ADT Alarms and alarms in general

[Lostprophet]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone here has an ADT alarm and if they are any good?

I am looking to get an alarm installed in a property that I am buying. I hope to do it before we move in. I am just looking around right now. We may have a cat at some stage.

The property is semi-detached with an extension at the back, 4th bedroom over the garage. There is a gap on the side of the house which is big enough for someone to be able to get into the back of the house. That is why I am keen to get an alarm fitted ASAP.

I will be looking for someone to fit it for me.

Any advice is welcomed.

[netherfield]

Many years ago I was advised to talk to the Crime prevention officer at your police station,don't know if this position is still about anymore, they would not specify any one company,but would give advice on who seemed to be the most reliable in the area, the larger regional companies never fared very well, it was usually the smaller local companies who did the best.

Or have a look around the neighbourhood and see who's alarm boxes are most prevalent.

I remember at work having one of the ADT type firms alarm fitted, they would always charge travelling time of 80 miles for an engineer visit,even if he'd been on another job quite close.

Edited by netherfield on Monday 7th January 14:06

[Lostprophet]

Good points.

I called ADT. They seem quite good however I dont know much at all about alarms.

It works out at £91 for additional sensors so the alarm and install with additional sensors would be £600. Then £29pm for 36 months. That's £1650 for 3 years!!!

http://www.adt.co.uk/home-security/hs-compare-conn...

A top of the range alarm and fitting might be about £800?

[elanfan]

I used to specify alarms - for a domestic installation go for one of your local i.e non national companies listed in your yellow pages. make sure they are NSI or SSAIB approved. will be a much better deal and service.

[Lostprophet]

Thanks for the pointer. I did not know about those bodies.

[kooky guy]

We had an ADT system fitted to our place when we bought it because it was a rural location and ADT offer a monitoring service.

It's certainly not the cheapest system and some of the shortcuts they took when installing it have been shocking - so I would keep a close eye on them and perhaps think in advance about cable runs and more sepcifically what you might want to do with flooring in the future. Note that our salesman agreed to a few things that apparently were impossible so that was interesting.

Our system isn't cat proof, but apparently the more recent sensors can be made so.

We had a smoke sensor in the garage that all Japanese (and only Japanese) cars would trigger for some reason.

The service from ADT has been pretty good. Servicing and repairs are all covered under the contract (even repeated water damage to the smoke sensor in the garage!).

All in all, no complaints.

[Lostprophet]

It sounds like overall with ADT if you keep an eye on the fitting it is fine. Good point.

I just got a quote over the phone for a Risco Gardtec 600 with 6 sensors and 2 panic buttons for £650+VAT (fitting included).

Seems quite good value, no monitoring though.

The property is in Woodford Green, there are other houses around so the alarm should deter any thief. They would be silly to attempt a break in with an alarm on a house.

Long term I am thinking if I ever upgrade my car to a high performance car I want to ensure there is no breakins to get car keys etc etc.

[jas xjr]

with adt it depends on the fitter who looks after your system . i had a shop with one of their systems fitted .
the engineer was a tt more interested in flirting with my staff and drinking tea . the dialler was not connected and the sensors on the rear doors were not working .
new bloke spotted this

[jwo]

I've had an ADT monitored alarm for many years.... All good. In the event of a fault (rare) engineers prompt - max 4 hr response time and all included within monthly fee....

[Wozy68]

Lostprophet said:

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone here has an ADT alarm and if they are any good?

I am looking to get an alarm installed in a property that I am buying. I hope to do it before we move in. I am just looking around right now. We may have a cat at some stage.

The property is semi-detached with an extension at the back, 4th bedroom over the garage. There is a gap on the side of the house which is big enough for someone to be able to get into the back of the house. That is why I am keen to get an alarm fitted ASAP.

I will be looking for someone to fit it for me.

Any advice is welcomed.

Had an ADT on our commercial unit for about 7 years. Did not reduce the Insurance, but maintenance and piece of mind were free.

Couple of things to remember. One is that when ours 'phoned' the call centre when it was armed/disarmed that its a few seconds of a call to a premium rate number. Secondly when I cancelled the agreement, the do not remove the system which is a pain for when it goes wrong, we would have to pay serious money to have it removed. .....,

[kooky guy]

Wozy68 said:

Had an ADT on our commercial unit for about 7 years. Did not reduce the Insurance, but maintenance and piece of mind were free.

Couple of things to remember. One is that when ours 'phoned' the call centre when it was armed/disarmed that its a few seconds of a call to a premium rate number. Secondly when I cancelled the agreement, the do not remove the system which is a pain for when it goes wrong, we would have to pay serious money to have it removed. .....,

I believe that the premium rate phone number is only an issue with a non BT phone line. It's free on BT. Would be worth clarifying with the salesman as I think there is an alternative number which can be programmed in, but they don't like to reveal it...

[burwoodman]

Lostprophet said:

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone here has an ADT alarm and if they are any good?

