6 Messages
Just changed home to Simplisafe
I have been using SS at my business for 3 years. At home I had a 2Gig system monitored by Brinks, but just changed to SS a few days ago. I hesitated to do this because the 2Gig had some "smart home" features that I thought I'd miss with Simplisafe, but finally got tired of Brinks poor customer service, poor monitoring, and expensive monthly fee. My equipment was starting to become obsolete and Brinks wanted to lock me into another 3 year contract to replace it at no cost. Honestly, I should have made the change years ago. The "smart home" features I was using with Brinks were:
- Integration with a smart lock. SS has this now, and I will be adding that to my system too, replacing my existing smart lock. No big deal.
- Integration with auto light controls / dimmers. This can be easily solved using Apple Homekit or even a simple timer.
- Doorbell: It was nice having the doorbell chime at the security panel. SS has the video doorbell, but I'm not really interested in a video doorbell and don't have working doorbell wiring in place. This can be solved with a $20 wireless doorbell from Amazon.
After having Simplisafe installed for a few days, there are three things I REALLY miss:
1. Ability to see system status (armed, not armed) from a distance. The 2Gig panel glowed either green or red, so I could tell from across a room whether the system was armed or not before opening a door. With SS, I have to walk over to the panel to check status.
2. Ability to do a "silent exit." With the 2Gig, when I was "armed stay," I could silence the system before putting in my disarm code. That way if I still had family members sleeping and wanted to go out, I could do that quietly. With SS, there is no way to do that, so when I disarm the base station says "system disarmed" at full volume. Likewise if someone comes home late and arms the system after others are sleeping. This seems to be something that SS could add relatively easily.
3. Ability to have more than 4 PINs. This is more for my business than home, but I would love for each of my employees to have their own PIN code so I know exactly who came in.
In summary, I love my Simplisafe system. It has worked out well for my business. The monitoring has been awesome, and it is the most reasonably priced monitoring out there. I should have made the change years ago. I would love to see a few minor features added though. I won't ask for the home automation features to be added because Simplisafe thrives on simplicity. It does one thing - protect your property - and it does it well. There are plenty of other solutions for those things.
- Integration with a smart lock. SS has this now, and I will be adding that to my system too, replacing my existing smart lock. No big deal.
- Integration with auto light controls / dimmers. This can be easily solved using Apple Homekit or even a simple timer.
- Doorbell: It was nice having the doorbell chime at the security panel. SS has the video doorbell, but I'm not really interested in a video doorbell and don't have working doorbell wiring in place. This can be solved with a $20 wireless doorbell from Amazon.
After having Simplisafe installed for a few days, there are three things I REALLY miss:
1. Ability to see system status (armed, not armed) from a distance. The 2Gig panel glowed either green or red, so I could tell from across a room whether the system was armed or not before opening a door. With SS, I have to walk over to the panel to check status.
2. Ability to do a "silent exit." With the 2Gig, when I was "armed stay," I could silence the system before putting in my disarm code. That way if I still had family members sleeping and wanted to go out, I could do that quietly. With SS, there is no way to do that, so when I disarm the base station says "system disarmed" at full volume. Likewise if someone comes home late and arms the system after others are sleeping. This seems to be something that SS could add relatively easily.
3. Ability to have more than 4 PINs. This is more for my business than home, but I would love for each of my employees to have their own PIN code so I know exactly who came in.
In summary, I love my Simplisafe system. It has worked out well for my business. The monitoring has been awesome, and it is the most reasonably priced monitoring out there. I should have made the change years ago. I would love to see a few minor features added though. I won't ask for the home automation features to be added because Simplisafe thrives on simplicity. It does one thing - protect your property - and it does it well. There are plenty of other solutions for those things.
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