Skylink SC-1000 Complete Wireless Alarm System
by Skylink
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List Price: Our Price: $159.99 You Save: $16.13 (9%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Tools See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Skylink SC-1000 Complete Wireless Alarm System
Customer Review: Works but difficult to install on newer door frames. Not worth effort.
Summary: 3 Stars
After reading the various stellar reviews on Skylink, we decide buy Skylink to replace an existing faulty hardwired DSC system that came with the house. The DSC alarm system update to wireless will easily cost many times more because of wireless functionality, and not to mention additional monitoring cost.
The Skylink system came nicely packed in box, undamaged and tested working with various items such as door magnetic sensor, motion sensor, remote. However, the look and feel of various items were just average quality. Don't expect to be impressed by design - it's purely functional - and sometimes ugly. It looks very outdated with cream ivory color and cheap plastic casing, flimsy antenna sticking out, rounded molded sides. The color shown in Amazon picture was white - or looks white. The actual items sent were more like cream/ ivory color. The color feels really like a decade old partly because of the cheap resin plastic. I feel that Amazon has misrepresented the item by showing a different color. The first picture posted by reviewer Jim is a more accurate color of the item. It is definitely not white, nor grey.
Items included were sufficient to set up an alarm system for a house less than 2000sqft with two doors. All batteries (9V included) were provided for. Quick instructions were good enough to understand basic function and operations. Included Dialer is more complex and requires more reading. The idea behind this system is great but it needs a better design since alarm system will be placed prominently at the entrance and all the doors. I like the fact that the dialer need not be placed next to the alarm control panel and it can dial up to as many as 9 people with your own pre-recorded message if the alarm goes off.
The greatest difficulty we have is the installation of the door sensor. Our door FRAME has some design contours with bumps/ curve and is not a flat surface. Seems like this is a common door frame if your house is built from the 90s onwards. Because of the contoured design, you cannot mount the magnetic sensor onto the frame as the space between the contour and the edge of the door frame is too narrow to hold the sensor in place. This narrow space is not wide enough to mount the small sensor (I am not even talking about the big transmitter that you can mount near it).
From the Skylink website (also in the manual), it showed an alternate way of mounting the sensor on the outside the door, but that will not work since any intruder will be able to cut the wireless transmitter from outside since the door swing inwards.
We thought about a U shape or L shape bracket to extend from the top so that the sensor can be mounted, and then aligned the pieces together but after visualizing how it can be done, we concluded that it will be very unsightly.
So between saving hundreds or damaging the doorframe with unsightly alarms and thus degrading the value of the house - we decided to return the item without installing any part of it. We tested and they were all working fine out of the box - if only we could install it easily - it might be for someone who needs a functional system and has the right kind of door frames.
To add on - the fact that Amazon dropped the item price by 10% 3 days after I purchased it, also made me decide that I might as well return it since I am unhappy with the color misrepresentation and now, the price drop.
Lesson learned - what you see may not be what you get. The system works - but it may not work for everyone - at least not for me.
Customer Review: Best Value - Nicely Done SkyLink
Summary: 5 Stars
THE PURCHASE
I am VERY pleased with this product. I purchased the SC -1000 with the dialer to avoid the monthly monitoring fees. At $160, this is the best value out there. I also purchased an extra sensor for my third door, the AS-433 Audio Sensor to monitor my smoke alarm system, and two extra remote key faub remotes. One for my wife and one for our neighbor who feeds the cat when we are gone. Maybe I can even get him to let me program his phone into the dialer so he can look out the window and visually monitor my home when it goes off.
THE SETUP
I have a 2000 square foot home and the control panel is on the opposite side of the home from one of the door sensors but it has no problem transmitting through the walls. You can separate the door sensors slightly more than the advertised distance without setting off the alarm which is nice since some doors make it difficult to mount flush.
Setup took me a couple hours for the initial components. I took my time implementing the dialer to make sure the base system worked consistently first. Mounting sensors to metal doors was simplified with the sticky tabs. I also recommend marrying the dialer to the control panel instead of to each sensor independently. Instructions were slightly vague on this choice you have. It would be nice if they had explained the choice and the implications in more detail. I'm sure they get many calls about this.
