Burglar alarms

North Lower Neil

My wife was at home with my daughters today when she heard someone trying to break-in - she came downstairs, they ran off.

The fact she was in was probably enough to scare them off, we're in a nice enough area so I imagine it was just a chancer assuming people would be out during the day, but it's got me thinking we should get an alarm just in case and so the deterrent is there.

Bit skint at the moment due to having young kids/wife being on reduced maternity pay etc so not looking for anything expensive - has anyone on here got any experience of decent 'budget' alarms that would do the job?

Cheers in advance.

Swisdom

Look up Verisure. Absolutely massive all over Europe and recently cropped up over here.

Duncan270566

You can get alarms fitted for free but you have to sign up for their monitoring service on a monthly subscription. Otherwise if you can shell out about £150 to £200, Yale do one without the monioring fee.

carly burn

Was looking at this one recently myself. Got some good reviews.

http://www.screwfix.com/p/yale-premium-wireless-alarm-kit/54473?kpid=54473&cm_mmc=Google-_-Product Listing Ads-_-Sales Tracking-_-sales tracking url&gclid=CIPK4Ymatc4CFUKfGwodrLsGyA

Chris81

My Dad's got one of these, seems really good for the money. http://www.screwfix.com/p/yale-premium-wireless-alarm-kit/54473?kpid=KINASEKPID&cm_mmc=GoogleLocal-_-Datafeed-_-Security and Ironmongery&cm_mmc=Google-_-Product Listing Ads-_-Sales Tracking-_-sales tracking url&gclid=COe8hv6Ztc4CFaIV0wodjH8HhA

I've got cctv and two massive dogs!

North Lower Neil

Cheers Swisdom, but £300 and £35 a month by the looks of it - less budget than I was hoping for!!

legaladdick

TCE has a number of very good burglar alarms. He shows pictures of them on this site.

Swisdom

North Lower Neil said:

Cheers Swisdom, but £300 and £35 a month by the looks of it - less budget than I was hoping for!!

Fair enough but if you want a monitored system its at least £30 a month

If not then a diy option should suffice but don't scrimp on it. Being burgled is one of my biggest fears...

agim

Really important to have either an alarm or something like cctv installed. It sounds stupid but if going for an alarm get one which has a light continuly flashing, this shows its working and puts them off.
I don't want to worry you but usually most burglars keep an eye on the house for a few days before making their move. Dont leave windows open and double lock every. My mum and dad got robbed because they had a habit of not double locking the front door

North Lower Neil

Swisdom said:

North Lower Neil said:

Cheers Swisdom, but £300 and £35 a month by the looks of it - less budget than I was hoping for!!

Fair enough but if you want a monitored system its at least £30 a month

If not then a diy option should suffice but don't scrimp on it. Being burgled is one of my biggest fears...

Would be nice but just out of budget at the moment.

Hopefully a normal alarm system like above would be enough to make it not worth their while.

Thanks for the recommendations, I've just seen there is a £99 Yale one too so will take a look at the reviews, spec etc.

charltonkeston

I had the same thing happen Sunday night. I got out of bed after hearing someone give my front door a boot. I actually saw the guy leg it. There weren't any way was I going to chase after him at 1:30 in the morning with my dressing gown flapping open, it would have only ended badly for me. I didn't phone the police, they would be a day late turning up and to be fare they wouldn't be able to much anyway.
I have a burglar alarm, cctv,(cameras with night vision but silly me I turned the recording box off) and probably most important thing good locks on all the doors and windows.
You can't really stop these people just make it as difficult and less appealing as possible.

The_Organiser

Is it possible (and if so is it worth it) getting a fake one that is cheap but at least is a deterrent. Can any burglar be sure an alarm is real (working) or not? Genuine questions.

guinnessaddick

I put a Visonic alarm in a few years back. Wireless, so other than setting up, it was easy, it sends texts to my mobile & you can control it via text. Cost about £400

http://www.visonic.com/Products/PowerG-Wireless-Property-Protection/pg-control-panels/powermaster-30

North Lower Neil

The Organiser said:

Is it possible (and if so is it worth it) getting a fake one that is cheap but at least is a deterrent. Can any burglar be sure an alarm is real (working) or not? Genuine questions.

You can get them for about £20.

No idea if they work!

I was considering getting a couple of these along with a real alarm:


https://amazon.co.uk/Outdoor-Imitation-Security-Blinking-Flashing/dp/B0095RE0K0

Elthamaddick

Duncan270566 said:

You can get alarms fitted for free but you have to sign up for their monitoring service on a monthly subscription. Otherwise if you can shell out about £150 to £200, Yale do one without the monioring fee.

ADT do this, that who we are with and pay £20 @ month

T_C_E

Elthamaddick said:

Duncan270566 said:

You can get alarms fitted for free but you have to sign up for their monitoring service on a monthly subscription. Otherwise if you can shell out about £150 to £200, Yale do one without the monioring fee.

ADT do this, that who we are with and pay £20 @ month

Just a word about adt, I had their system when I lived in London. I knew the engineer that serviced it every year very well. One year he told me there was a problem and my system wasn't sending a signal back to them so it it wasnt technically being monitored and from his imformation hadn't been for 7 months. Asking adt why they wasn't alerted by the fact they wasn't getting a signal from my house they had no answer so I was paying for a monitored system that wasn't being monitored. I now use a local guy who fits and and services both our alarm/fire and cctv system which texts us, my daughter and alerts our next door neighbour.

Shag

Get a dog

T_C_E

legaladdick said:

TCE has a number of very good burglar alarms. He shows pictures of them on this site.

Mine is only the cheaper GSD 3.5 version, if you can afford it get the GSD 6.0 version which is what Redmidland has.

Duncan270566

North Lower Neil said:

Swisdom said:

North Lower Neil said:

Cheers Swisdom, but £300 and £35 a month by the looks of it - less budget than I was hoping for!!

Fair enough but if you want a monitored system its at least £30 a month

If not then a diy option should suffice but don't scrimp on it. Being burgled is one of my biggest fears...

Would be nice but just out of budget at the moment.

Hopefully a normal alarm system like above would be enough to make it not worth their while.

Thanks for the recommendations, I've just seen there is a £99 Yale one too so will take a look at the reviews, spec etc.

I have a Yale alarm and not had any problems with it. If the alarm goes off (which it has a couple of times) the alarm will call your mobile to let you know. Fortunately, we were still only local and we nipped home within five minutes to sort it out. No break ins so not sure what set it off.