News Posts

Alarm Grid is proud to announce that new "Certificates of Alarm" (COA) are now available. These serve as proof that a monitoring company is protecting a person's home or business. Many insurance companies offer discounts to their customers who maintain alarm monitoring service.

By presenting one of these certificates, you can save money on your insurance bills. In some cases, the savings can even cover the entire cost of your alarm monitoring expenses. Any monitored customer should contact their insurance company to learn about these discounts.

These discounts are available for customers who receive central station monitoring. Self-monitored customers will first need to upgrade to a central station plan. Additionally, customers with a dual-path communication setup tend to receive the best discounts. This means having a monitoring plan that includes both cellular and IP connectivity. Alarm Grid's Gold and Platinum Plans both allow for dual-path communication. You can view every plan offered by Alarm Grid here.

Additionally, many insurance companies will want to know exactly what Alarm Grid is monitoring in your home. There are varying discounts for the following kinds of monitoring.

• Intrusion
• Fire
• Freeze
• Flood
• Carbon Monoxide

Filling out an alarm certificate is very simple. You will only need to provide some very basic information. This includes your name, monitoring address and the type of services you receive. The certificate is then provided to your insurance company. This will allow them to apply any relevant discounts to your premium. You must test your system ever year in order for the certificate of alarm to remain valid.

To download your new COA, watch the video below or follow the instructions below the video...

1. Click on "My Accounts" on the upper right-hand corner of the site. If you do not see "My Accounts" you are probably not logged in. Go to the Alarm Grid login page and sign in. If you don't remember your password, you can reset it there as well.

2. Click "Download Certificate" under the "Insurance Document" heading on the row corresponding with the property you want the discount on. When you select this, it will make sure that you have had a walk test in the last year. If you have not had a walk test, it will generate a ticket to our team to check your signals. If you don't have dispatch on your account, it will ask if you want to upgrade. If you select that you would like to upgrade, it will generate a ticket and take you to a page where you need to fill in the information that we hand to our central station. This will allow the central station to dispatch.

3. Fill out the information, and click "Send Certificate." A box will pop up and ask you to either verify the information that's already filled in or require that you fill in your insurance agent's information. Once you've done this, click the "Send Certificate" button. This will email your insurance agent and cc you a copy.

Update: There is now a new, easier process for creating a MyAlarms.com account. More information can be found here.

Alarm Grid's monitoring partner, Criticom Monitoring Sevices (CMS), has made it easier than ever for customers to interact with their security systems. Now you can put your system on test mode, view your account info and view your signal history without having to call us or the central station.

All of this is possible thanks to the new MyAlarms.com service from Criticom. Once you have set up an account with MyAlarms.com, you can access your Alarm Grid account information and place your system on test mode on your own.

Getting started with MyAlarms.com is very easy. Simply provide us with the following information:

1. Username for MyAlarms.com (cannot be an email)
2. The email address associated with your Alarm Grid account
3. Your monitoring address

You can provide us with this information using our online chat or over the phone (888-818-7728) during our business hours. Alternatively, you can simply send an email to support@alarmgrid.com. From there, we will contact CMS and let them know that you would like to create a MyAlarms.com account.

Once CMS has set everything up on their end, you will receive an email from noreply@myalarms.com to finish setting up your account. This includes creating a password for your MyAlarms.com account. We recommend adding this email address to your address book to prevent it from going into your junk folder. Make sure to check your spam folder if you have not added this email before requesting access!

If you have any questions about this new service, please reach out to us and let us know. We look forward to helping you get started with this outstanding new service!

Today is the final day of our super low Qolsys pricing. We want to get the Qolsys panel into the hands of as many of our new customers as we can. For that reason, we have lowered the price of the panels as low as we possibly can. Today is the last day. Tomorrow, Qolsys panels are going to go to their normal price.

If you're looking to get a great, cellular panel, with some amazing Z-Wave features, this is the panel for you. The Qolsys IQ Panel 2 is the latest in security technology. The big screen looks great on the walls, and the profile of the panel is thinner than any on the market. The sensors are encrypted like they are on the Lyric, and the panel has an easy-to-use Android interface. We LOVE this panel!

If you need an extra keypad, make sure to get the IQ Remote. This keypad will blow your mind. It looks great, it has a thin profile, and it does pretty much everything the bigger, main panel can do. It will be a welcome edition to anyone's home.

Adding peripherals is easy too. Need more door and window sensors than the number that are included int eh IQ Kit 2 Classic? Add some more door/window s-line sensors. These encrypted sensors will protect your system from being spoofed by clever thieves and their thin profile means that they will protect you discretely.

Unlike the other kits, the Qolsys doesn't come with a key fob. If you love the key fob, you can easily add one. Consider that with this system, you will be able to arm and disarm from your phone. Key fobs aren't absolutely necessary. But if you love it we have it.

No system is complete without a motion sensor. These encrypted motions will make give your home a redundant layer of protection. You can't go wrong with motions. And the encrypted motion by Qolsys will round out your security system for incredible peace of mind.

Finally, to complete your system, consider a glass break detector. Like the motion, this adds a redundant layer of protection in homes. If an intruder breaks glass to get in, they will be stopped short as your system blares and warns them that the police are on their way.

