Hello All

I am going to have an alarm istalled in my new house.  What companies do you guys use/recommend?  I amthinking Ackerman(local Company/local monitoring).  

I have really no experience with any alarms at all, is there anything to look out for, scams, etc?

Justin

I use Alarm of America for all of my jobs and personal home.  They are a local company based in doraville.  Long story short:with ackerman, adt, and other big companis the equipment is proprietary and can only be monitored by them ie no shopping around.  they also lockout other open source type panels if they take over a contract.  With alarm of america they install a system (DSC usually) which can be monitored by anyone.  You own the equipment so shop around for monitoriing all you want.  Sometimes with other companies they advertise for free or 99 dollars or something and find out later that covers 1 keypad, 2 doors and a window.  Once you add into it what you need it's cheaper to go with alarm of america and not be married to them for life with half of the monthly monitoring cost.
In my house I have 4 lcd keypads, 7 glass breaks, 3 motions, smoke and heat sensors on every floor of the house including the attic and basement, and all windows/doors are monitored.  I paid about $2000 upfront and the house was prewired.  I pay 17 a month for monitoring and when we accidentally set off the alarm they call within 30 seconds.  And no, I'm not getting kickbacks.  Even the guy on wsb 750 who gives consumer advice and is a known cheapskate uses them ( I can't say his name)

I use ADT, and have for about 4 years now. I get a discount for being a USAA member, so that helps. my alarm is really only good if i am home. if no one is home, i can only hope the noise scares them away, as it will likely take the local sheriff's office about an hour to respond (if they respond at all). of course, if i am working, i'll be the one responding even though it's one county over.

Quoted: I use Alarm of America for all of my jobs and personal home.  They are a local company based in doraville.  Long story short:with ackerman, adt, and other big companis the equipment is proprietary and can only be monitored by them ie no shopping around.  they also lockout other open source type panels if they take over a contract.  With alarm of america they install a system (DSC usually) which can be monitored by anyone.  You own the equipment so shop around for monitoriing all you want.  Sometimes with other companies they advertise for free or 99 dollars or something and find out later that covers 1 keypad, 2 doors and a window.  Once you add into it what you need it's cheaper to go with alarm of america and not be married to them for life with half of the monthly monitoring cost. In my house I have 4 lcd keypads, 7 glass breaks, 3 motions, smoke and heat sensors on every floor of the house including the attic and basement, and all windows/doors are monitored.  I paid about $2000 upfront and the house was prewired.  I pay 17 a month for monitoring and when we accidentally set off the alarm they call within 30 seconds.  And no, I'm not getting kickbacks.  Even the guy on wsb 750 who gives consumer advice and is a known cheapskate uses them ( I can't say his name)

Thanks, I like having all the options that I can.. I had never heard of Alarm of America.

Quoted: I'm in South GA so I don't have access to Metro companies, but I use ADT for home, office and have one at my elderly Grandmother's with a medic alert button.  I've always had good service from them.

I am definitely going to give them a shot at a quote.

Quoted: I use ADT, and have for about 4 years now. I get a discount for being a USAA member, so that helps. my alarm is really only good if i am home. if no one is home, i can only hope the noise scares them away, as it will likely take the local sheriff's office about an hour to respond (if they respond at all). of course, if i am working, i'll be the one responding even though it's one county over.

A discount would be nice, too bad no USAA for me.  I wondr if they give American Culinary Federation discounts?

It seems that ADT is the most popular around my hood, atleast half of the houses that had the alarm signs were ADT and the other half were mixed.

Quoted: I use Ultimate out of Fayetteville. Something you might want to ask about is paying for the alarm up front.  My home did not have an alarm system when I bought it so I had to have one installed.  The price was going to be $25 a month with a 5 year contract.  I was given the choice of buyihg the system up front.  It was $700 installed $10 a month and no contract.  That was what I picked. The first three years were great, now about every 6 months one of the batterys goes bad and you spend all day swapping out batterys trying to find the one out of 30 that is bad.   When you do get it call you Ins company, it should go down.

Replace all of the batteries once a year.  You can find the cr123 at battheries plus for 16.99 a 12 pk. made by streamlight.  Use all of the removed batteries in a scorpion or other tactical flashlight as most are usually ok.  Or just test the batteries with a multimeter  and the most used doors,windows and smokes are most common to replace.

Quoted: I use Ultimate out of Fayetteville. Something you might want to ask about is paying for the alarm up front.  My home did not have an alarm system when I bought it so I had to have one installed.  The price was going to be $25 a month with a 5 year contract.  I was given the choice of buyihg the system up front.  It was $700 installed $10 a month and no contract.  That was what I picked. The first three years were great, now about every 6 months one of the batterys goes bad and you spend all day swapping out batterys trying to find the one out of 30 that is bad.   When you do get it call you Ins company, it should go down.

Thanks, Too bad they do not have a website...  I am going to be too busy to call them this week.

Quoted: One of our local hometown guys does alarms but I can't remember who it is. I'm getting CRS* disease. CRS- Can't Remember Shit.

That would be nice, keep it in the family, so to speak.

