Abode Reviews

The only criticism I have about them was that I paid for an all-inclusive plan when I first signed up. And then about a year after, I had an issue with a camera. I initially called them but they told me the plan no longer covers it. They never sent out a notification about that. But other than that, it's been great. I would say, even though I'm not happy about that one issue, I would recommend them over other providers based on their products and services, and my experience. Overall, it's a very high-quality experience.

I like the way the self-monitoring works with the ability to forward calls to 911 as well as the option to have the professional monitoring center. I like the selection of sensors. I work as an automation engineer so testing things like this extensively before using them is important to me. I tested all the sensors and made sure that they worked as I would expect them to. I'm happy with that as well.

I have a 15-year-old water heater so I'm glad to have that ability to keep an eye and make sure that there's no flooding, through the water leak detector feature. I'm happy with the product. I like the features that are available. I'm just a little bit concerned about future support and I'm hoping that they'll expand the system in the future.

I like the Home setting, where you can set entry windows and doors. Even if the alarm is off and I'm at home, I'm still notified if somebody's coming in or out. I can set it to call me instead of the police first, and then I can decide if I want to do that or not is really nice as well. 'I've had a couple of false alarms so far and one was due to a faulty window sensor that they fixed and replaced for me. At the time, I wasn't home and they called me. But I knew ahead of time, so I called 911, but I was able to have them walk through the house with me on the phone to check it out, which was nice. So, that worked out well instead of having police coming when I was 99% sure it was a false alarm, which it was. So all the control I have over the security system is the best feature of Abode.

I've been able to use the system for a lot of other things, too, like cooling off my house. I have a whole-house fan in the window in the attic that's unfinished, and if I need to turn it on, I use one of the Abode Plug Things with that, and I could turn it on and off from downstairs. So, it's fun to have all these things that I can do with it. It also has all sorts of additional things on it and I like that. Setting up some of the automations is a bit of a pain and I wanted to switch that over to using something called a Home Assistant, but I haven't had time. And that's another reason why I wanted to get Abode because it's kind of a DIY whole-home automation system.

I've also had a really good experience with their customer service when I called them several times. I was a little nervous getting Abode because I saw so many people say that they never respond and they're horrible. The Abode system is hooked up to a third-party alarm call center, which is nice, and sometimes, they can take a little while to get back to me, but they've been really responsive overall.

When I had some problem initially with setting it up, I called them at a weird time on the weekend and they called me right back. They talked to me and I had a really good time when they called me about alarms. It only happened three times and most of the time, it happened when I had the system set to Home, then I went outside, and I forgot to turn it off. But they called me and they were clever about it. They asked for my mom, who I've set up as my backup person if I don't answer. But they do that to determine if it's somebody who's not supposed to be answering their call.

Aside from that, different cities have different requirements for working alarm systems to be approved and I'm in Milwaukee where the alarm company needs to be registered. It turned out they were, but it's not under the name Abode. It's under this other third-party alarm system thing. So, depending on where you are and what your municipality's rules are, you might need to ask Abode. They have some web pages about it. But if you need to determine if it's approved for your municipality, you might have to look up the name of that other service. That was confusing to get set up or to understand, but it's not been a problem.

There are different plans you can get with Abode and I have the one where the system is hooked to a cell. If the power goes out, it has a battery power backup and a cell backup. So, instead of a Wi-Fi network or Ethernet, I have to plug it in. I also plugged mine into a larger battery backup, so if my power goes out longer than that battery lasts, then it'll use another battery backup. I also like that I get to set up the sensors where and how I want them. I have a window sensor on a double-hung window. In the summer, I need to move the sensor up because there's an air conditioner unit in there. So, if the window gets opened, it's opening at a higher level than it normally does. But in the winter, I need to move it back down. The sensors stick on the window and you can move them yourself, so that's fine.

For their price, Abode is less expensive than a lot of other ones depending on what service you pick. There's an add-on for cameras that I need to get. I got some of the cameras, but I'm still trying to figure out where they are. I also like that the cameras are set with Abode where nobody in the alarm system company can access them unless the alarm is actively going off, and then it'll take recordings. Otherwise, no one can see them and the system doesn't allow that.

Sometimes I travel for work or for fun for some amount of time. If the alarm were to go off, it would be great if they had a recording of who was in there, and they could see it. But I wouldn't want people to be able to see me whenever they wanted from some random company that happened to have some creep who works there who's just accessing people's cameras. Right now, I still have to trust that Abode is telling the truth that nobody can access the cameras unless the alarm is actively going off.