How Do I Deactivate My Alarm System?

You can deactivate your alarm system by contacting your alarm monitoring company and telling them that you would like to discontinue service. The company will then tell you how you can begin the deactivation process. This is necessary if you want to bring your system to a new alarm company.

There are two ways you can deactivate an alarm system. You can temporarily deactivate a system, or you can permanently deactivate a system. Temporarily deactivating a system is very simple. You just need to power it down. You can do this by disconnecting the backup battery and unplugging the transformer. The system will be deactivated until you power it back on. Once you power it back on, it should work like normal. Please note that simply powering down your system will not result in any changes to your monitoring plan. You will still be responsible for any regular fees with your monitoring company.

One might also consider placing your system on test mode to be another method for temporarily deactivating an alarm system. When a system is in test mode, it will still be powered on and function like normal. The communicator will still send out signals, but the monitoring company will ignore these signals as long as the system is on test. This means that the user will not receive any automatic emergency dispatch in the event of an alarm. The user can also temporarily pause any system notifications from an interactive service platform like Total Connect 2.0 or Alarm.com. The easiest way to place your system on test mode is to contact your monitoring company or the associated central station and let them know you are testing your system. If you are an Alarm Grid customer, you can place your system on test mode yourself using MyAlarm.com.

However, permanently deactivating your system is a different story. This will cancel your monitoring plan entirely. Your system will no longer be able to send any outbound communication signals to a central station until you reactivate it with a monitoring company. Depending on your monitoring company, deactivating a system can be extremely easy or very difficult. Some companies lock their customers into contracts, and they may put various provisions into place to prevent the customer from leaving. Regardless, the best way to get started is to contact your monitoring company directly and let them know that you are cancelling your service. For the record, Alarm Grid is a no-contract monitoring company, and you can cancel your service at any time with no questions asked.

Permanently deactivating your system and cancelling your monitoring service is a necessary step if you want to bring your system to a different monitoring company. At Alarm Grid, we "takeover" many existing systems so that customers can get on-board with our monitoring service. In many cases, a new customer can join Alarm Grid with no new equipment needed. The key is that the previous monitoring company must "release" the panel's communicator so that we can take it over.

Additionally, the customer must not be using any proprietary equipment that will only work with a particular monitoring service. Alarm Grid can only takeover equipment that will work with our monitoring services. If a customer has proprietary equipment, then they may need to purchase an entirely new security system. Or if the old monitoring company refuses to release the communicator, they might only have to buy a new communicator and put it in their existing panel. Each situation is different, and it's best to check with us to determine what you need.

If you are monitored with a different company and you want to bring your system to Alarm Grid, complete the following steps:

1. Cancel your old service. Contact your current monitoring company, and tell them that you would like to cancel your service. As part of the process, you should tell them to release the communicator for your system. If the system is yours to keep, you may be able to bring it to Alarm Grid, along with the existing communicator.

In some cases, we may be able to walk you through programming locally, through an Alpha Keypad or touchscreen panel. If your old company won't cooperate and release your communicator there may still be a way for you to move your equipment to our service.

2. Determine what you need. Once you have cut ties with your old monitoring company, you will start the process of joining Alarm Grid. The first thing you should do is contact us. You will most likely need to speak with a member of our system planning department. The best way to reach us is to email support@alarmgrid.com. You may also call us at (888) 818-7728 during our normal business hours of 9am to 8pm EST M-F.

During this conversation, you should tell the system planner exactly what equipment you have. Based on what you have already, he or she will tell you what, if anything, you need to purchase to make your system compatible with our services. They may ask you to send in pictures so that we can better clarify exactly what equipment you have to work with. Some customers may not need to purchase anything new. Others may need to start from scratch entirely. There really is no way to tell until we see what you have. You should then purchase any necessary equipment based on the system planner's recommendations. At Alarm Grid, we will never ask you to purchase anything that you don't need.

3. Join Alarm Grid. When you join Alarm Grid, you will need to schedule an activation to get your system up and running. You can do this online by clicking the orange Alarm Monitoring button at the top of our website. You can also do this over the phone by speaking with one of our team members. When your activation appointment arrives, one of our technicians will give you a call to activate your system.