Loading the content... Loading depends on your connection speed!

img

Advertisement
Advertisement
Return to Blog

Home Monitoring

Posted on Thursday, January 9, 2020
This past month has been a little crazy in my normally quiet and cozy neighborhood. First, my brother's car was broken into, while it was locked! They stole all his Christmas presents and traveling bags while he was visiting us from 700 miles away. A week later, I slept through an entire hostage situation across the street - SWAT team and all! And then a few days later, MY car gets broken into as my husband is sitting on our couch, watching tv, half asleep. I awoke to someone screaming NO! NO! NO! (The kids who broke into my house). We won't even get into the high-speed chase I watched end yesterday while running errands!

This all made me think... Maybe we should invest in some security. (Um, ya think?) So I researched a ton. We have had some cameras that were wired at our shop, but they were glitchy - and pretty pricey to use the cloud every month. I came across Ring, the doorbell camera. And for $99, I gave it a shot.

It's been up for a week, and I really like it. It comes with a 30-day preview of their subscription. This means that you can go onto the app at any time and look back 60 days on any and all recordings. Which it records 24/7, so that's super helpful! It's a month to month subscription, so unlike other companies, it's not a yearly contract! The protect plan starts out at $30 a year and can go up to $100 a year. When I had a very well known large home monitoring system, it was around $100 monthly on a three-year contract - so this device is saving me some serious cash!

So I called Ring and asked them some questions to better understand their cameras and how they work - which I will summarize what I learned:
The Ring cameras, doorbell, and security system works in all 50 states as long as you have WiFi access.
Nobody besides people you invite can watch your cameras - and you can post videos to the "Neighbor App" - and your neighbors and police can have access to the videos you choose to post. You can have all your cameras, doorbells and security systems available on one app. With multiple locations - Think your house as well as your elderly parents.
Without the subscription, you can still live view your cameras and have access to the neighbor app, but you will not be able to see recordings.

Ring offers the following:
Doorbell - this is what I currently have and made me fall in love with Ring. It has a clear video stream, real-life doorbell ring and video when someone presses your doorbell, and a great night view.
Inside and Outdoor cameras - all run on the same network. They offer wired, solar and battery operated. Some of the cameras offer motion-activated lights and some offer alarms on the cameras. This will be my next purchase to monitor the back of my house and more on the street.
Security Systems - I didn't get too deep in detail other than they do offer security systems.

The only downfall I have noticed about my doorbell is if I set the sensitivity to the street, anytime a car drives down my road, I get an alert. So at night, when people are breaking in cars, they would have to walk on the sidewalk between my house and car for me to get an alert. This is why I think we will invest in a camera to overlook our whole parking area on the street. Our doorbell to monitor the front porch and a camera to monitor the street. Overall, I think Ring is very affordable and sensible for everyone to look into!

Let us know what you use below in the comment section!

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement