What alarm system should I get? – Top 5 Systems in South Africa

alarm system

First off, before just picking an alarm system to go with, you’ll want to take a good look at your property and its requirements.

Look out for the following:

  • The size of the property
  • The rooms or areas you want protected
  • The amount of money you want to spend
  • How advanced do you want your system to be

With the following in mind, we can now look at a few suppliers in South Africa that can help determine what system is for you.

  • Paradox
  • DSC
  • AJAX
  • IDS
  • Smart Home Alarm Systems

Paradox Alarm Systems

Paradox System

The Bahamas company Paradox has been around now for over 34 years and has got a very reputable reputation for being a good alarm system. They will also have a cheaper alternative to some of the systems that will be mentioned here.

Without getting to technical Paradox offers wired and wireless solutions for your home, however the cost for there systems increase over time, as most control panel boards will only have a few slots on them.

Paradox Alarm Panel

Looking at this paradox panel you can easily see how the Zones between 1 and 8 can get used up. Once you’ve got more than 8 sensors you’ll need an expander board, which costs more. So when choosing a Paradox, DSC or IDS panel you’ll want to take how many sensors you will need into consideration.

DSC

DSC is another alarm systems provider, they originated out of Toronto in 2002. So they have been in the game for a long time as well, but are slightly newer.

DSC Alarm System

With there systems, you’ll find that its very similar to Paradox and IDS as well, they will have a similar number of pin outs on the alarm panel, and will act for intensive purposes the same as a Paradox and IDS System.

IDS

IDS is a great much cheaper alternative to the past two systems, and it’s made here in South Africa!

IDS Alarm System

Once again as with the past two systems, the alarm panel will have a select number of pin outs and with a lot of there newer systems, they have started to try and go more wireless to not require pin outs.

It must be noted that Paradox and DSC also have wireless options with most of there systems even allowing for a wireless upgrade to them at later points, so they can have wired and wireless outputs.

With these systems you as the user don’t have much control, you can try to add sensors by yourself, but this is a process that not many people dare to try as it can get very confusing very quickly, especially because these systems have such a deep level of control. Which can be good and bad. For an enterprise this would be great, allowing for certain systems to arm at certain times when this button is pushed etc. But with a home system, simplistically is key.

AJAX

AJAX is a relativity a much newer system and thus comes with some really cool benefits that the older systems just lack.

AJAX Alarm System

With Ajax they have much new technology and thus the pros of going them are sometimes quite amazing, for instance they have up to a 2km radius from the hub that devices can work In and communicate back to the hub for.

They also have a multitude of devices that work there systems, like fire detectors, leak detectors and glass break detectors.

There new system now offers a wired option for there devices. For those who don’t want a wireless option.

With Ajax the pro is that the whole system is controlled from your phone, and thus adding new devices to the system, is so simple that anyone could do it. This allows for easy and cheap expansion, as there is no need to hire a technician if you have the time, however the product itself is a bit more pricey than a traditional system like Paradox, DSC or IDS.

Smart Home Alarm Systems

With smart home technology more and more on the rise, this would be a cool option to go with, but most companies on Amazon or Takealot don’t have fully complete systems, and if they do, well they are going to be very expensive here in South Africa.

But what you should look out for when buying a Smart Home Alarm System is this:

The following logos, if included on the website or box of the product will mean that the product will work the different solutions.

When buying a smart home product, it will be important that the product works with the other products that you own. Thus if you are building a smart home around Apple products, you’ll want a HomeKit based smart home device, and visa versa.

Summarising

With the traditional alarm systems like Paradox, DSC or IDS your purchase for one of these systems will be based of the security company you go with, the prices they can get the system for you, and your budget.

With the newer systems like AJAX and Smart Home Systems, you’ll be spending more, but it will be for a system that you can yourself upgrade and monitor the system from your phone.

With the traditional systems, you can get Olarm a device that plugs into the system to basically make it smarter and connect it to your phone.

If you want any help with these systems or advice on which systems you should buy, contact us today at Premier Security and let us help you with purchasing and installing your products!

Share:

Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
LinkedIn
Other Posts

Related Posts