SimpliSafe: A unique home alarm system

We were fortunate enough to be able to review the SimpliSafe alarm system. This easy-to-setup system is easily expandable to fit any house situation. The kit we received included a base-station, three sensor units for doors and/or windows, a wireless keypad and a keychain remote which doubles as a installation USB flash drive for your computer.

To start, we opened the box and followed the instructions for setting everything up which was very easy. All of the pieces came with the appropriates batteries. I went around and figured out what we wanted to alarm and tested out each sensor as I connected it. One great thing about the system is you can set it to make a chime noise when one of the sensors are triggered. This happens when someone opens or closes a door, which is a great bonus feature since we have a two year old who can find her way out of the house easily now.

The setup process for the base station was easy and works with any web browser and computer. We set up a few codes for ourselves, a master password and some codes that we could give out to contractors. The base station connects to the internet and SimpliSafe has a monitoring company that will watch for notifications from the base station if anything is triggered and the alarm isn't disabled. The monitoring service starts at $15/month and goes up to $30/month at the high end which includes the ability to enable and disable the system from an iOS app.

This system is great and unique because you install it yourself so people don't need to be traipsing around your house putting in tons of equipment and wires. It is also wireless and in addition to the internet connectivity, has a cell-phone network backup (which is included in the $15/month monitoring cost) in case your phone/internet lines get cut. If the power happens to go out, the system has a battery backup that will last for a few hours so your house will stay monitored even if someone tries to cut the power and phone lines to your house or rob you in the event of a natural disaster.

The best thing about this system is that it is fully removable (they use special double stick tape that doesn't appear to damage walls) so if you move apartments or houses, you can take it with you. This is great for people and families who live in apartments, condos, houses, really any living situation.

NOTE:  We received a base-station kit from SimpliSafe to facilitate this review. We did not promise a positive review, but rather an honest review. All opinions are 100% our own.