A free alarm system; the truth revealed
A free alarm system to protect your home. The ones that believe that home security systems are actually given away for "free" will be sadly disappointed. Lets examine those so called "free alarm systems". An offer for a free security system usually contains the following:
A wireless keypad, a siren, the control panel and a dialer, a wireless contact for a door or window, a wireless sensor to detect motion. It comes with a monitoring contract that automatically renews, often for a very long period of time and usually there are extra charges for additional material like contacts, sensors and the likes. There are extra fees for account activation and registration fees.
Most of these "free" alarm systems are wireless because those take virtually no skill to install. They come pre-programmed so it takes very little time for a technician to install it. The downside of these wireless alarm systems is that they are extremely vulnerable because they are "all in one" systems, meaning that when a burglar would enter your house, and rip the keypad off your wall the entire alarm, including the siren would be disabled.
No matter what company you choose, a hard wired alarm system is always the best way to go. It is more reliable and much harder to disable as the components work independently and unlike a wireless system there are no batteries to worry about; that they run out leaving your security compromised.
Owning your own security equipment is a must. If you do not, it is next to impossible to switch monitoring companies in case you are unhappy with the service provided. With a free system you can be certain that it is "locked out", which means no other company can monitor it, and in some cases they can even kill the software the security system runs on remotely, leaving your home unprotected.
For the average home a "free" alarm system with only motion sensor and only one or two door or window contacts is highly inadequate and will leave gaps in the system through which an intruder can easily enter and be around for a while, before the alarm actually goes off.
Because of the above mentioned reasons you will have to buy additional equipment in order to get your home security up to an acceptable level. Purchasing more contacts or an additional motion sensor can by a fairly large expense for an alarm system that was supposed to be "free" and even with enough sensors and contacts it is still an "all in one" system which remains vulnerable as explained above. Until now we have only mentioned protection against intruders and burglars. When we take fire prevention systems like smoke detectors and the likes into account you look at an even greater expense.
Most security companies will charge around $ 300 for what the "free" ones offer at no charge, but the regular ones will offer a better hard wired protection for your home, better contracts and slightly lower fees then the free ones. You may have to think about the fact how free those “free alarm systems really are.
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