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security system vs door chime

16 years ago

Hi - I'm brand new to this forum and hope this is in the right place. We are about to dig for our new home...

it is going to be 2 stories and much bigger than I'm used to. With 2 small children I really want to know when a door opens. I know that a security system would have a "door chime" feature that makes the doors beep when opened. That beep is what I want - I don't necessarily need the rest of the security system.

Do wireless door chimes work very well? Would I be better off having the hard-wired security system? Is there an option that only provides warnings like that without having to have the monthly monitoring service? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

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Comments (5)

allison0704
16 years ago
You can have your house hard wired with the security system door alarms and the stations (usually two) that chime when the doors are open without having it monitored monthly.

I've never heard of wireless door chimes.
Kimberlyinva
16 years ago
If you have a Radio Shack near you they have wireless door chimes starting at about 14.99. They are also available at your local home improvement stores. We have the Radio Shack & they work great!!!
KAT

Here is a link that might be useful: Door Alarm
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Have you ruled out a wireless security system? It's something worth considering. You could easily install it yourself after the house is complete, and save yourself a nice chunk of money. Our current house was pre-wired by the previous owner. After we bought it, we "upgraded" the system to wireless by ourselves. It's not any less secure than the wired system we had in our previous house. Both of the wired and wireless systems we've had use 3G (vs. land line). Here is a link that might be useful: Wireless Home Surveillance Systems Review This post was edited by ILoveCookie on Wed, May 7, 14 at 11:36
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Noise and light are a major deterrent to illegal entry, whatever the motive is. My back up is a loaded 357 magnum, just in case I need help before I can get police to respond. I have motion sensors on three sides of my house and the front has landscape lighting bright enough to make any uninvited person(s) uncomfortable prowling around on that side. I believe anyone who is prowling when I am home and doesn't make a run out of the area when lights come on is very dangerous and that's why I have a couple of guns handy. I think the lights, which include automatic on/off lights inside which are used when we are home and when we are away, make it difficult for anyone to determine if we are home or not. I always leave my pickup truck with the NRA logo on the back and my lighted American Flag flying to act as further deterrents. With cell phones we are also safe from someone cutting the phone lines, it must be very difficult to be a burglar these days, even if they get in to an empty home they have no way of being sure they are not being recorded on video which will be used against them in a court-of-law. All these things help me sleep at night, and if our lovely West Highlands White Terrier wasn't deaf we'd also have an bark alarm, dogs are also a great deterrent to break-in, and a small Terrier can be better than a big dog that is waiting to attack, noise and light are the best and will not need a visit by the police in the vast majority of the cases I believe..
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I have an iChime with Spore led doorbells. The iChime is plenty loud, allows you to select different sounds for the main door and an easy ding dong for the back door. I got mine from the Amazon warehouse. It replaced an old nutone door chime. Good luck!
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mikie_gw
16 years ago
Perhaps something like SkyLink.
wireless and relatively inexpensive...
Starter Kit; "Master control" & one door ... $35 *four doors max*
Each additional door ... $25e

A while back ... I stumbled upon SkyLink inexpensive unit while looking for a driveway motion detector. Wonderful little things.

May find some good prices if you Froogle.com the model numbers.

Here is a link that might be useful: Skylink WD-318
cissado
16 years ago
Mine are on the security system and I love it. We have numerous keypads and hear the chime when the doors or windows or whatever happens to be on the system, are opened. Maybe having your windows on there is a good idea too with children?

Having two floors and possibly a basement,you'll need a few keypads to hear the chime.

You don't need a monthly monitoring for the chimes to work. You also don't need to change batteries as it has a rechargable battery in the system.

You can also install low voltage smoke detectors on the system and have that work in conjunction with the security system. Without the monthly monitoring, the smokes still ring, but obviously the Fire Dept. won't be automatically be notified.

So, there are a few pros and cons to the whole decision.
lsst
16 years ago
We have a monitered system but use the door chimes. Like others have stated, the door chimes work if you do not have the system monitered.

We have a five year old and she used to wake up very early and decide on her own to play outside. I turned on the chimes and knew when she opened a door.

Fortunately, she has outgrown this stage. I know the chimes will come in handy when she is a teenager.;)

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