I’m thinking about replacing my old alarm system with a Ring Alarm system from Costco (on sale this month). For any Ring Alarm owners here, are you happy with it? Would you buy it again? Thank you.

Absolutely. Very happy with mine ... the install was actually super-easy as a DIY. The only issue I had was that they don't sell broken glass sound alarms, so I basically kluged my own using a couple of the non-Ring broken glass alarms and the Ring contact sensors. The $100/year monitoring is a great deal too.

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

Funny you should post this now. Both Sing and Simplisafe are on sale for $130 at Costco over Black Friday weekend. I’m looking to change over as well but would love to be able to use my previous wireless contact sensors from my current system. I am looking into options.

Maco,

Have one. Love it. It's a solid way to go if you're handy and can DYI the installation and definitely if you already have other Ring hardware, i.e. video doorbell. Simplisafe is also supposed to be excellent. I have no experience with it. Wirecutter has a pretty good article about DYI home security systems.

[www.nytimes.com]

Trust me when I say DYI home security system have come a long way since I had a Visonic Powermax Plus system, which I installed myself. That system, which was great for its time, was definitely not intended for DYI installations. Easy to install overall. Complicated to configure and it didn't have any of the modern features like an iOS/Androd app, text and email notifications, and such.

These days, DYI systems are designed with user friendliness in mind. Another key difference is iOS/Android apps, text notifications, web access as well as integration with devices such as cams, flood detectors, smoke detectors, and lighting.

I'm inclined to say the only reason to not go with a DYI system is if your live in a home that will require a complex installation. In that case, it might be worthwhile yo go with a professionally installed system. I'd be _very_ leery of any company that sells you the system cheap or gives it to you free with a multi-year contract. The hardware itself isn't the expense. It's the cost of the monitoring.

Robert

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Robert M
Maco,

Have one. Love it. It's a solid way to go if you're handy and can DYI the installation and definitely if you already have other Ring hardware, i.e. video doorbell. Simplisafe is also supposed to be excellent. I have no experience with it. Wirecutter has a pretty good article about DYI home security systems.

[www.nytimes.com]

Trust me when I say DYI home security system have come a long way since I had a Visonic Powermax Plus system, which I installed myself. That system, which was great for its time, was definitely not intended for DYI installations. Easy to install overall. Complicated to configure and it didn't have any of the modern features like an iOS/Androd app, text and email notifications, and such.

These days, DYI systems are designed with user friendliness in mind. Another key difference is iOS/Android apps, text notifications, web access as well as integration with devices such as cams, flood detectors, smoke detectors, and lighting.

I'm inclined to say the only reason to not go with a DYI system is if your live in a home that will require a complex installation. In that case, it might be worthwhile yo go with a professionally installed system. I'd be _very_ leery of any company that sells you the system cheap or gives it to you free with a multi-year contract. The hardware itself isn't the expense. It's the cost of the monitoring.

Robert

My system from 2012 is a DYI system. I was originally looking at SimpliSafe, but now I’m leaning towards Ring. Both will be on sale at Costco.

Maco,

We had the Vison in place prior to installing our Ring video doorbell. Since we live in an apartment building, central station monitoring wasn't necessary. So, the total cost was the system itself and consumables such as batteries. Although there was nothing wrong with the Visonic in itself - it did its job well - i decided it was time to modernize to a modern system that was intended to be DYI.

Since I had the Ring video doorbell, it was a no-brainer to go with a Ring alarm. That the Rign alarm is a very good alarm system is an added bonus. Another nicety is that the central station monitoring also includes storage for video footage from the doorbell. I didn't need to pay separately for it. Cost-wise, the monitoring and the separate storage was about the same price. Think of the monitoring as a two for one deal.

Robert

Yep, bought a system from Costco last holiday season. Love it, retrofitted a 2000s alarm system with it, all windows have sensors now, added some extras, and even hard wired the main panel into the existing spot where the old system had it on the wall (normally it's set up to plug into an outlet, and sit on a table).

Well worth it. Great product.

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Good Luck!
Jamie Dresser
Other World Computing

i have a Ring system that i bought from Costco last year. it’s great.

for those of you considering Simplisafe it’s a great system. i used it to monitor my late brothers property but be aware that unless they’ve changed their pricing it’s $25 a month for monitoring and access to the app. Ring is $100 a year. i think they may be going up but it’s certainly not going up to $300 a year.

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Maco,

Another bonus with Ring. You don't have to sign up for central station monitoring. The alarm system still protects your home and notifies you via text and notifications without it.

The alarm still works. Add-ons like flood detectors and smoke/carbon detectors still work. You just won't get a call from central station in the event something triggers the alarm. The police won't show up either. You may not receive the savings on your home owners insurance, which in some cases, offsets the cost of the monitoring in part or whole.

So, if you live in a area where crime isn't really an issue and just want the assurance of an alarm system, you can get a Ring system, install it and use it without central station monitoring.

Robert

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DavidS
Funny you should post this now. Both Sing and Simplisafe are on sale for $130 at Costco over Black Friday weekend. I’m looking to change over as well but would love to be able to use my previous wireless contact sensors from my current system. I am looking into options.

Ring has a retrofit system
[www.amazon.com]

Quote
Ken Sp.

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DavidS
Funny you should post this now. Both Sing and Simplisafe are on sale for $130 at Costco over Black Friday weekend. I’m looking to change over as well but would love to be able to use my previous wireless contact sensors from my current system. I am looking into options.

Ring has a retrofit system
[www.amazon.com]

That appears to be for wired sensors and DavidS has wireless sensors.

The one thing Ring doesn't have that I really wish they did is recessed door sensors. And everything I've read says Ring doesn't play nice with 3rd party wireless sensors. I think you can get alerts if the sensor is triggered, but you can't use them as part of the actual alarm system.

I haven't finished installing my Ring system yet, but at least I learned that you can take the magnet out of the smaller side of the sensor and just use the magnet without its housing, which has made my door mountings easier/possible/less stupid looking.

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Ken Sp.
Ring has a retrofit system
[www.amazon.com]

ooOOOoo

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Thank you for your responses. Looks like I’ll be going with Ring.