Skylink SC-1000 Complete Wireless Alarm System
|
List Price: Our Price: $159.99 You Save: $16.13 (9%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Tools See more product details |
|---|
Tools and Hardware Reviews of Skylink SC-1000 Complete Wireless Alarm System
Customer Review: Great product works perfectly for my needs.
Summary: 5 Stars
Before buying this product I searched around with ADT, Broadview/Brink, Protect America. I had people coming out to my house telling me what they could and couldn't do how much they were going to charge me and everything. It seemed that when they came out they all told me the same thing. "We need to put in a wireless system and since you have vonage your control box will have to be in the room with your vonage box or you will have to get a cellular which will be 300 dollars and 10 extra dollars a month monitoring.
Well I had wanted wired, and didn't want the box in my office. So I settled for wireless but decided to do it myself which is the best decision I could make. I put this whole kit up no problem. I even ordered an extra three door/window sensors for my other doors and one more motion detector and set that one to monitor inside my garage. I also added a alarm detector to it which I put near the smoke detector upstairs for the kids so if there is a fire up there it will sound the alarm and start the dialer. I used the panic remote to put beside my front door as a panic button in case anyone tries to force there way in.
After I got through with everything I tested it all including the alarm and it all worked perfect when i set it to chime everything chimed when i wanted it set to alarm an alarm went off when needed the dialer would call out to my parents and our cell phones, so its great to have free monitoring instead of wasting 30-50 dollars a month on it. All in all this is one of the best purchases I have made for my house and it really makes me feel secure. All you have to do is follow the instructions really well on how to add new equipment and edit your armed features to make them do what you want them to do. Like when I arm my house I don't want the garage sensor to set off the alarm so I put it under a different section where it will only chime. It really is versatile if you read it thoroughly.
I also bought an ADT sign and some of there stickers off ebay and stuck them on my doors/windows and in my front yard. I guarantee you if a burglar sees them and breaks in and this alarm goes off they won't know the difference.
Customer Review: Great system for the money (even larger homes)
Summary: 5 Stars
After reading several reviews, I settled on this product. My fear was it wouldn't work for my 3000 + sq ft home. All the info said it's great for apartments and small homes. I bought extra motion, door sensors, window stickers, and an extra key pad. I've gradually added more items as time/$ allows. Overall I'm very happy for the added peace of mind for a reasonable cost. At the very least it might be a deterrent. It was easy to set up and add other components later. My tip is keep the main unit in a central location to limit the distance from the different sensors. I do wish I could have a few more choices for which sensors are armed/on delay/off. Some of the different arming sequences are not intuitive and tough to remember, but the basic arm/disarm is easy.Customer Review: HORRIBLEEE SHIPPING!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Shippingg was horrible. paid for the fastest shipping which was the most expensive. was to receive it on a monday. came two days later on wednesday!!! HORRIBLEE!!! when asked the shipping company as to why, they responded with by saying that the delivery guy could not access my apartment building. embarrassing as to how the delivering guy COULD NOT read simple directions on my call box . "PRESS # WITH THE APARTMENT NUMBER..." not once, not TWICE, but THREE times the deliver guy could not understand simple directions. whats more shameful is that my apartment is ground level....meaning my house is rite next to the sidewalk. meaning he DOES NOT even need to enter the building. all he has to do is walk to my door. another big disgraceful thing is that i wrote a note as to where he has to go...wait theress morreee!!!
the deliver company/guy calls me under a blocked # what are they thinking!? of course im not going to answer a blocked #!!! maybe it can be telemarketers? yah? no? well they called twice. on that third day, i sort of realized that i could be the shipping guy/company... but by the time i picked up my phone, it stopped ringing. i immediately called the shipping company as i walked outside of my front house door... i notice the deliver guy trying to open the garage door by my house. what are you thinking!!?? GOSHHH!!!! half of my anger went to the deliver guy that was still confused as to what was occurring and the other half of my anger went to the poor lovely women that handling my call. but in the end i did receive my order. and blah blah. but it was still late and i am still mad.
Customer Review: Has potential to be excellent, not there yet.
Summary: 3 Stars
I installed the SC-1000 kit, 1 extra motion sensor (PS-434A), 1 additional alarm (AA-433), 5 extra door/window sensors (WT-433).
First off, do not order this product online. It is critical you purchase the SC-1000 kit at a store you know has a generous no question return/exchange policy for some specified time. I Bought the SC-1000, followed instructions perfectly and found defects. Due to a generous return policy where I bought the item I was able to work through all problems as they showed up until I eventually had a working system. The process took nearly 4 weeks.
The SC-1000 kit had a noticeably defective motion sensor. It would trigger on zones it was not programmed to. Free replacement.
