Recommended House Alarms

jbondo

Hi all,

I've been looking at house alarms for a while and now we're completing shortly, looking to purchase on shortly but would like to see what others would recommend.

I've been looking at the ERA Smart Alarms which seem quite comprehensive (https://www.safe.co.uk/products/era-homeguard-smart-alarm-pro-superior-kit.html) however I've had a Security Company recommend the Pyronix Homecontrol+ system which I've never heard of.

What would you all recommend?

Browntoa

My argument is , it's all very well getting remote notifications of someone in the house but what can you actually do in the 5-10 minutes a professional burglar is on your property ?

Typhoon2000

Pyronix must be the market leader in professionally installed self monitored alarms now. They are owned by Hikvision so the alarm and CCTV ( if you have theirs) work off the same app. Hence you can set line crossing notification and get an alert before anyone break in, and check the CCTV.

Blot

Alarms are a deterrent ,yes, but only of any reasonable use if there are neighbours who would respond in the event of an alarm going off . For those who live on a secluded site or whose neighbours are either deaf or disinterested tough luck.

Typhoon2000

You can get the relay to trigger something else, loud music, dogs barking, flashing lights, internal high pitched siren, security fog etc..

benson1980

We have the era system. It’s good, easy enough to set up and the app/support is reliable.

poppellerant

I'd just forget the house alarm and install CCTV instead. All the alarm system will do is flash a few lights and make sounds that will bore your neighbours so much they will just ignore it like every other alarm.

At least with CCTV you can see faces and what's going on. And, if needed, you can pass the footage on to the police for further investigation and perhaps even for use as evidence.

Will that house alarm do that?

benson1980

poppellerant wrote: »

I'd just forget the house alarm and install CCTV instead. All the alarm system will do is flash a few lights and make sounds that will bore your neighbours so much they will just ignore it like every other alarm.

At least with CCTV you can see faces and what's going on. And, if needed, you can pass the footage on to the police for further investigation and perhaps even for use as evidence.

Will that house alarm do that?

We have both. The alarm acts as a good visual deterrent and protects points of entry. We then have a motion sensing camera (neos- free with insurance). Obviously can add a camera to the ERA setup. I do agree that I wouldn't want an alarm without being able to see what is going on.

Aylesbury_Duck

Agree with the points above but my view is that if you’re on a typical street or estate and your neighbours generally don’t have alarms, any visible alarm system probably means an opportunist will go elsewhere.

I’ve bought a cheap and cheerful Yale smart alarm. £250 to buy, fitted it myself and it’s been easy to use. No idea how effective it is (which is probably a good thing!). Not been burgled or had an attempted break-in in the two years I’ve had it, but neither did I in the five years in this house before that!

longwalks1

We bought a Visonic Powermax after several colleagues had one fitted by a local alarm fitter. We opted for additional pet friendly PIR’s, outbuilding protection etc and love it, highly recommend this alarm. We can set different zones so either the whole house is armed when we are out, or not arm the upstairs landing PIR at night so if we pop to the bathroom it doesn’t trigger at 2am when we are at home

So have it do that when we are home and it’s not armed, if anyone opens a shed or garage the alarm informs us

We love it

Homersimpson

As above the alarm will be ignored by your neighbours and you won't be able to do much if you are remotely notified its been activated.

That said the main reason for installing any kind of security to your house, car etc. is to make it more likely that a criminal will go and break into next door who don't have an alarm, steal the car next to yours without an alarm/disclok etc.


Its a sad fact but your are just making yourself a less desirable target so they go elsewhere and steal from someone else :eek:


I installed a wireless Yale alarm for my mum (the one with the little control panel rather than just a keypad so you can see where any activations have occured, interogate faults etc.).


Its been great apart from needing to replace the batteries in the devices every couple of years.


My house has a hardwired honeywell system which is really good and works by using a fob to set and unset.