Anyone know who GACop is talking about?

from what I understand any monitoring company can monitor just about any security company.  

if you are a do it your self kind of guy, like I am, I would suggest buing your own alarm system and then just having it monitored by what ever company you choose.  I am too paranoid to let them just put any cheap alarm system with 2 door monitors and one motion sensor.

I chose an automation system. www.homeauto.com  it is not only an alarm system but tons more.  it controls the lights, sound system. HVAC, and most important the video camera.  it has a web page you can log into from the internet and control anything.  I installed the Omni system.  I put a sensor on every window and door.  including the 2nd story windows.  much more secure than just 2 doors being monitored and one motion sensor.

Quoted: Quoted: One of our local hometown guys does alarms but I can't remember who it is. I'm getting CRS* disease. CRS- Can't Remember Shit. That would be nice, keep it in the family, so to speak. Anyone know who GACop is talking about?

That would probably be:

ar-wrench

I used to sell home security systems for BellSouth Security from Protection One. The security company is Protection One and they are endorsed by BellSouth now ATT. Pro-1 is a good security company but they require a 3 year contract.

Most security companies are going to have a contract of some kind. Some price the system up front higher and lower monthly fees. Be careful of renewal policies and price increase policies the good companies will have that in writing.

Just remember that the alarm is just a deterent and police response to alarms can be slow.

The phone line is the weakness in any monitored system because they are conviniently located outside on the side of your house and can be cut to avoid the call to the monitoring center. Although the alarm goes off the call will not be made. The only fix to this problem is cellular back-up. ADT says that there system automatically alarms when the phone line is cut but that does not get the police to your house in the middle of the night during a home invasion.

Ademco products are the best on the market. Wireless systems are good minus the changing of the batteries. If you are prewired then you are better off. I would get a Ademco Vista 20 with a additional 8 zone expander so each has less amounts of devices. And get monitored smokes, they work really well. Get as many as you can afford.

Sorry for the long diatribe.

Quoted: from what I understand any monitoring company can monitor just about any security company.   if you are a do it your self kind of guy, like I am, I would suggest buing your own alarm system and then just having it monitored by what ever company you choose.  I am too paranoid to let them just put any cheap alarm system with 2 door monitors and one motion sensor. I chose an automation system. www.homeauto.com  it is not only an alarm system but tons more.  it controls the lights, sound system. HVAC, and most important the video camera.  it has a web page you can log into from the internet and control anything.  I installed the Omni system.  I put a sensor on every window and door.  including the 2nd story windows.  much more secure than just 2 doors being monitored and one motion sensor.

See this is what I'm interested in as I want multiple layers in my security plan. Far zones & near zones.

I want red eyes on my fences & contact alarms on the gates. Sensorsfor the driveway & front walkway. I want floodlights (and cameras) triggered by these sensors. I want audibles tied in as well so if I'm not by a window, I can tell what zone the contact is by the tone of the alarm. I want to know when someone steps onto the property at the edge of my property.

I don't want to know someone is on my doorstep only after they ring my doorbell.

The robotic sentry guns will come later.... ;)

Quoted: from what I understand any monitoring company can monitor just about any security company.   if you are a do it your self kind of guy, like I am, I would suggest buing your own alarm system and then just having it monitored by what ever company you choose.  I am too paranoid to let them just put any cheap alarm system with 2 door monitors and one motion sensor. I chose an automation system. www.homeauto.com  it is not only an alarm system but tons more.  it controls the lights, sound system. HVAC, and most important the video camera.  it has a web page you can log into from the internet and control anything.  I installed the Omni system.  I put a sensor on every window and door.  including the 2nd story windows.  much more secure than just 2 doors being monitored and one motion sensor.

I looked at that site, a little more advanced than I want, installing it myself I mean.  Physically, no problem, technologically, I could do it if it was through the playstation

Really cool though all the things that the omni system can control...

Quoted: Quoted: from what I understand any monitoring company can monitor just about any security company.   if you are a do it your self kind of guy, like I am, I would suggest buing your own alarm system and then just having it monitored by what ever company you choose.  I am too paranoid to let them just put any cheap alarm system with 2 door monitors and one motion sensor. I chose an automation system. www.homeauto.com  it is not only an alarm system but tons more.  it controls the lights, sound system. HVAC, and most important the video camera.  it has a web page you can log into from the internet and control anything.  I installed the Omni system.  I put a sensor on every window and door.  including the 2nd story windows.  much more secure than just 2 doors being monitored and one motion sensor. See this is what I'm interested in as I want multiple layers in my security plan. Far zones & near zones. I want red eyes on my fences & contact alarms on the gates. Sensorsfor the driveway & front walkway. I want floodlights (and cameras) triggered by these sensors. I want audibles tied in as well so if I'm not by a window, I can tell what zone the contact is by the tone of the alarm. I want to know when someone steps onto the property at the edge of my property. I don't want to know someone is on my doorstep only after they ring my doorbell. The robotic sentry guns will come later.... ;)

that would be cool, robotic sentry guns, ala aliens

This alarm system is self alerting and prevents theft 0f valuable objects.  If not properly installed it may damage said objects.  Don't forget to disarm alarm system as there is no phone number to call to turn alarm off.