The last component I installed was the Audio Sensor (AS-433). It really does need to be less than 6 inches from my smoke alarm siren. I tried it a foot and a half away and it did not work. Worked great right next to it. This should help eliminate false alarms though.
I also have several Linksys wireless cameras that allow me to monitor my home from my iPhone while away. So if the dialer calls my cell, I can immediately monitor 4 different camera locations in my home to see what is going on. Very nice.
I put the motion sensor inside my gun safe. This was perfect. No false alarms for any reason unless the safe door is opened. I can disable the system if I want to get my gun silently, or I can let it go off to disorient the intruder while I get my gun. Even with the metal safe being on a different floor of the home, it has no problem communicating with the control panel from inside the heavy duty metal safe. Amazing.
UPGRADES I AM CONSIDERING
I am considering getting a vibration detector or additional motion sensor to put inside one of my vehicles. Even thought this would only work while at home, it would alert me if someone smashed out a window on my SUV which spends most of the time parked in my driveway. Smash and grabs are one of the most common crimes in our area. I don't keep anything in my vehicle but I would be alerted the second of the smash.
I am also going to get additional window sensors for each of the 8 windows on our bottom floor. Even with all these upgrades I will not have spent what one year of monitoring costs with most systems. I have heard there are cheaper monitoring services out there. If I can find one for less than $5 a month, that I can activate or deactivate easily, I might consider purchasing it and programming their number into the dialer.
Customer Review: Good intruder protection
Summary: 3 Stars
This security system consists of two separate devices with two different setup manuals. There is an alarm control panel with sensors and a manual. The other device is an emergency dialer with its manual. When selling the systems as a package, it would make so much sense to put the instructions in a single manual. Between the two, there are instructions that are just wrong. Installation would have been a hassle if I hadn't first read the Amazon reviews.
The dialer manual tells you to program the individual sensors to the dialer. The only makes sense if you bought the sensors without an alarm control panel. But I would have tried to program the individual sensors had not other reviewers pointed out the error.
I finished the setup of the alarm control panel and then set it aside for wall mounting the next day. But before I mounted it on the wall, it began beeping and flashing the low battery light. Sure enough the 9 volt battery was down to 8 volts after 24 hours. I should have left the device plugged in, but now I know how long it operates on a the backup battery.
There are instructions on how to replace the PIN which has the default of 000. It makes no sense to leave a default PIN which an intruder could use to turn off the alarm. After you set the new pin, the dialer instructions tells you to program the new PIN to the dialer with a sequence that includes inserting the PIN in the alarm control panel and pressing B twice. What it neglects to mention is that the sequence is the same as the emergency silent alarm procedure. I learned that when the dialer promptly called my cell phone.
My package included an instruction addendum that said I should make the telephone line connection at a point in the telephone line route before any other line connections. That was not realistically feasible for my setup, but I don't know how important that is.
I bought the package for security at my vacation residence. At my principal residence, I have the ADT service. I have paid $300 in false alarm charges because PIN entry problems by workers, cat sitters and friends. The one time there was a real intruder, the deafening internal alarm quickly scared him off. That deafening internal alarm may be all that is needed with the Skylink system. (My ears rang for an hour after I accidentally activated the alarm.)
The "complete wireless system" is only designed for intruder protection. I thought it might also send me a message if the power was turned off or the backup battery became low. Not so. There are additional components that can be purchased for alerting you to temperature problems, smoke, flooding, noise and vibration. None for a power outage. But I have a separate Ace Hardware device that will call me if there are temperature, power or battery backup problems. I can also call the device to check temperature and power. There doesn't seem to be any way to contact the Skylink devices by telephone. Apparently that deafening alarm will keep blasting until someone can get to the control panel.
The package does what it is advertised to do and fits my needs when combined with my other monitor and my Panasonic network camera. I would give it a four star rating if the documentation were better.
Customer Review: Very reliable. Very satisfied
Summary: 4 Stars
I literally did not read the instructions--I got two booklets. It came with separate
single leaflets. Those were the once I read. I finished the alarm then added the alarm to
the dialer. Works as mentioned. Very reliable. When the alarm is armed, you cannot open it or finable with it without trigerring the alarm--that is very impressive-- In fact I do not think you can mess up the alarm without it alarming and sending the message to the dialer, which is usually hidden. I could not believe that everything is working even if I did not read the whole thing. I did not read most of the materials, so feeling kinda guilty, after I installed it, I read the whole thing, then I understood why there could be a problem: There are too many options which most people will not need and will just confuse the issue. I could have given it a five star--I do not understand the other critical review either--I did not experience any of it. That is the good side.
