I grew up in a house where the philosophy on home protection was that a big dog and a gun was all a household ever needed. It’s a sound theory, unless neither the dog nor the owners are home, in which case you’re just out of luck.
Times change, and with two young kids running around my house I’m just as concerned about keeping the kids in as I am keeping burglars out. I’ve never cared for the idea of the big wired alarm system that you just have to leave behind if you move, and the monthly fees have always sounded awful. So when Costco had the Ring Alarm kit on sale I jumped at the offer.
The Costco kit differs from others in that it comes with six window/door sensors instead of one. It costs about $40 more than kits sold at other retailers like Amazon, but you get $100 worth of extra sensors for the price.
This kit is simple enough for a novice to set up in under an hour. All of the sensors come with peel and stick mounting tape or you could opt to screw them in. The hub can be set up to use either a wired or wireless connection, and although the keypad comes with a power cable, it can be run for months on the included battery. In fact all of the sensors come with batteries pre-installed, and they are all pre-pared to your hub, so you just have to turn them on and tell the app where you’ve placed them. If you’re concerned about losing power or wifi, the hub can run on batteries for up to 48 hours, and it will use AT&T’s wireless network to communicate if you pay for professional monitoring.
The professional monitoring only costs $100 for the year if you pay for the whole year upfront. Otherwise it’s $10/month. If you sign up for professional monitoring, Ring will give you a certificate to provide your insurance company for a discount. I saved $300/year, so not only was the system free, but it will actually make me $200 per year!
Check out the unboxing video below to see what you get when you buy the Ring Alarm security kit, and be on the lookout for more articles to come as I install this kit and use it over time.