Scout Alarm Wireless Home Security System, Midnight

The system is a total flop and should be avoided. I've had to continuously replace batteries and I have reached my breaking point. The app sees no updates and the battery issue has lasted way to long. Chalk this up as a waste of money. Look at the Abode security system and don't purchase... My guess is the company was VC funded and won't be sustainable. Goodbye.

This seems like an amazing product. I like it thus far. The built-in siren is weak, but external sirens can be hooked up by the clever among us using the IFTTT interface, which I love. The monitoring program is reasonably affordable if you chose to use it, and setup is insanely easy. The app integrates seamlessly and is well designed. The product also looks great. Grab a few extra sensors for things like your garage. If you're the "maker" type, the possibilities for integrating this with your own "internet of things" with arduino, ethernet and IFTTT are literally endless. Now, here are the cons...This system CHEWS through batteries. Scout is nice and sends batteries to you for free, but it's way too power hungry. This might be fixable through software, but I haven't seen any updates. Also, the motion sensor now refuses to pair, so I'm a little lost on that one. It's also not immediately apparent if there's any way to completely re-set and re-activate the system to factory defaults.Also, as of late, the system has been triggering false alarms on the door panel (the one with the keyfob reader) As far as I can tell, there are no changes to the actual mechanical system of magnets and whatever. They've been taped in the same place for well over a year and have not moved. The batteries are also new in the door panel.My final thoughts are that the wireless aspect of this system is a non-starter in it's current form. Unfortunately, for ultimate reliability, a hard-wired system is going to be the best. I think Scout should keep trying - The app and all that stuff is great, and the infrastructure is there, but I just think the hardware isn't reliable enough (or diagnosable enough) to really have it make the cut for anything serious.It's better than nothing, but I'd definitely recommend having a camera system so you can verify false alarms remotely.

We bought Scout and a few add-on sensors shortly after moving into our new house last summer. The promise of easy ability to add on sensors when needed and the ability to connect with other devices was great. In addition Scout provided professional monitoring and cellular backup for additional peace of mind. Unfortunately we've run in the following which is not helping with our peace of mind:1. Multiple false alarms- The most recent one was today due to one of the door sensored being "closed". Luckily I had just gotten off the train and rushed home to confirm. Looked on the community forums and it was clearly a wider problem with multiple reports. Scout support closed the thread with no actual explanation beyond all systems are now operating normally.- Initially when the batteries in the motion sensors were low they'd trigger a false alarm. It was fun when the police showed up at 3:30am due to such a false alarm since the siren was inaudible. This was fixed with a firmware update.2. Sensor batteries die almost constantly- I will say it's been great that they provide free replacements however much of the time the batteries for the motion detectors and smaller sensors are backordered3. Essentially inaudible siren even with two additional door panels - Luckily they provide a connection to IFTTT which I've used to trigger my lights to come on and an external siren to go off if needed4. What appears to be false promises or inability to execute - Still no resolution to the alarm volume issue even though they've been talking it about for over a year. - "Upcoming" firmware update was announced in Dec. 2015 which supposedly would fix the battery issues and provide other features however this is still not available.

This system and its monitoring is a huge waste of money since I'm away from home for longs periods of time and batteries don't last but 2-3 weeks. Is frustrating that your whole system becomes useless while you are away. I was told they would have a big update that would improve battery life in JANUARY but nothing yet. They didn't even respond to my last email. I had this system for over a year, and do not recommend.