Guessing that a lot of these purchases are event driven and mine certainly is. We have a cabin and a barn on a 6 acre piece of property. The barn is where we park the tractor and store the supporting tools and supplies. The barn was recently broken into and everything of value was taken. While that is deeply disheartening, it really only affects me. If the cabin were to be robbed and ransacked like the barn was, I have several young children that would likely never want to go/stay there again.
I do consider myself handy when it comes to mechanical and electronic projects. I also believe that I am a good researcher and analyst. I found that there are a lot of great alarm systems available at very affordable prices today including DIY professional systems. Several of the professional systems now have videos on installation and configuration—configuration used to be the tough part of installing one of those.
In my case, I was looking for a balance of price, ease installation and options for monitoring. Given the recent break-in, I also wanted to get this project started and completed quickly as the cabin is just as vulnerable as the barn.
This next statement may make you question my research, or at least, reading abilities. While I did plan to have the system monitored, I didn’t realize until after I purchased my SimpliSafe system that you can’t monitor the system remotely at all with the app without one of the SimpliSafe plans, and, at the time of this writing, March, 2021, you have to have the $25/mo. plan to do any serious monitoring. I would have putt off having the system monitored for a while if that were not the case. Perhaps it is better that I was forced into a plan earlier than I wanted. As an aside, SimpliSafe gives you 3 days of ‘practice’ use after you activate your system. This means they won’t contact local law enforcement if the system detects and alarm. On the one hand I wanted my system monitoring to start immediately but, do understand the logic of giving me time to learn to use the system without causing false alarms.
The installation was truly easy. Once you plug in the basestation and pull the battery tab on the keypad, you are off to a great start. Installing any of the sensors is as easy as removing a paper battery tab, using the keypad to tell the basestation that you are installing a new device and naming it from a list once the basestation announces that a new device has been detected. The preinstalled double sided tape makes mounting the sensors easy. Our cabin has numerous unfinished roughhewn wood surfaces and I decided to mount sensors that had to be on those surfaces with the included screws. I didn’t try the included self-adhesive on the roughhewn wood which, may have worked perfectly.
SimpliSafe tells you how far away you can mount sensors like the glass break and motion sensors but it was less clear about how high to mount them given the space I was working in or, for the glass break in particular, the angular range that it could work with. For example, if you have windows on opposite sides of a room with no option to mount the sensor in the middle, can it detect glass breaking behind it or beside it?
SimpliSafe sensors are relatively inexpensive, and, as such, perhaps an extra sensor or two isn’t a bad thing.
The App is easy to set up and use and definitely slanted to the easy side rather than the comprehensive side. That said, if a sensor were to drop off the app will alert you to that. I am not looking forward to changing batteries but would rather that to running wires through an older structure.
SimpliSafe has done a great job making system purchase, installation and operation easy and straightforward. They even sent me an e-mail letting me know that the county where my cabin is located requires a form and payment to be completed and sent to authorize monitoring and, more specifically, response. Not only did they tell me about it, they sent me the exact link to the form. They also let me know that no paperwork or fee was required for the fire monitor.
The cabin can be a relatively harsh environment with high humidity in the summer and relatively cold nights. I am hoping the sensors, base station and keypad are rugged enough to function for years to come.
If you are looking at one of these systems, read all you can to understand what you can and can’t do with and without SimpliSafe’s monitoring options. Watch or read about sensor placement and plan your own install. I don’t think you have to become an alarm expert but each install has its own challenges. I found plenty of good information available from a lot of sources on the Internet to address those challenges. I have not interacted with SimpliSafe’s customer service at this point and can’t comment on that aspect of the product.
Overall, I believe I made a good decision for my family and have only positive things to say about the installation and operation of my SimpliSafe system.
| Manufacturer | Simplisafe |
|---|---|
| Part Number | 815017029711 |
| Item Weight | 6.41 pounds |
| Product Dimensions | 12.13 x 12.38 x 4.4 inches |
| Country of Origin | China |
| Item model number | SS3-AMZ-3 |
| Batteries | 2 AAA batteries required. (included) |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Size | 9 Piece Bundle |
| Color | White |
| Style | 9 Piece Kit |
| Power Source | Battery-Powered |
| Item Package Quantity | 1 |
| Number Of Pieces | 9 |
| Included Components | Base station, keypad, 4 entry sensors, 2 motion sensors, 1 SimpliCam security camera |
| Batteries Included? | Yes |
| Batteries Required? | Yes |
| Battery Cell Type | Alkaline |
| Warranty Description | 1 Year Warranty |
