you're serious about your security. They are a couple hundred $$ add-on and usually another $15/mo for airtime, even if not used.

Generally a decent system will be close to $2,000, depending on size of house. Can be much more if doing all the windows, adding smoke detectors, etc. Smoke detectors are a must if you're getting a system. It usually doubles the discount you get on your homeowners premiums, (paying for themselves over time), and nothing beats a smoke detector that calls the fire department if you're not home.

Let me know if you have more Q's.

Brian

The best and most of the time the cheapest is a very old and very simple one. Having a dog be it big or small in your home will for the most part keep the bad guy out. Ya not 100% of the time but if a person does really want to do you bad no any thing you can do will stop them. Time and time again is has been proven that a dog will scare most bad guys away.

Nothing can stop someone from getting in. But I've seen dogs poisoned and that's not pleasant. A security system will notify police, sound a loud siren that usually gets bad guys running, and make sure that you don't walk in on a burglary in progress, very dangerous.

I always told people that were very serious about their security that an alarm, a dog, and a gun is an almost unbeatable combination. Dogs often alert you before someone gets in, before an alarm system will. An alarm system notifies police if you are unable to. A larger dog will slow them down if it's trained to, territorial, or a little aggressive. And a gun as the last resort.

There are sensors made for driveways that can sound a tone or siren when a vehicle approaches. One is a buried magnetic sensor hardwires to a panel in the building. And there are numerous motion sensing devices sold by professionals or cheaper ones at Lowes, etc.

Another good idea is a motion sensing light at the end of the drive, along it, and/or close to the building. Nice to be able to see what's going on, as you mentioned not being able to.

I've got a pretty solid system on our old family farm house. We had a bit of a learning curve in getting it tuned just right, but we haven't had any problems since. The farm is really isolated, and it's nice to know that the place is being monitored for fire and burglary when I'm not able to be there. If I set it off (burning my breakfast on the stove or something), I receive a phone call from the folks at George alarm within about 15 seconds.

I have no real complaints, certainly gives me peace of mind when I'm not around.

With that being said, a burglar can run through an empty home pretty quick, and a burglar alarm is simply another deterrent. Solid exterior doors, good dead bolts, floodlights, and a shotgun aren't a bad idea.

A woman was killed in the driveway of her rural home several miles north of the farm this summer. The guy who killed her was known to be a "partner in crime" with another man who lived across the section from me, and there was speculation that they may have been knocking off farmhouses together. The guy was loose in the area for a couple weeks before the law caught up to him. It made the end of the summer a bit tense.

It's best to be prepared.

ADT, huh? I can beat your system in 3 seconds. And so can any semi-professional burglar.

ADT's the worst. Kind of like the McDonald's of home security. They sell a lot of them, (actually they don't sell you anyting except for installation fees, they still own your system), but they aren't very good. The worst thing about them is what they don't tell you. Don't tell you how their contracts really work, don't tell you about vulnerablilities in any system, and make people think they can have a good system for a few hundred dollars.

Zeus handles our security. On his back legs he is 6 feet tall and weighs 125 lbs. He is a great companion and the grandkids and neighbor kids love him. He is not at all aggressive toward anyone but his bark shakes the house. That's all it takes.

Wrong. If your phone line goes down your wireless system will not call the police. The "wireless' in your system is the communications between the individual sensors and the control panel, not central station.

ADT is great at misleading their customers. Those wireless batteries are expensive to replace too. Big bulky sensors because the have a battery in them, instead of invisible or much smaller sensors that are hardwires.

Wireless is fast and easy for them to install, and they make money on service calls for low batteries. Hardwired is still infinately more reliable, and more esthetically pleasing.

So you think every business should have one, but no one will get wise to it?

And people should have 10 foot pits in their houses? With 4 feet of water in them?

OK. I can't see any potential problems there whatsoever.

You are most certainly the smartest guy I know.

Where I live the "POLICE" or Sherif responce time Is 30 min to three days. An alarm system hooked to the phone would be usless. Would be nice to have one to lit you know if some one was around. Then break out the M1 carbine.

Dan went over on the back of the place and got the camera this afternoon. Think that will be some start. At least if someone comes in and knocks us off might be some evidence.

Once ya use this on 1 "non rural" type individual...the word gets around...they go else where! ...or hopefully stay urban!

I prefer my 8 dogs ranging in size from a Newfoundland down to a Poodle, assorted firearms and a decided lack of paranoia. I haven't locked the doors in my house but once a year when we leave for four days in over twenty years. I have no neighbors within eyesight either. Nearest house is a quarter mile away behind two tree lines. But then again I live in rural Iowa, one of the safest places in the US as far as I'm concerned.

My mother-in-law lives in Cleveland OH. She moved into a retirement home from a very well kept home in the inner city that's in a major urban decay area. She can't sell the house due to the neighborhood being as bad as it is. She installed ADT when she moved out over two years ago. ADT has charged her rent ever since. When she moved out she had the phone turned off. Imagine that! ADT doesn't even do line checks to ensure their service is working! The reason it came to lite was two weeks ago the house was broke into and the copper stolen. Lucky the water and gas had been turned off also. The house behind hers exploded last year when the copper was stolen but the gas hadn't been shut off yet. ADT refunded all her money and paid for the house repairs. Still she can't even give that house away ...HUD won't even take it the area is so bad.

Wrong! My system is wireless, it calls by cellular. And there's no problem with batteries, I change them myself. Don't know where you got your info but your incorrect. Sorry Big

"Wireless", in the security industry refers to how sensors communicate with the control panel. Cellular back-up refers to how the system communicates with central station.

Now if you were in England, where they refer to radio as wireless, I would agree with you.