If you are one of the thousands of home owners looking to secure their home with an alarm system, then this article is for you.  The niche of Home security is growing each year and getting dominated by the larger players such as Vivint, ADT or Monitronics.  To be a small guy in this field now-a-days is rough because of the equipment you have to be able to provide consumers.  In this article, I am going to go over the ADT Pulse security system, it’s features and see if it is worth the costs.

If you watch the video here, it goes through actually working their system so I don’t have too.  As you can tell, they can do everything from keeping a watch on your temperature inside to camera’s outside.  Here’s what is practical and not:

Practical:

• Turning on and off the alarm from a mobile device.
• Checking in on the video feed.
• Paying your bill.
• Allowing other users to turn on and off the alarm.  This is good for when your friends or baby sitter is in the home and you need to be able to grant access to someone else.
• Using the Z wave technology for your lights.  According to this ADT pulse review though, you can also make it so when you drive within a certain distance of your home, Z wave technology will recognize your zone and turn off the alarm while you drive in.  The reviews on the lighting automation are mixed, some users love it others say it ends up not working as advertised.

Not Practical:

• As mentioned, the light automation may not be practical.
• Checking the weather and other local information from your security system.  Just check the weather app on your phone and save some time.
• Pan tilt cameras.  These are slow and choppy when you are viewing them.
• Paying top dollar for all of these features.
• Simon XT panel.  Make sure that if you are using a dealer you get a touch screen ADT pulse control panel.  Many dealers will try to gip you out of getting the nicest equipment.

I hope this helps you in deciding if the new ADT pulse system is any good.  It can be great but just don’t expect it to blow you out of your seats in awe.  Thanks for reading and check back frequently for more updates!