Let me tell you the reason why I gave it one less star:
1) It would not recognize if a sensor is open. It would just set the alarm to arm.
I guess the sensors only sends signals when you close then open it, and it does it only once. It was not a problem for me, because I also bought an alarm system which beeps intermitently while sensor or transmitter is open, until you close it. It is like a monitoring alarm. Besides, one signal sent to the dialer is all you need, because the dialer could repeat the message up to nine times and call the caller up to nine times-- the person called could cancel any call or future call by pressing the # sign. Having the transmitter send it once will also tremendously prolong battery life--I figure--
2) There was no warning that I did not have a dial tone. The dialer would just be replaying your
message even if it did not dial anything. It will not warn you that you did not have a dial tone.
3) The contacts look dinky. I bought a hidden contacts for about less than $2.00. All I did is drill a bole on the inner side of door frame. I hope they would include that option for others. I even made the wire from the transmitter to the contact longer so I can hide the transmitter. I will never use the other contacts came with it.
The reason I am extremely impress is its reliability. The motion detector is very reliable. By the way, my experience with motion detection is, you have to use it indoor, because they are not that reliable outside. I have a monitored alarm and I have several
internet cameras. When somebody opens, like my outside side door, it will call me, then I would have the
time to take their pictures and movies via my iphone. No additional monitoring fees.
Now, i would have time to take the intruders' picture even before my monitored alarm goes off-all for as litle as over $100. I was told that lately, police even ignore most of the alarm calls. My friends got their houses broken into, even if we live in a good neighborhood--I guess it is the sign of the times. Funny, but I feel a lot more secure now. If anything bad happens, I will definitely not blame myself. Thanks for the product.
This is a well thought of product, and it is worth the money---definitely--
Customer Review: Good value
Summary: 4 Stars
After a series of recent break-ins in our neighborhood association, I decided we needed to add some home security. After considerable research I did the following: Converted all our outdoor lights to motion-sensor activated. Added a Security Strike Plate to a door that needed beefing up, a security chain to another and a "Charlie bar" to replace the stick we were using at the bottom of our sliding glass door. I also added glass-breakage alarms to the sliding glass door and to the entrance window beside our front door.
Regarding this review, last but not least, I purchased the Skylink SC-1000 Complete Wireless Alarm System. Subsequently, I purchased three additional door sensors (all five external doors now have one) and an extra keychain transmitter. This was after reading the many reviews, mostly positive, about this system.
I am in agreement with the majority of the reviewers that this system is a good value for the money. While it is cheaply built it appears capable of performing its intended function quite well. I had very few problems installing it.
My only negative comments are as follows: The audio quality of the message you record on the dialer is poor in the extreme. It would be worth charging a few extra dollars to improve this. Or, have the customer buy the needed 9-volt batteries and apply this cost-reduction to improved audio components. Two of the three 9-volt batteries that came with the system were very low on charge and I had to replace them anyway at a cost of $5. The motion sensor that came with my system was defective. I had to send it to Skylink in California. It took a month for me to receive a replacement.
Some reviewers mention the vulnerability of the alarm and dialer control panels. If an intruder quickly gains access to the alarm and dialer he can trash/disable them. My solution to this was to place them in our laundry room. This location makes them readily accessible while leaving and entering the house. Our normal entrance to the house is from the attached garage through a deadbolt-locked door into the laundry room. I added a phone jack to the laundry room for the dialer and a lock to the door between the laundry room and the rest of the house. So, the laundry room now doubles as a security room with locks on both its doors.
I am debating whether to add an additional Skylink Audio Alarm unit outside. Other than that, I am done. I didn't spend a lot of money and have no monthly third-party fees associated with the dialer. Assuming components don't start failing in the short-term, I am a happy camper. I am not claiming our house is now burglar-proof. None are. But, if we are home we will definitely know if someone is trying to break in. And if we are not home, I feel it is secure enough that potential intruders would probably move onto easier pickings.