The LifeShield Smart Home Security Kit ($199) is a versatile dwelling safety system that additionally controls quite a few good dwelling gadgets together with door locks, storage door openers, good plugs, and thermostats. It’s very straightforward to put in, and it provides each self monitoring choices. It additionally helps IFTTT applets and Amazon Alexa voice instructions. Night imaginative and prescient picture high quality from the indoor digital camera is a bit grainy, however that does not forestall the LifeShield system from turning into our newest Editors’ Choice for DIY dwelling safety methods.
Flexible Kits and Pricing
LifeShield provides a number of variations of its DIY dwelling safety equipment. The Essentials system comes with a base station, a keypad, a keychain fob, 4 door/window sensors, a movement sensor, a fireplace security sensor, and an Asus Memo Pad 7 pill with LifeShield software program that you need to use to regulate the whole lot. The hearth security sensor is not really a smoke detector, however as a substitute listens in your present smoke detector to generate an alert. The Security Advantage system will get you the whole lot within the Essentials system in addition to two extra door/window sensors (for a complete of six), one extra movement sensor (for a complete of two), and an indoor safety digital camera.
The Advantage system that we reviewed is at the moment bought solely by means of Home Depot or Groupon. It has a base station, a keypad, a keychain fob, 4 door/window sensors, a movement sensor, a fireplace security sensor, the pill, and an indoor digital camera.
Pricing and monitoring choices range. The Advantage equipment goes for $199 with self-monitoring, or you possibly can join a three-year monitoring plan for $24.99 per 30 days and obtain a $200 Home Depot present card. You also can go for a $29.99 month-to-month plan, however you aren’t getting the present card.
The Security Essentials equipment has a direct buy value of $199.99 during which you purchase the from LifeShield upfront. You can self-monitor utilizing the cellular app totally free, or subscribe to a no-contract month-to-month skilled monitoring service for $24.99 per 30 days. A 3-year subscription lowers the monitoring value to $20 per 30 days. Or, you possibly can lease the , pay nothing upfront, and decide to a three-year contract the place you pay $29.99 per 30 days (which incorporates monitoring) with a $99 activation price. However, you do not personal the tools after the three years are up.
The Security Advantage equipment has a direct buy value of $299 and month-to-month monitoring prices $29.99 per 30 days. If you decide to a three-year monitoring contract, that value drops to $24.99 per 30 days. The three-year rental choice prices nothing upfront, however you will pay $39.99 per 30 days and a $99 activation price. At the time of this evaluation, LifeShield is throwing in two extra indoor cameras once you select this feature.
Lifeshield’s pricing construction is a bit decrease than what you will pay with competitor, SimpliSafe. For instance, the SimpliSafe Essentials package deal prices $195, nevertheless it solely comes with three door/window sensors, a movement sensor, and a keypad. You do not get the important thing fob, hearth security sensor, or the management pill that you simply get with Lifeshield. And, whereas SimpliSafe’s month-to-month monitoring fees are solely $14.99, it’s a must to pay a further $10 per 30 days for the Interactive Plan if you wish to arm and disarm the system utilizing the cellular app and obtain SMS and electronic mail alerts.
Additional element pricing is just about according to different DIY safety methods, with just a few exceptions. Extra door/home windows sensors are fairly priced at $14.99 every, and additional movement sensors price $24.99 every, however flood and freeze sensors are dear at $70 apiece in contrast with SimpliSafe’s costs ($19.99 and $29.99, respectively). LifeShield does not provide fairly as many add-on parts selections as SimpliSafe, nevertheless it has one thing that SimpliSafe does not: a Z-Wave radio. That means you possibly can add quite a few third-party Z-Wave parts together with storage door openers, gentle bulbs, sirens, thermostats, and extra.
Components and Features
The base station measures 1.7 by 9.0 by 6.9 inches (HWD) and is shiny white with barely rounded corners. Inside are a 105dB siren and Wi-Fi, Z-Wave, and mobile radios (the mobile radio is a fallback in case your Wi-Fi is down). You also can join the bottom station to a landline utilizing the cellphone jack on the again panel. Also round again are LAN, USB, and energy jacks, in addition to a reset button.
The touchpad has 0-9 buttons, star and pound buttons, an Off button, and Stay, Away, and Inst (Instant) arming buttons. It additionally has a small 2.5 inch LCD standing panel. It’s powered by two AA batteries and comes with for mounting on a wall.
The indoor digital camera captures 720p video at 30fps. It measures 3.7 by 2.4 by 1.5 inches and sits atop a stand that offers you tilt and swivel adjustability. The lens has a comparatively slender 66-degree area of view and makes use of eight infrared LEDs for night time imaginative and prescient. The digital camera has an 802.11n Wi-Fi radio and also can hook up with your community utilizing a wired connection. It provides movement and sound detection, and has a microSD card slot for native storage. The again panel has an LAN port, reset and WPS buttons, an influence jack, and a Privacy button.