A few days later the extra one I bought at the same time as the kit would not trigger the alarm about 1/3 of the time during testing. The red eye would go off but nothing would happen. Free replacement.
Immediately after installation, the Dialer would sometimes not dial out during testing using the silent alarm function. The dialer would receive the signal because the clock time would blank out as it should prior to dialing the number but it would time out and default back to wait mode (clock) without dialing. The dialer seemed to get the signal and was trying to switch to dial mode but it just wouldn't complete the process. Fiddling with the antenna would sometimes fix the problem but other times you could have the Dialer within arms reach of the SC-100 control Panel and it just would do as described before. After 3 weeks of this testing, adjusting, moving, it became apparent either the SC-100 Control Panel, Dialer or both were defective.
During this same time one of the replacement motion sensors started acting up. This time the sensor always worked when it was triggered but sometimes you could nearly walk right up to the sensor before it would do so. So I took all 3 components (Control panel, dialer, replacement motion sensor# back for free replacement.
Right off the replacement SC-100 Control Panel was blatantly defective, the key pad light did not work and when using it the sounds made were real strange and garbled. Took it immediately back for free replacement the same day.
Of note about this final replacement is the SC-100 Control Panel has different color wires on the speaker (white/black vs red/black) as well as these wires being obviously glued to the front housing. I am not sure but if I remember correctly the other 2 SC-100 had the speaker hard wired to the circuit board. This one is connected with a 2 prong connector instead. Both housings, front and back, seem to be of a higher quality than the other 2. The wiring doesn't look as sloppy either. Enough of a difference that the wife even made an unsolicited comment backing up my own observations. The entire assembly looks to be made better. The antenna was not connected and fell off when the housing was opened but this is the same setup the additional alarm has. I don't know if this was intentional or not. The other 2 control panels didn't do this.
Now the system is up and running nearly perfectly. The dialer still has failed 2 times to dial out so far but it seems to be working much more reliably so far. Both motion sensors work outstandingly now. There have been 0 problems with the door/window sensors.
There are other design issues I have noticed. The key chain remote is very functional and works excellent. It would be nice to have some sort of confirmation that the alarm is activated or not though. A car alarm is of similar cost to this system but uses a LCD remote that shows if the alarm is on or not as well as many other functions. If this system had similar features I would glady pay more for it and raise my review rating.
The AA-433 Additional Alarm can not be turned off from the SC-100 Control Panel. Only the key chain transmitter or external keypad can do so. If the external keypad can operate the additional alarm so should the SC-100 Control Panel. The AA-433 Additional Alarm does not ignore the silent alarm signal from the SC-100 Control Panel so this renders this function of the SC-100 useless. Even though the AA-433 is rated at 120db and the SC-100 is 110db, it sounds weaker than the SC-100 because it does not use an alternating Hi/Low sound wave like the SC-100. The AA-433 sounds more like a standard fire alarm where the SC-100 gives you that panic feeling and makes you want to run.
A great thing about the door/window sensors is the size of the contact magnets. They are large which allows you to install them on your door trim without having to chisel into them. The size gives you up to a 3/8" gap and they still function perfectly. Some of my trim is angled so this allowed installation without damage to the trim should I decide to remove the sensor. Just a couple small screw holes to putty should I decide to do so.
If the design issues are addressed and quality control were to improve I would give the system a 5. As it stands I can only give it a 3. If you have access to this system locally I would recommend buying it because you will eventually overcome the defects by replacement. If ordering offline you would go broke in postage returning the defective components. You would be better off buying a rehab ADT alarm or paying a local company for one to be installed.
Customer Review: Highly functional, adapts to your specific needs.
Summary: 5 Stars
I just finished my install on the SC1000..It works exactly as described in the literature. I called customer support with a question and a technician called me right back.
As far as the dialer discussion goes....If you have the SC1000 you dont have to register all of the sensors to the dialer seperately! You can if you want to, but you dont have too (I certainly would not reccomend this). You can simply follow the instructions and link the control panel to the dialer. Using this arrangement, the dialer will not dial unless the control panel actually goes into full alarm. As mentioned before, if the control panel does sound, and the dialer starts to dial, you must shut off the dialer seperately from the controller, but only if the alarm sounded. I like this..let the bad guys smash the control panel, and let the dialer somewhere else in the house do it's thing!
This relay arrangment also allows you to hide the dialer in a closet or somewhere out of the way where it can silently dial out to whomever.
Overall I give the system an A for functionality, and allowing itself to adapt to each installers/homeowners specific security needs. Each zone can be modified to work a different way...nice!
I would consider getting a secondary siren just so if the bad guys kill the control panel the remote siren keeps blasting away!
Worth the 160 I paid.