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On July 15 2022 I gave this report in a thread on alarm systems. “I have Simplisafe. I am not happy. 1. Doorbell keypad does not operate on first key presses. It has to wake up. Keying the digits again might make the smartlock operate. 2. Outdoor camera battery does not stay charged with the solar panel, contrary to their claims. I must have a second battery, charged, on hand so that when the first battery goes out I can do the swap with one ladder excursion. The battery takes about eight hours to charge, by the way. 3. Smoke alarms sound false alarms. 4. Smartlock does not stay connected to the system. Routinely we get warnings that the system cannot communicate with the smartlock. 5. The system does not have good logic. The armed system is disarmed by the smartlock keypad. Maybe. Often the door will unlock, but the system will not disarm. So, you hear the lock open, rotate the knob, open the door, and bam…alarm sounds, and won’t stop until you enter the code on the master keypad. Makes no sense. 6. The cameras drop out, off the WiFi, when you really need them to work. An alarm was triggered, while I was at church. I checked the cameras. All four were dead. All four lost connection to WiFi. Not normal. So, I had no way to determine if the alarm was real. Police had to come. 7. And, the worst thing…if the alarm goes off, and you have to call the monitoring center, good luck. I was on hold for several minutes with the monitoring center trying to tell them that I was at home, the alarm was not valid, and to stop any emergency response. When they finally came on line, the police were pulling up. Recently they put in a “press one to cancel an alarm” feature in their calling center tree. I routinely have to write them to ask for improvements. They just don’t care. Form letter responses.” This morning at 1:23 am a smoke detector triggered an alert. I was at the airport picking up my wife. We affirmed that we wanted FD response. We unlocked the front door. They came, found nothing, and waited for us to arrive. We tried to cancel the audible tones via the app. We tried to cancel the tones speaking to the monitoring center. We gave the FD the code to make the tones stop by speaking into the living room camera. While we were on the way home running Code 3 the same sensor triggered another alarm. 17 minutes apart. We have learned that 1. Simplisafe monitoring service, by phone, cannot shut off the alert tone 2. Simplisafe cameras cannot communicate both ways. Cameras can only speak to people or dogs. We could not hear the fire department but they could hear us. 3. You need a camera in all levels to see what is actually happening. 4. You need a camera in the attic to remotely view if a fire is there. 5. System drops off Wi-Fi routinely so you don't have reliable operation via the app 6. Smart lock drops communication at least weekly, requiring that you keep a real key at hand. 7. The system is randomly making announcements. I will be shopping for another system. And so far, I see nothing any better.This message has been edited. Last edited by: 4MUL8R, ------- Trying to simplify my life... | ||
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Equal Opportunity Mocker |
What I'm reading is that Simplisafe is an excellent Christmas gift idea for that special inlaw you want to make an impression on? ________________________________________________ "You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving." -Dr. Adrian Rogers | |||
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אַרְיֵה |
The excerpts that I quoted from your post are exact descriptions of similar problems that I have with a Ring Video Doorbell 2. The solar battery charge thing is really annoying; central Florida with many hours of intense sunlight every day, the doorbell (mounted on the solar charger) faces due east with absolutely nothing between it and the clear sunny sky. No trees in the way, no porch overhang, just intense sunlight. We get maybe two months between changes. I think that the solar charger option was around fifty bucks, and the spare battery pack was thirty. Ring is now offering some sort of security alarm stuff. Nope! No way! If they can't make the simple doorbell work without all the problems, how in the world would we trust a more complicated security alarm system? הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים | |||
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| Member |
Simplisafe practices very defensive customer service. Today they informed me that false alarms from smoke detectors are my fault. I may have put the device in the wrong place. I did not clean it regularly. I did not change the battery regularly. It is so nice to know I am deficient in even more areas. The number of disappointed Simplisafe customers due to false alarms is noteworthy, if the internet can be believed. So very many threads, on Simplisafe site as well as other typical forums. ------- Trying to simplify my life... | |||
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| Get my pies outta the oven!  |
I may be biased because this is what I do in a commercial setting for a living but you get what you pay for. This DIY stuff will IMO never really replace a real alarm system that reports to a central station. My in-laws put one in several years ago and at this point it's just for show. | |||
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Member |
I used to have SimpliSafe. I had many of the same issues you did. The cameras would just go down for no reason. The app wouldn't connect even though it assured me the systems was still working fine. The "pet safe" motion detectors aren't. My cat set them off all the time until I just got rid of the motion detectors- no manner of repositioning helped. And as you noted, their monitoring center is awful. I had multiple false alarms. Most of the time the police were at my house before I managed to get off of hold with them. The single time I managed to reach them, they told me they couldn't cancel the dispatch. The good news is I learned the police in my area have excellent dispatch times, so if I ever do have an issue they will be there pretty fast. They were also very understanding, although I still felt awful for wasting their time every time they had to come out. All in all, I got rid of them because it was just too much of a headache. I really just wanted something basic that I could look in on my house when I was away, but the constant connection issues made even that impossible. "The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people." "Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy." "I did," said Ford, "it is." "So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?" "It honestly doesn't occur to them. They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates the government they want." "You mean they actually vote for the lizards." "Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course." "But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?" "Because if they didn't vote for a lizard, then the wrong lizard might get in." | |||
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| Run Silent Run Deep  |
I use SimpliSafe for monitoring doors/access only. I have a Lorex system for cameras. Both connected to my watch/phone. _____________________________ Pledge allegiance or pack your bag! The problem with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money. - Margaret Thatcher Spread my work ethic, not my wealth | |||
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| Thank you Very little  |
These wifi based internet connected devices all have issues, I'll get notices that there is motion at my driveway and then can't get the camera to come up to see what's going on, it will almost always time out. The same is for Ring, the delivery guy will have pressed the button and by the time the doorbell goes live the whole thing is over. They are really good for recording things, well kinda good for that, and we have 1GB speed internet over fiber with a wifi 6 router, problem is most of these devices don't work with higher speed wifi, they need the older 2G networks to connect.