The door/window sensors are 2.6 by 1.0 by 0.5 inches and will be hooked up utilizing double-sided tape or mounting screws, each of that are included. The movement sensor is 3.4 by 2.4 by 1.3 inches and will be mounted utilizing double-sided tape or with mounting screws. The puck-shaped hearth security sensor is 2.3 inches in diameter and 1.2 inches in depth. It too will be mounted utilizing double-sided tape or screws. Finally, the two.3-by-1.3-inch key fob has Stay, Away, and Instant arming buttons, in addition to Panic and Off buttons.
You can management the system from the included pill, along with your cellphone utilizing the free Android or iOS cellular app, or from a PC utilizing the web-based app. The app is thoughtfully designed and makes it straightforward to arm and disarm the system, management dwelling automation gadgets, examine occasion historical past, and even see what is going on on in your neighborhood.
The dwelling display screen tells you the state of your system (armed, disarmed) and has buttons for Stay (partially armed whereas dwelling), Away (absolutely armed), and Instant (armed with no entry/exit delay) modes. Below these buttons is a video panel that shows the final picture captured by the digital camera. Tap the panel and the play arrow to view a reside stream with buttons for handbook recording, taking a snapshot, and accessing a historical past of saved video clips. To view the stream in full-screen mode, flip your cellphone sideways.
Scroll down from the video panel to see a historical past of all safety occasions together with arm and disarm exercise, movement detection, open and closed sensors, and digital camera recordings. Below the historical past panel is a Lights and Appliances panel the place you possibly can management any put in good plugs and different Z-Wave gadgets, and under that may be a part for controlling any put in Z-Wave door locks. If you scroll all the best way all the way down to the very backside of the display screen, you will see a CrimeWatch map that exhibits all reported theft, assault, and vandalism occasions in your neighborhood. Tap any occasion to see the place and when it occurred.
Use the gear icon within the higher proper nook to entry the Settings menus the place you possibly can add and take away gadgets, allow arm/disarm alerts, and configure SMS and electronic mail alerts. Here you too can create automation guidelines to have put in gadgets work collectively and set safety settings equivalent to exit delay, one-touch arming, and monitoring on/off.
Installation and Performance
Designed for simple set up, the LifeShield Advantage equipment comes with a complete person information with set up suggestions and directions, and every field is labeled within the order during which they’re to be put in.
The Step 1 field incorporates the bottom, an influence adapter, LAN and cellphone cables, and a wall mount. Following the person information, I plugged within the base and opened the Step 2 field, which holds the wall-mounted keypad and the Asus MemoPad 7 touchpad. I fired up the touchpad, linked it to my Wi-Fi community, and entered the grasp code printed on the field and within the person information.
After creating a brand new password, I tapped Get Started and verified my tackle, main and secondary emergency contact data, created a monitoring passcode, and answered a safety query. I then added my cellphone quantity to obtain textual content alerts, chosen which occasions I needed to be alerted to, and was given a alternative to observe a video tutorial on find out how to arrange the system. I tapped subsequent, selected Ethernet as my connection kind (you too can join the bottom to your community wirelessly), and used the included LAN cable to attach the bottom to my router. Within seconds the LED gentle turned strong inexperienced, indicating a connection to the LifeShield servers, and I used to be able to arrange my gadgets.
The solely machine I needed to really set up was the indoor digital camera, as all the sensors are pre-paired earlier than delivery and solely require that you simply pull the battery tab to activate them. To arrange the digital camera, I tapped the digital camera tab on the Devices display screen and adopted the directions to attach it to my router utilizing the included LAN cable. Within 30 seconds the app displayed a Wi-Fi settings button which I used to attach the digital camera to my Wi-Fi community. Once linked, I used to be prompted to unplug the digital camera, disconnect it from my router, and relocate it. I restored energy, and after a number of minutes it was up and operating and a reside stream appeared within the app.
The LifeShield sensors labored like a attraction. I instantly obtained push and electronic mail alerts every time a sensor was triggered, and the siren was loud sufficient to be heard all through my home. I put in a pair of good plugs and a door lock and so they responded immediately to my on/off and lock/unlocked instructions.
The system at all times adopted my rule to have a sensible plug activate when a door/window sensor was opened, and my IFTTT applet to have a Netgear Arlo digital camera start recording when the entrance door was unlocked labored each time. I had no bother utilizing Alexa voice instructions to arm and disarm the system and management Z-Wave gadgets
My solely efficiency gripe entails the digital camera. Its daytime (colour) video exhibits good colour, however its night time imaginative and prescient (black-and-white) video is grainy. Moreover, the digital camera’s slender area of view limits how a lot of the room you possibly can monitor. SimpliSafe’s $99 add-on digital camera is equally underwhelming.
Conclusions
Easy set up, cheap costs, and versatile monitoring choices are all good causes to think about the LifeShield Smart Home Security Kit. You can monitor the system by yourself utilizing the cellular app, select a three-year, 24/7 skilled monitoring plan, or go along with a month-to-month plan that offers you skilled monitoring solely once you want it. Although LifeShield does not provide as many add-on parts as SimpliSafe, its help for the Z-Wave protocol means you possibly can add gadgets equivalent to door locks, good plugs, and thermostats, and create IFTTT applets to make them work collectively. The digital camera is not among the many finest we have examined, nevertheless it does not forestall the LifeShield Smart Home Security Kit from incomes our excessive advice.