Best Motion Detectors
Set includes one sensor/one receiver. Sensor can detect motion up to 40 ft away. Tested through thick forestry, hail storms, gusty winds, heavy rains, scorching heat, and snow. REALISTIC RANGE- 1/4 mile long range has been tested in real world settings with trees, buildings, walls, and vehicles in order to make true and realistic wireless range claims (please note: extra heavy interference such as thick walls, metal siding, tall hills, and many trees will diminish the wireless range). We offer friendly and knowledgeable USA based tech support that will help you both before and after your purchase.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I was able to install this quickly and easily (95%of my time was spent on setting a post to mount it on, but even with the post digging and setting, the whole thing took less than 40 minutes). Install batteries, mount to a post or tree and you're done. I have no problems with reception, despite the distance from the house (several hundred feet) the fact that it is at the bottom of a steep hill and the signal has to pass through our garage to get to the house."
"Be aware it will trigger on moving branches (I adjusted my sensor down so it would not trigger on the trees across the driveway)."
"I bought the original version first and tried it at 350-400’ away from my house (600’ advertised) and 35’ from my driveway but it didn’t work."
"I bought to go on the bridge on my moms driveway it’s a little less then 1/4 mile from house with many trees and a huge hill but it goes off fine would love to get camera though cause the deer set it off a lot."
"We have a very long 800 foot driveway with many trees and twists."
"Works as advertised."
"Easy setup."
"Functions very well; perfect for my long driveway ; works from a closet in the house by front door."
Reliable Range - Communication range of up to 100m/328ft (the distance from the sensors to the receiver/alarm/chime) and detection range of the infrared sensor of approximately 5-8m/16-26ft to keep you informed and safe.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I was considering to get the mail chime but it is a bit expensive in terms of price so I thought I will give motion detector a try as it's cheaper."
"I installed the second outside onto my shed to provide motion alert when someone pulled into my driveway or was around my vehicles. - follow up review - after doing some research I found that direct sunlight can affeft the PIR sensor. As a matter of fact the second night deployed the unit chimed several times at 4am and woke me warning me that there was motion in my driveway and I found two people trying to break into my cars."
"Mostly needed the directions (included) to help decide which chime, alarm, or flashing light combo I wanted."
"I have sensors in my carport and panel on my nightstand forty feet away."
"Easy setup."
"The beep sometimes gets lost in all the other sounds generated by every electronic device in the house."
"The alarm works fine but it goes through batteries very quickly."
"There needs to be something in the middle for how loud the alarm is so you can dial up or down depending on your hearing."
Push Smart Alerts to Smartphone when Motion Detected-You can schedule notification by motion and specific time. Zmodo Cloud Service - Motion alert clips are saved in the cloud for 36 hours for free. With the plan, you can review, save, and share footage at any time, and reduce false alerts with cloud intelligence.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The other thing...I don’t I understand the function of WiFi extender came with my smart doorbell... I originally thought it’s an extended chime if we have two storage house (If so, that’s very useful) but it seems not related to my smart doorbell... One more suggestion is to do a better job on user manual."
"Camera works well when using the app, but it probably depends on your internet speed."
"The zmodo app makes adding, managing and remote viewing the camera easy."
"I can see the recordings are using the Zmodo App that are stored on the SD Card."
"When viewing the live feed there are annoying arrows that will not go away! I contacted support and requested that they be removed in the next update. Also, the placement of the power cord on the bottom is very odd."
"This is a pretty great value."
"(That's how I notice that the dog go out of his bed to sleep on my couch)... Only thing I would add to make it 5 stars is adding a preset buttons so I can choose the position and not done it manually."
"Suddenly it went offline and it took forever trying several different solutions before finally getting it to connect again. When I replied to them that it was still not working, I got nothing but silence from them."
Best Motion Detectors
Set includes one sensor/one receiver. Sensor can detect motion up to 40 ft away. Tested through thick forestry, hail storms, gusty winds, heavy rains, scorching heat, and snow. REALISTIC RANGE- 1/4 mile long range has been tested in real world settings with trees, buildings, walls, and vehicles in order to make true and realistic wireless range claims (please note: extra heavy interference such as thick walls, metal siding, tall hills, and many trees will diminish the wireless range). We offer friendly and knowledgeable USA based tech support that will help you both before and after your purchase.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I was able to install this quickly and easily (95%of my time was spent on setting a post to mount it on, but even with the post digging and setting, the whole thing took less than 40 minutes). Install batteries, mount to a post or tree and you're done. I have no problems with reception, despite the distance from the house (several hundred feet) the fact that it is at the bottom of a steep hill and the signal has to pass through our garage to get to the house."
