More work needed

[iborg]

After reviewing the various comments in the Home Security forum, I conclude the Oooma has much more work to do to make Ooma a viable Home Security system that competes with other systems like SimpliSafe. I would love to leverage my Oooma for security, but I'm seeing many holes that need to be filled:

1) Delayed Entry/ Delayed exit arming: Most systems provide a 30 second or so delayed entry/exit option to allow one to enter without setting off the alarm or to set the alarm upon exiting the house with a delay.

2) Tied in with #1, there needs to be the ability to disarm/arm the system while in the house without the need to use the app. A keypad - or even using the phone keypad itself - to enter disarm code would be very helpful.

3) There is no backup should the internet be down. Adding a cellular backup for the security feature would be a wonderful addition that would make Oooma a reliable security system.

4) There is no siren. Many home break-ins can be thwarted by simply having a loud alarm go off. Many crooks would likely run away should an in house alarm go off. Not having this a major flaw.

5) a very nice enhancement would be to have a PANIC button - both in form of a physical button or in the app. A child, for instance, could easily find and press a PANIC button should the need arise - a bit hard if such is only availalbe via the app.

I hope Oooma invests in making their Home Security option more useful. Until then, I see it more as a geek novelty but not something I could rely on.

[thomasm]

>After reviewing the various comments in the Home Security forum

You need to do more than this to evalulate the Ooma Home Monitoring system.

>Delayed Entry/ Delayed exit arming

The Ooma sensors have the following option as to when to send the alarm:
Disabled
Immediately
After 1 minute
After 5 minutes
After 10 minutes

>there needs to be the ability to disarm/arm the system while in the house without the need to use the app

Why? It only takes seconds to load the app and change the mode

>There is no siren

That's because it's a home MONITORING system-not a burglar alarm.

>a very nice enhancement would be to have a PANIC button

In order to use Ooma Home Monitoring you need an active Telo device. Have you
ever checked out the Safety Pendant? It has two buttons that immediately dial your
choice of numbers, one of which can be 911. Panic button, right?

> I see it more as a geek novelty but not something I could rely on

I'm not a geek and I have compete faith in the reliability of the system. I used to have
an active ADT monitored system and those morons in their central station rarely followed
the instructions I provided when an alarm signal came in. The Ooma system requires no
human intervention and works perfectly for me so far.

[homeforus]

>There is no siren

That's because it's a home MONITORING system-not a burglar alarm.

Thomas, not to put too fine a point on it, but Ooma has positioned this product as a burglar alarm. It's not even called home monitoring anymore; they specifically call it "Home Security." Security from what? Burglars/intruders (and maybe the occasional broken pipe).

Generally speaking, the OP is right in many regards. The whole product does verge on geek novelty based on a couple key weaknesses that every single other burglar alarm on the market these days offers -- professional monitoring and cell phone+battery backup for when the network is down. I think I'd be more forgiving if they only offered the latter. A traditional alarm system can last for a while in a power outage. Guess what? Ooma's is completely useless (As I learned last week when Hurricane Irma came through and knocked out our power for 28 hours). That's a problem, and it's a hurdle that Scout Alarm and SimpliSafe found a way to get over (SimpliSafe has a 24 hour battery back up. Scout's is 12 hours. Both have 4G/LTE). Ooma can do this too, and the fact that I've invested in this product was done partially on faith that they will. But until they do, yes -- it's just another IoT novelty that has major gaps preventing it from being a mission critical system.

Just FYI, I have my Telo, router and cable modem hooked up to a battery UPS system. It gave me about 4-5 hours of run time when the power went out this week. But then the internet connection itself went down about two hours in, so everything was pretty much useless (which is why a 4G/LTE backup is useful).

I'm not a geek and I have compete faith in the reliability of the system. I used to have
an active ADT monitored system and those morons in their central station rarely followed
the instructions I provided when an alarm signal came in. The Ooma system requires no
human intervention and works perfectly for me so far.

I will say that reliability is decent when everything is active and working. Ooma is still working on quirks, and things are better than they were a few months ago. But I still notice weird things from time to time.

[tjwitman]

I can only assume iborg works for Simplisafe with all of the posts about things that are missing but yet actually there! I received my devices yesterday and set them up. The hardest part was putting those darn little magnet spacers together! Once I realized that times were set for HOME and NIGHT and you couldn't set conflicting times for the other modes, things went a lot better. Just set AWAY with no times, just notifications and create VACATION, just for giggles, all is well. The magnets are really strong and much better than the old style magnetic sensors.

Simplisafe is a very flawed system, which you will learn about if you watch YouTube videos. I just hated the fact that, unless you subscribed to THEIR monitoring people, very little of the system actually was useable. Those people are probably in Manila or Bangladesh anyway. I wanted the option of having the base station dial ME and let ME decide if I wanted to call 911 or my neighborhood militia. No such thing! It's also very easy for a thief to get a cell phone jammer and use it before he kicks in your door. Big drawback of Simplisafe.

As for a siren, wouldn't it be nice since OOMA and Amazon seem to have a linkage for the Ooma system to use the Echo to sound an alarm or even a LOUD warning message that the intruder has been sensed and police have been called? That would be a much better deterrent than a siren that will be silenced as soon as the intruder finds the base station and pitches it against the nearest wall.

[homeforus]

As for a siren, wouldn't it be nice since OOMA and Amazon seem to have a linkage for the Ooma system to use the Echo to sound an alarm or even a LOUD warning message that the intruder has been sensed and police have been called? That would be a much better deterrent than a siren that will be silenced as soon as the intruder finds the base station and pitches it against the nearest wall.

TJ, I like this idea, but I also suggested maybe expanding on the linkage they already have with Nest Protect. The connection between Ooma and Nest Protect allow you to call 911 if your smoke detector goes off. But think about it -- each Nest Protect has a 100db siren built in. I have six of these things. If Ooma could set my Nest Protects to all go off, it would make one heck of a racket.

[tjwitman]

The neighbors would sue you for hearing loss!! hahaha Good idea though.