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Review, Technology

Review: Samsung SmartThings + ADT Home Safety Expansion Kit at Best Buy

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Smartthings Tools

The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free.

We’ve had the ADT Home Security Starter Kit, from Samsung SmartThings & ADT in our house for a few months now. It like the service and the devices. I had written about the Starter Kit previously, but we also received the Samsung SmartThings Expansion Pack which included additional SmartThings. The expansion pack has an ADT Smoke Alarm, an ADT Carbon Monoxide Alarm, and an ADT Water Leak Detector. Each of these devices was easy to install and certainly provided me with the peace of mind to know that if something wasn’t right in the house, I’d know about it immediately.

I think that most of America has seen a little show about the Pearson family and how their lives were devastated by a fire. Knowing that the ADT Smoke Alarm was in the house keeping watch over the family brings with it peace of mind. Having help only seconds away through the ADT Security Hub and the connected devices also helps to alleviate the fears in my mind.

About a year back I was in the cellar over near the furnace. I noticed that there was a huge hole in the pipe that let the exhaust from the furnace into the chimney. I called my plumber right away and he dropped everything he was working on to come right over. When he told me that we were only alive because our house is so poorly insulated and drafty I felt sick. I didn’t know that such a danger from Carbon Monoxide poisoning was lurking there in my cellar. We’ve had everything fixed since then but to be able to have a Carbon Monoxide detector that could send me alerts directly to my phone would make me immediately aware of anything were ever to happen again.

Water Detector

We have an old house and as such, things like the water heater are old as well. With the ADT Water Leak Detector I would know immediately if that Hot Water heater failed. The older it gets the more of a real possibility it becomes.

Connecting these three devices to my existing ADT Security Hub was very easy. Each new thing has a QR code that you scan with your phone and then you tell the app where in your house you are placing it. That means that you don’t have to go searching the house trying to figure out which smoke detector is beeping for no reason. A game that Allison and I have played many times. I could have sworn it was the one in the basement, only to discover that it was really in the first floor hallway. With the devices set up in the app I would know immediately which device to inspect.

Review

Review: Samsung SmartThings + ADT Smart Home Security Starter Kit at Best Buy

1 Comment

Samsung ADT Smart Home Security

The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free.

I recently set up the Samsung SmartThings + ADT Smart Home Security Starter Kit in our home. This was the first time I had done any setup of a security system before and it was very easy to do. Everything is laid out in the kit and installing this into our home was a snap. The Samsung + ADT Smart Home Security Starter Kit comes with The ADT Security Hub, two ADT Door and Window Detectors and one ADT Motion Detector. The system can be expanded with many more devices, too. There is an Expansion Pack that includes an ADT Smoke Alarm, ADT Carbon Monoxide Detector and ADT Water Leak Detector.

I started off by downloading the Samsung SmartThings app onto my phone. This is where I was going to be able to remotely arm and disarm my security system, add new SmartThings to the system and even test out the system. Each of the detectors has a QR code on it. When you are ready to set up a new detector you scan it and then name it. You can also define where in the house the detector will be placed. Once the detector is installed in place then you can assign a specific sound and also set the volume level of that sound. At first I picked a sound that I did not want and it was set really loud. I did not want it o be that loud especially for a door that we opened and closed all the time. That would have been intolerable. So, I was able to choose from a bunch more sounds and volume levels until I found the correct one for us.

When you install each detector you can name the location for the device. So for example if you use one of the ADT Door and Window Detectors on the front door you can name it Front, and maybe that door is located in a kitchen then you can also give it the location of Front Kitchen Door and the Security Hub will not only play a chime it will say the location for the door that was opened. that way you know immediately which sensor was triggered.

Home Security in a snap

The ADT Security Hub is where you can arm and disarm your system. You can set how quickly the system arms once you choose to arm it. You can also input your security pin into this device to disarm your alarm. There are a couple modes for arming your system, ARM (Stay) for when you are going to bed and ARM (Away) when you are leaving. The ADT Security Hub will also tell you at a glance if the system cannot be armed because a door or window is still open. It even shows the current time and weather in case you want to check either of those things.

While you can arm and disarm the system from the ADT Security Hub you can also do it through the SmartThings app. You can also set up several Automation routines to have your SmartThings work together. There are some pre-defined routines but you can add your own as well as customize those that are existing. That way you can come home to a house all lit up with by by Wi-Fi enabled lights from various manufacturers or you can have your thermostat automatically set to your desired temperature. You can even have the television or speakers automatically turn on to your favorite channel. There are so many things that the Samsung SmartThings app can do. I see that it even works with some wireless cameras that I own and have not installed yet. I will be installing them soon and will write about that experience in a future post.

I am impressed with how quick and easy it was to set up everything, how I can expand my system to my own needs and how many other things I can connect to the system. It was also easy for me to set up ADT Monitoring services. As someone who works overnights outside the home I have peace of mind that trusted help is seconds away.