"For the original installation, I had put NIMH rechargeable batteries in the sensor unit, and mounted it on wooden post located about a foot to one side of a steel fence post and about 3 feet above the edge of a steel cattle-guard. I will move the sensor back to the original position sometime soon, to see if the nearby steel post (or the steel cattle-guard) was really a problem. To replace the batteries or adjust any settings inside the sensor, you need to remove 4 tiny screws and separate the main sensor body from the mounting plate, taking care not to loose any of the screws."
"As I write my review, my Guardline has been installed for two months now. Our house is another 400 feet past our gate."
Best Home Security Systems
With object and facial detection, floodlight cam has the most advanced motion sensors in home security. Enter your model number to make sure this fits.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Since then I have put up ring flood light cameras all around my house."
"I can tell them to leave I can sound an alarm I can tell them we are calling the police and it also videos everything for evidence.I even saw my dad on the porch this morning and was able to tell him I love Him and I am miles away."
"First off, let me preface this by saying that I really like Ring and most of their products. Funny thing is, I have numerous statistics on my network that show that there are no other devices sending traffic upstream when trying to connect to the Ring Floodlight Cam. Bottom line, this device doesn't work nearly as well as the Doorbells and when you need someone in support that can think outside the box from just reset the device, extend your signal or increase your speed, you can't get to that person. I'm sorry Ring, I really was hoping this would be a home run as your doorbell was :(. Update 08/24/17: My faith in ring has been restored."
"You are forced to create a guest network with a very simple password just to get this device connected. One device gets updated while the other is still on an old firmware version even though they are both connected to the same wi-fi network and have good signal strength. Every time I am given the same stupid answers to reset the device or change camera view or move it around a bit."
"So Ring has some work to do with this product as it was put out into the market too early with some engineering issues. I set up the camera on the soffit of my garage which is 8 feet from the ground."
Best Security Sensors & Alarms
Set includes one sensor/one receiver. Sensor can detect motion up to 40 ft away. Set includes one sensor & one receiver. Match different chimes with different sensors around your property to differentiate where motion is being detected. The 1/4 mile long range Guardline driveway alarm model is available for longer range and heavy interference installations).
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Make sure you set it for above the knees to avoid pet's setting it off..I had to hide it to avoid it from being seen..Be aware when it detects something a red light can be seen by passers who can take or destroy the product."
"And we have a lot of squirrels! There has been a few times that I didn't hear it alert and there was someone at my door, but I could have just missed it as I have it in my office and I can't always hear it if I'm in the kitchen or at the other end of the house. This is a 2-week review and so far so good!"
"Researched all the driveway alarm options and decided to go with Guardline based on reviews and price. A few helpful tips: Directions call for a metric drill bit for installation. Dani was very helpful and I adjusted the location of the base unit which solved the problem. Another tip from Dani at Guardline is to change your sensor batteries before the cold weather hits in late fall. The base unit plugs into the wall and has a back up battery option."
"I received a replacement within 2 days and Simon in Tech Support even sent a follow-up email today stating they were testing the unit I returned as well several others."
"Goes off every time someone drives or walks up the driveway."
""Dave" at Guardline emailed back a list of suggestions I should try and if those didn't work, he said Guardline would exchange my unit, and if that didn't work, they would refund my money. I followed his suggestions meticulously, the crux of which was to take down the gate unit, take its cover off, its batteries out, and let everything dry out for multiple days in case there was a moisture issue of any degree."
"The advertisement listed a realistic range of 500 feet, so I thought that it would be fine for my use, but the operation is intermittent."