How fast is the connect time to the cameras, do you get notifications of motion, when you click to view does it come up quickly or is there a delay most of the time... That's the issue I've had with Blink | |||
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quarter MOA visionary |
Thanks for a good report. | |||
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Member |
I installed a Simplisafe system at my mom's house. After two motion detector false alarms in one year, I cancelled the monitoring service and stopped using the system. It is junk. | |||
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| Member |
Is there anyone you would recommend? I’m not averse to a professionally installed system but my one experience with ADT was a nightmare | |||
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| Run Silent Run Deep |
My Lorex cameras are hard wired back to a DVR on my network. If I walk out onto my back patio, my watch dings before I get off the patio into the yard. After dark, a light also comes on. A small led on the camera. _____________________________ Pledge allegiance or pack your bag! The problem with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money. - Margaret Thatcher Spread my work ethic, not my wealth | |||
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| Savor the limelight |
I now know what not to add to our Simplisafe systems. We have the magnetic switches, motion, water, and temp sensors, key fobs, and sirens. Their cameras are cloud based, so they won’t work for us. The fastest upload speed we have is 12mbps which might be enough for two cameras provided we weren’t doing anything else on the internet. Surprisingly, we haven’t had a single false alarm in three years. The one ADT system had about 4 per year from the motion sensors. Probably either wolf spiders or lizards crawling across them. | |||
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| Knows too little about too much  |
Years ago, I bought a wireless system from someone whose name changed two or three times in the interim. Just a perimeter system with window/door systems and installed it. It has worked fine with very few exceptions. Maybe two false alarms in the past 10-12 years. Battery changes on the sensors, etc. Couple of years ago, ADT acquired the company and changed the system name to "Blue". One false alarm since the change and their monitoring center was on the job right away. The system gives you 30 seconds to investigate the cause of an alarm before they call the cops. I have always caught the alarms before the time expired. Cameras: Blink system separate from the alarm. RMD <EDIT> This morning at 0230, the system sent me a text telling me that the battery in the "Porch Window" sensor was getting low. O.K. Good to know I guess. Later after breakfast, I changed the battery. As soon as I pulled the sensor, I got a "Tamper" Alert. I replaced the battery and immediately got a "No More Low Battery, Porch Window" Text. When I snapped the sensor into position, I got a text saying the tamper alert had been canceled. All this is new, so ADT must have upgraded the system software unknown to me. RMDThis message has been edited. Last edited by: rduckwor, TL Davis: “The Second Amendment is special, not because it protects guns, but because its violation signals a government with the intention to oppress its people…” Remember: After the first one, the rest are free. | |||
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| Member |
I vacuumed all the smoke detectors. I put a new battery in one. Based on experience with FD not being able to speak to me on camera, I upgraded to the latest cameras on the main level. Huge improvement in image quality. I moved one old camera to the garage. Here I can see if anyone approaches anything of value. I put one old camera upstairs so I can see smoke. If the smoke detector senses smoke and the camera does not, I hope to be more informed in making a decision to send the FD. ------- Trying to simplify my life... | |||
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| Stupid Allergy  |
I went through three different systems several years ago, the first being simply safe. The original system and the newer setup. Not happy. The last system installed was Ring and honestly I’ve been happy with it. It’s not *perfect*, well it is compared to the nightmare the OP has had. I have 5 cameras plus the doorbell and alarm. I would like cameras with better resolution. "Attack life, it's going to kill you anyway." Steve McQueen... | |||
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| Member |
I have it and deemed it simplishit...Have the problems all you folk describe. Overall barely adequate against the smash and grab thieves. | |||
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Res ipsa loquitur |
^^^ Ring works great for us. 5 cameras plus a Ring doorbell. One camera and the doorbell are hard wired. 4 cameras on a solar panel. We've gone an entire winter and this summer and never had to replace a battery. Vacation mode works great too. __________________________ | |||
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| Member |
I started off with Brinks 35, msybe 40, years ago. Brinks went out of business and we got switched to ADT. We understood ADT had purchased Brinks. Both companies were great, though. Could turn the alarm on and off, open doors, etc. all thru our phones. One day (about 10 years later) Brinks knocked on the door and said, "We're back, wanna use us again?" We'd loved Brinks more than ADT, so we are back with them. Happy, happy and happy. Bob | |||
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| Member |
I would make sure your system is up to date and I would also make sure you internet is solid connection. I have used SimpliSafe for many years and it has been solid. I have never used the Smartlocks though. Good luck with the next system. | |||
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