I am looking to get an alarm installed in a property that I am buying. I hope to do it before we move in. I am just looking around right now. We may have a cat at some stage.

The property is semi-detached with an extension at the back, 4th bedroom over the garage. There is a gap on the side of the house which is big enough for someone to be able to get into the back of the house. That is why I am keen to get an alarm fitted ASAP.

I will be looking for someone to fit it for me.

Any advice is welcomed.

My experience-very expensive for what is very average kit. Very poor, rough installation in what was a brand new house. The monitoring was not really monitored at all. Pointless. When I tried to cancel they got very aggressive.

[Lostprophet]

burwoodman said:

My experience-very expensive for what is very average kit. Very poor, rough installation in what was a brand new house. The monitoring was not really monitored at all. Pointless. When I tried to cancel they got very aggressive.

I think from what I gather that ADT dont really monitor, the costs are high and the installation service is patchy.

I am going to give them a miss.

I am looking at having a Risco GT600 system installed. Still looking for more information on the system, and if its any good.

[Wozy68]

kooky guy said:

I believe that the premium rate phone number is only an issue with a non BT phone line. It's free on BT. Would be worth clarifying with the salesman as I think there is an alternative number which can be programmed in, but they don't like to reveal it...

BT line we have

[Kuroblack350]

Wozy68 said:

kooky guy said:

I believe that the premium rate phone number is only an issue with a non BT phone line. It's free on BT. Would be worth clarifying with the salesman as I think there is an alternative number which can be programmed in, but they don't like to reveal it...

BT line we have

ADT however charge you £12 annually IIRC for this 'free calls service'. (we eventually noticed a 0.06p call every midnight for months on our bills - this was not pointed out by the sales bod obviously!)

For the OP - We had a wired ADT in our last house, it was excellent and fault free. The installer was very good - I was expecting a right old mess, but aside from the new fitments, you couldn't tell he'd been - excellent stuff.

In our new place we have their wireless system. To be fair is did have a couple of false alarms early on which needed some sensitivity adjustments, after that - perfect again. It worked as intened during the first week of its installation when some transit driving types opened the garage door at 4am - left it unlocked stupidly - alarm went thermonuclear and they drove off pretty quickly - result. The fact that my Trek 6300 remained in the garage made me feel better about the £800ish installtion cost

Look out for their special offers, we got the fire system with hours, which is quite cool. (alarm, extinguishers, blanket etc.)

[kooky guy]

Lostprophet said:

I think from what I gather that ADT dont really monitor, the costs are high and the installation service is patchy.

Based on what? I've had quite a few false alarms on my system variously caused by cats, user error by visitors/pet sitters, fumes from Japanese cars and the very occasional fault - and ADT have been on the phone to one of the keyholders immediately EVERY time and very quickly too.

Unfortunately in the case of the fire alarm they speak to the fire brigade first - had that smoke detector changed for a different type and it's been fine since.

[Lostprophet]

kooky guy said:

Lostprophet said:

I think from what I gather that ADT dont really monitor, the costs are high and the installation service is patchy.

Based on what? I've had quite a few false alarms on my system variously caused by cats, user error by visitors/pet sitters, fumes from Japanese cars and the very occasional fault - and ADT have been on the phone to one of the keyholders immediately EVERY time and very quickly too.

Unfortunately in the case of the fire alarm they speak to the fire brigade first - had that smoke detector changed for a different type and it's been fine since.

Ah, that actually sounds quite good.

This makes it tricky! Thanks for the correction.

[okie592]

A problem with ADT is they are closed protocol, so if you ever wanted to add new sensors or bells, ADT have to Program it, where as a universal system can be done by anyone.

Heard a few horror stories about ADT monitoring where they don't actually call the police, had that happen where they are monitoring fire alarms too. Which is dangerous

Plus they charge a arm and a leg too come out

Yale is a good bet, ,more than likely the same devices but a open protocol so you can add and take away devices as you please, as for cats you can get animal friendly pirs that don't trigger on certain sizes

[Hoonigan]

okie592 said:

A problem with ADT is they are closed protocol, so if you ever wanted to add new sensors or bells, ADT have to Program it, where as a universal system can be done by anyone.

Heard a few horror stories about ADT monitoring where they don't actually call the police, had that happen where they are monitoring fire alarms too. Which is dangerous

Plus they charge a arm and a leg too come out

Yale is a good bet, ,more than likely the same devices but a open protocol so you can add and take away devices as you please, as for cats you can get animal friendly pirs that don't trigger on certain sizes

ADT alarms are not closed protocol their fire alarms are though. Yale is not a good bet rather a DIY solution.

Get quotes from local NSI gold companies, you will get a better service and quality most of the time over the nationals.

[VEX]

Believe it or not, We have had a British Gas, wireless one for over ten years now it other than some initial teething issues it has been faultless.

As has the services, They are now called Dyno-Secure and we are on about £23 per month for a monitored and fully serviced / supported system which we are happy with.

As has been said it depends on the installers but our local ones (based out of Luton) are great.

V.