Best Complete Surveillance Systems
Weather-resistant - Arlo Pro cameras are Weather-resistant so you can place them anywhere-indoors and out.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I had some locations outside far from power outlets where I wanted surveillance, purchased and Arlo Pro system for this coverage. The image quality is slightly poorer, but the functionality is easier, there is free cloud recording, the app interface is cleaner, and the wireless feature means I can place these in spots the others can't go. Works out of the box, recent app update lets you scroll through video feed in time-lapse fashion. A small hiccup in that a recent app update seemed to wipe camera settings, but afterward everything else has been fine. From personal experience I will say the cost doesn't sound so bad at first, but after 3 years of paying it I'm realizing using Nest cameras has become a multiple thousand dollar system for us. No cloud option; SD card stores video locally, app on phone allows you to view feed in real time. In my experience, Samsung's zoom is crisper and its night vision is superior than Nest. Night vision is on par with Nest, but if you buy the Arlo Pro skins (sold separately), they actually reflect off the IR in the corners of the screen and wash out the image. If you use it to monitor & talk to a baby or pet, the lag is considerable and you cannot hear yourself on the other end. Fantastic audio quality, and it's true two-way so both sides can speak and hear each other at the same time (like a cell phone). Samsung Smartcam can also double as a baby monitor by playing lullaby music and a few other songs. I used to have a Nest cam in my detached garage but I had to bring it back in the house as it was dropping signal multiple times per day. But it has worked every time I've called on it, connects fast, doesn't drop video for me, and is currently located farther from my router than my Nest cams. And in this winter's 30 degree weather, my Arlo Pro cameras had no problems recording clips while my outdoor Nest cam fell offline several times. Recording sometimes takes too long to start (i.e. 2-3 seconds after motion first detected), which means I get a lot of clips where I see the tail end of something moving across the screen. I have the cameras perpendicular to the area they are monitoring so objects go across the screen, if you use them head-on the motion sensing is poor. For me, the positives easily outweigh the negatives: Ease of use, everything working out of the box, and the wireless capability is a combination of features the other systems don't have. If you're still on the fence, the one thing I'd circle back to are Nest cam's long term costs for cloud storage. UPDATE: Less than a month into ownership, some of the shine has come off the Netgear Arlo Pro. None of these issues started until after a week or two after deployment, the cameras worked well out of the box but began to show warts soon after. The biggest disappoint has been Netgear tech support, they never did help me and left my trouble ticket with the answer that a new app will be coming out soon and that should resolve things. When the cameras record video clips, I get large green stripes blocking the field of view. During the Spring and Summer we had no green blotches and the cameras properly reported power levels. If the cameras make it through the winter without doing the green blotch thing and I can pull up the feed on command, I'll raise the rating again. I do like the system, the app and cameras, but the niggling issues (and the fact it still doesn't pick up everything) have kept it from being a five star product."
"I bought this system because I wanted to hang cameras outside of my house so that I can see what's going on when I'm not home and so my wife can feel safer. I have 4 cameras all together, and 3 of them are attached to trees outside, the 4th is outside, but attached to the house. The camera sends you an alert, almost immediately (which I love) when it detects motion. I was looking at the camera image in real time and when I saw one of my cats in the backyard I was able to tell her where he was and she was able to retrieve him. That being said, I have lots of trees near my house, and even with pruning branches, I still get so many alerts when it's windy that I tend to turn off the cameras until it gets less windy. Also, I had to work on placement of the cameras so that I don't get an alert every time a car drove by my house. For me to get on a ladder, unscrew the camera from the mount on the tree, bring it in to charge via USB, then go back out and get on my ladder and try to re-aim the cameras is a pain the butt. The camera is supposed to be an HD camera, but the image during the day is really pixelated, especially if it's windy. The cameras internal IR light is puny, but I have security lights outside to light up my yard, so I don't rely on the cameras own IR light. I would recommend this if you want a general idea of what's happening around your house, just don't expect crisp, sharp images (but really, how often do you see security cameras footage on the news that's clear? I think most security cameras aren't that sharp anyway. ). In fact, I felt the difference was great enough that I've returned my previous system of 5 arlo pro cameras (thank you Amazon for your amazing customer service) and bought 5 arlo pro 2 cameras. I did call netgear and ask if they had some kind of exchange program for owners of the arlo pro who want the arlo pro 2, where I could send my old cameras in, pay the difference, and get new cameras..."
Best Surveillance & Security Cameras
At 720p, each camera requires 200 to 500 Kbps of upload bandwidth while streaming video.At 1080p, each camera requires 450 to 1200 Kbps of upload bandwidth while streaming video.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Had a Christmas package stolen form my driveway, because of the camera we were able to identify the license plate and the thief which ultimately resulted in his arrest."
