Review: Simplisafe is a Solid DIY Home Alarm System
If you have an old alarm system for your house, it’s time to bring it into the modern age.
That’s what I had been thinking for about the past two years. I would look at the 12-year-old alarm panel in my house and the $45 monthly bill I get for system monitoring, and I wonder why I still had it. Furthermore, I’ve been testing all sorts of modern “smart home” products like the Nest thermostat, Dropcam security camera, the August Smart Lock, and the SmartThings home control hub. My alarm system just did not measure up.
The SimpliSafe control panel (Photos: Rafe Needleman/Yahoo Tech)
I wanted to replace the system, and I wanted a few things from it.
It had to cost less, but I still wanted a monitored system, so if the burglar or fire alarm was triggered and I wasn’t reachable, somebody would send the police or the fire department to my house.
I didn’t want to lock myself into a cellphone-like contract for my alarm system. Similarly, I didn’t want to rely on service techs coming to my house every time I wanted to modify or add to my system.
I wanted to be able to access the system from my smartphone or the Web, and I wanted it to tie into my other smart home gadgets, like the Nest.
As far as I can tell, there is no system today that does all of these things. But there is the security system by Simplisafe, which does most of them. It’s a customer-installed, all-wireless system. You order the sensors you want (door, fire, carbon monoxide, and so on), and the control units (wall panel, keychain remote). It arrives in a box, you stick the battery-powered sensors where you need them, and you’re off to the races. Or so the pitch goes.
I ordered up a review unit, installed it in my house, and have been living with it for about a month. It’s good — probably good enough that I’ll pay for it myself and keep it — but it’s not perfect. Here’s the rundown.
Installation
The Simplisafe system is, as advertised, a breeze to install. There’s a control panel you stick near the wall, a central control tower (the only part that has to be plugged in) that has the cellular radio that communicates to the monitoring center, and your sensors. Everything that needs to go on a wall or ceiling has sticky tape on it, and everything is battery powered. All the sensors you order are already keyed in to your system, so all you really have to do is find a ladder and a little free time to completely install your alarm system.
Sensors just stick on your doors.
Simplisafe has all the sensors you’d want in a security system: door sensors, motion sensors, fire and carbon monoxide sensors, leak and freeze sensors, panic buttons, and piercing alarms. You just buy what you need.
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I did run into some issues when it came to getting it all running correctly, though. First of all, the easy-setup software that’s supposed to run from the USB-equipped keychain remotes did not work on my Mac. Fortunately, the Web-based installer did, so this was an annoyance and not a blocker.
Then I had problems getting the central tower to make a cellular connection to the Simplisafe monitoring center. I fixed that by putting it on the top floor of my house near a window, but then it was too far from a door sensor in the garage to monitor the whole house. The solution was to replace the T-Mobile tower with one that uses Verizon instead.
The control tower is the only component you have to plug in. It has the cellular radio and the siren. You can hide it.
It took some troubleshooting to get this sorted out, but once we had the solution, Simplisafe shipped me a new, preconfigured tower in two days. Finally, in my city I have to get a $45 police permit to have a self-installed alarm, and I’m still not sure if Simplisafe took care of that for me or if I need to do it myself.
Using it
As a basic alarm system, it’s very good. The control panel is clean and simple, and you can configure things like how long it waits after you set the “away” mode until it’s actually armed. Simplisafe also has keychain remotes, which are very cool. You can disarm your house the way you unlock your car: Just push a button. Unfortunately, the remotes are way too big for what they do. They add a lot of bulk to your key ring. And I am concerned that if someone steals my keys, they now also have the ability to turn off my alarm. (Pro tip: Never put your address on your key ring.)
Now I can disarm the alarm on my house just like I do my car’s.
The website for Simplisafe is clunky. It works, but it takes a long time for settings to be registered, and it’s very unattractive. I hear the company is working on a redesign.
The iPhone app is horrible. It does indeed let you arm and disarm the system from your phone, and you can see alarm status, but it’s too slow to be useful day to day. If you want to arm or disarm your system when you’re away from your house, it’s fine. Like the August Smart Lock app I tested, it’s just too sluggish.
You can control SimpliSafe from the Web (shown) or a smartphone app. It works, but both are slow and unattractive.
And, sadly, Simplisafe has no integration with other smart home systems. It can’t be accessed from the Smart Things system, it doesn’t work with any security cameras, it won’t send info to IFTTT, nothing. It’s not nearly as modern as a system like Canary or Piper. Simplisafe will call the police for you, though, which most of the newer systems will not. (Piper will call your friends if it can’t reach you, but one of them will have to call the cops on your behalf.)
Value
Simplisafe charges $25 a month for full monitoring with smartphone control of the system. There are also plans at $15 and $20 a month, for fewer features, but still with monitoring. Without paying for monitoring, it’ll still work as a sensor-triggered siren system.
You have to buy the hardware, and the expense varies, of course. The $230 starter kit includes just one door and one motion sensor (plus various control modules). More expensive systems include more sensors, and you can also buy just the sensors you need. Prices are reasonable: A door sensor is $15 and a smoke sensor is $30, for example.
Simplisafe is easy to install, has the basic functions an alarm system should have, and requires no recurring contract fee: You can turn off the monitoring center link at any time. For those reasons, I recommend it as a straightforward replacement to an old-fashioned alarm system, many of which also require you to buy your own hardware.
If you want something a bit more advanced, maybe with the potential for additional capabilities, you’ll find it dull. Maybe you don’t need your alarm system to be exciting, though.
Rafe Needleman can be reached at rafeneedleman@yahoo.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @rafe.
