Ring Alarm review

I recently purchased and installed the Ring Alarm after my wife gifted the Ring Doorbell to me. I never considered an alarm because, I never wanted to pay the high fees that you get from companies like ADT and Brinks and other large alarm companies. Well, after installing the Ring Doorbell I realized, to get the best performance from the doorbell you have to subscribe to the 3.00 a month plan. Well that was not going to happen. I started researching the Ring alarm and came to the conclusion that for 100.00 a year or 10.00 per month you can have all the features of the Ring Doorbell and a fully monitored Alarm system. This system also includes battery backup and cellular back up. The icing on the cake was a small discount I received from my homeowners insurance for having a monitored alarm system. It’s a great DIY system that is built well and performs well. There are other similar systems out there for DIY but this is the least expensive. Also, If you have the Ring Doorbell already it’s a no brainer. For 199 for the Alarm security kit it’s a great deal. Nest Secure and SimpliSafe are more expensive for a competing product. The Nest Secure is 30.00 a month and the SimpliSafe is 15.00 or 25.00 per month for monitoring fees.

Setting up the Ring Alarm was pretty simple. It’s a tool free installation. If you have any issues, a free call to customer service can walk you through the whole process. You can add several accessories to the system beyond the alarm security kit which includes a base station, contact sensor, motion detector, keypad, and range extender. For my installation I added the panic button, Smoke/CO listeners and flood/freeze sensors. Once you get it all set up you get a 1 month free trial of the Ring Protect plan which includes the professional monitoring for the alarm, cellular backup and it also covers any other Ring products you own. There is a mobile app where you can arm and disarm the system as well as monitor your Ring Doorbell. The system is also compatible with Amazon’s Alexa where you can ask her to Arm the alarm. Once you pay for the Ring protect plan you also receive a 10% discount from ring on new purchases and they extend the warranty by 1 year.

OVERVIEW

In my opinion for 100.00 a year for professional monitoring it’s a great system. Also, the Ring ecosystem includes doorbells and cameras that you can build into your system which are all covered under the one fee for monitoring. You can start with the base system and build it up over time.

PROS

Easy installation, affordable start up unit, 100.00 a year professional monitoring, control all ring products in one applications, Alexa integration

CONS

Upfront 199.00 for the equipment