We're proud to say that Puerto Rico is one of our biggest areas of service. That said, in recent weeks, as most of you know, Puerto Rico has been devastated by a hurricane. Our sympathies and empathy go out to those affected. As a South Florida company, Alarm Grid understands full well the gravity of hurricane force winds and the damage they can do.

We know that for those affected, their alarm monitoring bill isn't at the top of mind. And, honestly, we would rather that you devote your time, energy, and finances to re-building the island and your homes. To that end, we are going to give every one of our current Puerto Rico accounts free monitoring for the next 6 months.

We have seen a higher number of failing signals from our accounts in Puerto Rico than usual. If you are one of those accounts, and you are worried about the status of your account, don't worry. We will apply your free 6 months automatically starting today. If you happen to be one of the lucky individuals with a generator, your system should continue to function as normal and you will not see us on your bill for at least 6 months.

Alarm Grid is an American company. We are proud of the opportunity that we have been given here, and we want to make sure that we look out for our brothers and sisters to the south. We simply do not feel good about charging a group of people for service that they are almost certainly not using. And this way, once power is restored, all that you will have to do to be monitored again is plug the unit in. Once it powers up, you will be back online.

We wish you all well in Puerto Rico, and our prayers continue to be with you!

We would like to also thank Honeywell's AlarmNet who has given Alarm Grid a deep discount during this time.

Alarm Grid has just launched its store on Amazon.com. While a majority of our customers buy on Alarm Grid, we know that a lot of you have a strong desire to use your Amazon.com advantages to purchase from us. Since we can't offer the free shipping of Prime on Alarm Grid, or the vast selection available to you from other retailers, we are excited to be able to give you the ability to buy here or there.

There are significant advantages to purchasing from Alarm Grid's site. If you order on Alarmgrid.com, our system lets us marry all your orders together, and lets us process returns in a lot more orderly way should you need to return. Moreover, we will be charging the same amount on all products here as at Amazon.

Alarm Grid uses Amazon's fulfillment already, and has been for about 6 months. So if you have ordered from the site in recent days, you've already experienced Amazon's shipping process. There are also a lot of products that we have not made available on Amazon yet. Our wired door/window sensors, for example, are only able to be purchased on Alarm Grid - and that will be the case for at least the foreseeable future.

We hope that you are as excited about this development as we are!

Honeywell has recently announced a change in the way that their Total Connect 2.0 video surveillance feature will work and the change will be implemented on or about April 19th (next Wednesday).

Currently, if you have Honeywell AlarmNet IPCAMs, you have the ability to view them remotely and have them record 10-second video clips based on a change in pixelation if you have the right Total Connect 2.0 service plan. We offer the TC2 video features without a contract required through our Self Platinum and Platinum plans at https://www.alarmgrid.com/monitoring and we even have a standalone TC2 video plan available at https://www.alarmgrid.com/video-monitoring for those that don't have a security system but want the TC2 video services.

Using a mobile device running the Total Connect 2.0 app, you can log-in and view up to 6 IPCAMs per TC2 location from wherever you are as long as the cameras are powered on and connected properly to the internet and you can watch any recorded videos.

Using the totalconnect2.com website, you can use the Video module to view the cameras remotely and you can also set up more advanced settings such as 10-second video clip recordings and alerts when video clips are captured. These clips are customized by the user and you can use the wrench icon on each camera to set up the areas of detection for each field of view and the sensitivity selections for how much movement is needed to trigger a clip. You can also setup schedules to determine when you want the cameras to record clips and when you only want live viewing capability with no recording happening.

Once you have the camera recording settings configured properly so that the cameras are recording clips of movement that you feel is important while ignoring other movements that aren't important, a new video clip will be stored to your TC2 account and will be available as a event in the Events & Notifications module. Currently, each TC2 location allows storage of up to 500MB of clips and auto-deletes the oldest available clip once the limit is reached. You do also currently have the option to "lock" certain clips that you don't want to be auto-deleted.

Here's where things change (on or about) April 19th, 2017...

While only Honeywell/AlarmNet IPCAMs currently work with Total Connect 2.0, Honeywell is (with great anticipation!) working on a new line of next generation cameras that will integrate with Total Connect 2.0 (we will have more details on the cameras at a later date) and they should be available sometime towards the end of this year.

New Seven Day Storage for Recorded Clips

In anticipation of the next generation cameras, Honeywell is transitioning all existing Total Connect 2.0 video accounts to a new 7 day plan where clips will only be available through the TC2 website/app for 7 days. The 500MB storage will go away and any clip that is older than seven days will be automatically deleted. Once the change is implemented, any currently recorded clip will be set to expire seven days later with the oldest clips being deleted first.

Regular non-TC2 video events will continue to be stored for 90 days,which is how the service works now, and first-in, first-out logic is employed when deleting the older clips.

No More Locking of TC2 Events

In addition to the changes to the video storage feature, Honeywell is removing the ability to "lock" a TC2 event (all events inclsuding security and video) so that you won't be able to save any event beyond the normal expiration (90 days for security and 7 days for video once the change is implemented).