"We've had occasional situations where a camera has gone offline, but I attribute that to a flaky WiFi signal and not necessarily the camera. Regarding the Nest video recording service, we pay the monthly fee for all of our cameras. In the simplest of installations, you'd mount your camera in the desired location and then run the cord to an outdoor power outlet, securing the cord along the way with the included clips. I wanted to use this wiring so I was able to use a power over ethernet (POE) splitter and injector (bought on Amazon) to run power to the camera and then connected the splitter to the camera's power cable using a USB adapter. Because the cable is permanently attached to the camera itself (which isn't inherently a bad thing, and probably has to do with waterproofing), installations like mine which don't require the cable to span a long distance to connect to power end up with a long mess of extra cord. Aside from the physical installation, Nest makes it simple to connect and configure the camera to your home wifi. Using the app you can view your camera's live feed, view past motion events (still images if you don't subscribe to the Nest Aware service to record your video), configure settings like night vision, sound, etc., as well as turn the camera off and on (if you ever need to)."
"The problem is that they only offer 2 cloud storage option subscriptions to store your history with their Nest Aware cloud storage offering. Here is the break-down: Currently as of 10/24/2016: 1) 10 day - $100 per year per camera with a $50 discount for each additional camera. So for me - that would be $300 / year - to store 10 days of history for 5 of my cameras. OR - They also have: 2) 30 day - $300 per year / camera with a discount 50% discount per camera ($150 per year). This is ridiculous for home consumers who want simple home security. Nest - please make a subscription option for home security for owners to choose how much storage they want or offer and entry level package to store 1 or 2 days storage at a reasonable price."
"You will either get too many annoying alerts that aren't important or basically no alerts. You get (Some) snapshots of alerts. (This means you're probably going to get a lot of annoying alerts that don't matter to you, or you can basically not get any alerts). Since you only have picture snapshots, a lot of alerts won't even have anything in the picture because the motion detected it too late."
Best Security & Surveillance Biometrics
Door Chime Operation. Press the push button on the doorbell once, a sounding wireless signal will be sent to the receiver. Sound and Flash. There is a switch at left on the back of the Receiver. Press it to adjust the sound volume to be high, medium and low. Specifications A. Doorbell. Power: 1 x 3 Volts CR2032 battery (included). B. Receiver. Power: 2 x 1.5 Volts AA alkaline batteries (not included). Operating Temperature: -30¡æ to +40¡æ. Operating Distance: 300 feet in the open air. Selectable Tone: 36 Polyphonic Melodies. Digital Code Type: Auto-learning. DIY Expandability - Expand this system to fit your needs by pairing up to 5 push buttons to your receiver. Each push button can also be paired with multiple receivers to increase the notification coverage area.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I definitely recommend this doorbell, battery last for a long time ( I haven't changed it since I bought it), I love that I can move my doorbell around from upstairs to outside."
"The default is really the only regular doorbell-ish sound I found, but I honestly just got tired of cycling through all the songs."
"I appreciate the fact that i was able to choose the ring tone to something that was not startling because my father is elderly."
"I installed this in a playhouse our grandsons have when the original one died."
"The wireless doorbell kit is well made, and adds. a little spice to the décor."
"I work in an office suite in a large building and my office door is around the corner from the suite door."
"I like that this doorbell was wireless it made install a breeze."
"Works well but neighbors keyfod to unlock their car sets it off."
Best Surveillance Video Equipment
Setup is as simple as downloading the free Zmodo App, creating an account, and connect the cameras to your Wi-Fi. 【Motion Clip Alerts on Phones】: Receive an alert and a short video clip on your Zmodo app whenever motion is detected, and customize which areas on the cameras’ live view will trigger an motion alert, thus to prevent unwanted alerts and only get notified by alerts that really matter. 【Remote & Local Playback】: Cameras are built with excellent quality for 24/7 HD monitoring jobs, and video feed is saved to the included 500GB hard disk.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I love that I am notified by the app when sound or motion is detected."
"People who say the app and video are laggy might be having issues because their router is out of date."
"It was easy to setup, software was simple to use, quality was good for what I wanted, and it just worked. Zmodo, just like Neato and many other companies, don't use web protocols that are friendly. For example, my router thinks that communication from Zmodo is an intruder trying to hijack my network. So I have currently spent over 26 hours of time with support from ISP and Zmodo and Internet blogs and videos to get this working. My neighbor has Nest Cam and same ISP / router; basically a plug and play experience for them. Camera Customization. I am assuming there are still issues with the setup nightmare I went through which are causing options on the cameras to either 1) Not appear in the app or web control 2) No take when I change a setting or 3) Not work at all. Zmodo support pretty much is horrible, so I will either solve this myself or give up."
"The system gives you the ability to set the time zone, but after an hour or so it reverts back to a time stamp other than mine. Video without an accurate time stamp is useless."