Alarms for the Home - Product Review

Full Disclosure and Disclaimer: To the best of my knowledge at the time of this writing, I do not know anyone that works for the Chamberlain company or for Amazon.com, nor do I hold any stock in either one of those companies. I also will not receive payment of any kind for this review. The views expressed here are only from my own experience and testing. Your results with this product may be different.

For the past several weeks, I have been trying out different types of wireless motion detectors to be used at my Mother's home. I was looking for something that was inexpensive (as far as motion alert systems go), easy to install, easy to use, could be moved to another location if needed/wanted without it being complicated, didn't give off too many false alerts, and one that would be functional in case of a power outage. That was a very "tall order" I know, but I actually have found something that meets all that criteria. 

The Chamberlain  Wireless Motion Alert CWA2000 system seems to be exactly what I was looking for. At the time of this writing the base and one (1) sensor costs $39.28 on Amazon.com. You are able to add up to 7 more sensors (for a total of 8 sensors) on the same base at the cost of $29.32 per sensors. If you live in a cold climate like I do, you will want to use lithium batteries instead of alkaline batteries in the sensors if they are to be used outdoors, The base unit uses both electricity and batteries as a back up.  The base unit can be kept up to a 1/2 mile away from the sensors and will still work very well.

I have also tried much more expensive motion alert systems, (some that were up to $500 for just the base and one sensor) but in my humble opinion, over all they didn't perform any better than what the Chamberlain does. I have read some reviews on this product that claimed it was hard to hear the alert when it would go off, but I didn't have that problem at all. In fact, I had to turn the volume down quite a bit. 

The only down side that I have found with this product is that the sensor needs to be hip high or higher. That is because a person's stride might be wide enough to allow someone to one walk right by the sensor without the sensor detecting the motion. But that is easily resolved by placing the sensor up a little higher.

I am passing this information along and what I have found because I know that several of my subscribers are looking for something along this line due to the increase in crime. If nothing else this product does give a lot of peace of mine. Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

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Home Security Part 1– Self Defense

I am not a professional at all when it comes to self-defense. In fact, I know almost nothing on this subject. I will be learning right along with many of you about it as I talk to those that do know about such things and as I write these posts for this section of my blog. These posts will not be, nor are they intended to be, a complete lists of what to do or not to do. I am hoping though that they will give some people a starting point in helping make their life, and their family's life, safer. Feel free to post any tips or suggestions for self-defense in the comment section of these posts.

I have been talking to several law enforcement officers and security experts on self-defense. All of them stated that the first place that a person should start to better protect themselves is with their home. The reasoning given to me for that is that your home and homestead is the one (and just about the only) place that you can control the most in making a safe environment.

This does get rather lengthy, so rather than to overwhelm everyone with a lot of facts and ideas for securing your home, I will be breaking this down into several posts. While it is impossible to make a home completely break-in proof, making it look like a less attractive target than other homes in your neighborhood will greatly help in keeping you and your home safe.

Think Like a Bad Guy:

Look around the outside of your home and pretend that your are a burglar and ask, “How would you break in?” I have to admit, this one is the hardest one of the things that I will suggesting to do...st least it was for me. I am one of the most law abiding people around. I never have received even a speeding ticket. So trying think like someone who doesn't obey laws is way outside my realm of normal thinking. But here are some ideas that might help you started with this:

• If you were the bad guy, how would you break into your home?
• Are there places around the outside of your home that are dark at night?
• Are there landscaping around your home that the bad guy could hide behind or use as shield to keep from being seen while he was breaking into your home?
• Do you have a large dog or cat door that someone could slip through?
• Do you have glass in door that a burglar could break, reach in and unlock your door?
• Do you have valuables (large screen tv, computers, etc.) that are visible through a window or front door from the street or sidewalk?
• Does your home look like an easy target?

Call Your Local Police Department:

Some police departments offer a service to residents to come and inspect your home and point out areas that might need your attention with improving your security in order to strengthen your home's defense. Some police departments offer this service and others don't. Some charge for this service and others don't. So call your local police department's non emergency phone number and ask if they offer this service in your area. .

Get to Know Your Neighbors:

Know who lives in your neighborhood and who doesn't. Burglars will “case” or check out a neighborhood before they break in somewhere. They usually know when someone leaves for work, when they come home, and if the house is empty during that time. If you see someone who you don't recognize as living in your neighborhood acting suspicious, don't hesitate to call your police department. If you call, make sure to write down description of car, what the person looked like, what they were wearing and so on.

Don't Advertise Your Security System:

If you have one of those home security systems such as ADT, don't put their sticker in the window or little sign in your yard. Knowing what brand of security system you have, can give the bad guy enough information so that they know how to disable it so they can break in. Let the fact that you have a security system be a unpleasant surprise for them.

That should be enough general steps to take to help you to start thinking about how to better secure your property without spending a lot of cash. In Part 2 of Home Security, I will be dealing with some specific steps and ideas to increase your home security and thus, help to protect yourself and your loved ones.

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)