In the Fall of 2017, when Ring announced their Protect system, I immediately pre-ordered.  There had been some break ins in our neighborhood, and my wife was a little concerned due to my crazy work travel schedule.  Due to the lawsuit, my order was postponed until Spring 2018 when it was re-released as the Ring Alarm.

Implementing the Ring Alarm was quite honestly disappointing, much like their cameras, in the sense that it was too simple to configure.  I have never touched an alarm system, and I had the entire thing operational in a matter of minutes.

I ordered the base kit, which comes with a base station, a keypad, a motion sensor, and 2 contact sensors, a z-wave extender, and one extra contact sensor.  My wife and I agreed that we would put sensors on all exterior doors and a motion sensor in the living room since there were two large windows.  As a ring protect plus annual member, I receive 10% off all orders, so the entire order was $198 for a full security system.  The best part was that because I already subscribe to the ring protect plus plan, the professional monitoring service was included.

Setup consisted of connecting the base station to my network.  I initially opted for wireless, but I anticipate moving it to a wired network connection.  The sensors and keypad connect over z-wave to the base station.  I did have one issue with setting up two of the sensors for some reason, which required a brief chat session from within the ring app.  A few minutes into the support session, the tech had me do a simple factory reset, and voila, the sensors suddenly connected.

For a user experience, Ring did an exceptional job.  The Ring app becomes the central management point.  My wife really wanted a way to disarm without the app, so the keypad mounted near the front door is perfect.  For me, I love that I can disarm directly from the app before opening the door.  If I forget, it will alert me on my phone and I can simply click it and disarm.

Adding a new user is as simple as it is on the camera system.  It is incredibly nice to choose to add alarm users, or share specific cameras.  From a user experience perspective, the entire system ties together seamlessly.

Which brings me to the one thing that I would like to see improved.  I have 3 floodlight cams, a doorbell, and a spotlight cam.  I would love to be able to opt one or more of them in as motion sensors.  I would also like the alarm to sound the camera alarms, to get more visibility in the event of a break in.

All in all, I would absolutely recommend the Ring Alarm.  For the price, and the simplicity of implementation, it is exceptional, and makes the entire Ring system even more valuable.  It doesn’t hurt that I am able to stick it to ADT and their highly overpriced system.  Not today ADT, not today.