The existing lock feature that allows you to permanently store a TC2 event/video clip:

They are providing a year grace period so that any currently locked events will stay locked up until April 15th, 2018 when all locked events will be deleted. We encourage all Total Connect 2.0 users to start saving all locked video clips outside of TC2 if you want them to still be available after April 15th of next year.

Also, we encourage all TC2 video users to start setting up email alerts with video clip attachments through their TC2 account so that each recorded clip can be saved/archived through email so that the clips are available beyond the new seven day limit.

While we are excited about the new cameras that are coming and the upgrades to Total Connect 2.0 and the video service, some of these changes may have an adverse affect if you don't update your account now to adjust for these changes. As always, let us know if you have any questions by emailing support@alarmgrid.com or calling M-F 9-9 EST.

4/19/17 - Updated: Honeywell has now scheduled the change to the video storage feature for sometime in May and the removal of the lock feature on the TC2 events is now scheduled for the week of the 24th.

If you are a T-Mobile subscriber, you may have noticed that your Total Connect alerts have just stopped coming to your phone. This is the case for all of our users, and we have been getting calls about it for the last two days. If that is what you're experiencing, then please follow the steps below to restore your text messages.

• Go to the Total Connect 2.0 website, and log in to your account.
• Hover over the user whom you want to receive the text messages and select "Edit."
• Under "Notifications," add a new method for receiving messages. Select "Email." Select "Text Email" as "Notification Type."
• Put in [your10digitphonenumber]@tmomail.net. For example: 9549335095@tmomail.net.
• Save, and then go through the process of verifying the email. The verification number will come to your phone. Once verified, you should be good to go.

If you have any questions, or a problem with setting this up, we will gladly help you fix it. Please email us at support@alarmgrid.com. But for the most part if you follow the instructions here, everything should work with no trouble.

Honeywell's flagship L5200 panel has been discontinued. Since June of 2014, the L5200 has been the lesser, more affordable counterpart to the L7000. At Alarm Grid, the L5200 has been our best selling panel, and we are sad to see it go. Though it is being replaced by a panel that is nearly identical.

When released, Honeywell said that the L5200 would be the last panel they ever released with a POTs connection, although its replacement appears to have included the connection. The main difference between the L5200 and the new L5210, as you can see in the image below, is the smaller screen and the shape/type of the buttons. Honeywell has developed the L5210 to look more like its large-screen counterpart, the L7000. The panel is a sleek looking product, and while the smaller screen may make the unit a bit less attractive than the L5200, it's worth noting that the price of the new panels is between 5 and 10% cheaper.

As of today, Alarm Grid is discontinuing the sale of the l5200 and selling only the L7000 and L5210s. We have also switched out the old L5200 kits, and are now selling the L5210 in kits that are the same as the L5200 kits (Our most popular L5210 kits are the L5210PK-WIFI, L5210PK10-WIFI, and the L5210PK10-WIFI-3G).

For those who have the old, L5200 model, worry not. The systems are effectively the same and all the products that work on the L5200 work on the L5210 and vice versa. If you need help with your L5200 or L5210 system, need communicators, or just have general use questions, please let us know or email us at support@alarmgrid.com.

Alarm Grid's Youtube channel has just hit an incredible milestone. More than 1 million unique visitors have visited the channel and watched the videos. Many of you have been introduced to the very idea of DIY home security through the channel, a fact that we are proud of.

Every month, users are spending more than 100 combined days of their time watching how to do everything from installing a security system to programming 5811 sensors.

The most liked video on the channel is the short, but very helpful video that helps users get out of programmer lockout. It's a small contribution, but before Alarm Grid, information on getting back into programming after you were locked out was nearly impossible to find, not to mention there were no simple demonstrations of it.

If you have seen the videos, you will know that they are some of the most information-packed videos available on the subject of home security products. Sterling has introduced us to an astounding amount of content about everything security system related.

Thank you to everyone for helping us reach this milestone. If you haven't subscribed to the Youtube Channel yet, we would love for you to do it now!

Join the 3,500 other subscribers and get alerts letting you know when we release any new videos.

Recently, we have released a set of videos that review the new Lyric Security system's main unit and contacts. These videos are some of the first videos anywhere of the much anticipated panel. This is the kind of high-quality content we've been delivering, and we promise that we will continue to deliver even more of it.

If you are interested in financing your system, so that you pay for its cost over the next 12 months, then we have some incredible news!

Affirm, the company we have partnered with to offer financing, has announced that they will be offering that financing with absolutely no need to do a hard credit check. What that means is you do not have to worry about your credit score being affected when you apply for financing!

For those trying to figure out whether paying our great rates for monitoring is worth the up-front cost of a system, the ability to pay for that system over 12 months is a game changer. For most, the monthly cost of a financed system + monitoring is going to still be cheaper than paying for ADT or Vivint monitoring. What's more, when you're done paying off your system, you don't have to keep paying the high cost of monitoring.

If you are interested in learning about Affirm, take a look at our information page. You select Affirm at checkout, as a payment option, and you make your payments to them. It is simple, easy, and 100% transparent.