I’m fortunate to live in a safe area with low crime. Burglaries and break-ins are not common – it’s the kind of small community where you could leave your door unlocked and likely have no problems. But the safety of my home and loved ones is still very important to me, and like most people, I’m eager to take any precautions I can to increase my security. So when LifeShield Security offered to send me a complimentary home security kit and 24/7 home monitoring so that I could test their service out, I was happy to take them up on the offer and see how a home security system might benefit me.

LifeShield Security offer a unique “plug and protect” wireless home security system which homeowners can install themselves. You may already be familiar with LifeShield, because they were featured earlier this month on ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Their “Do-it-yourself” Home Kit includes a keypad console, a handset that doubles as a cordless phone, two base chargers, a grid extender, 8 door & window sensors, a siren detector, and a keychain remote.

When my Home Kit arrived, I was eager to see how it would work. It looked like a fairly intricate system with a lot of parts, and since I thought it might be complicated to assemble, I put the box aside until Jai and I had a good block of time to work on it.

The system was actually not as complex or hard to set up as I had initially thought. Everything assembles in a straightforward manner, and there is a helpful DVD that walks you through the whole process. Keep in mind, you’re not going to have this finished in 20 minutes; Jai and I spent several hours assembling the system, because we really wanted to take our time setting it up, read through all of the guides, and customize it to our needs. It was a fun project for a rainy Sunday afternoon!

LifeShield console and sensor on my front door

The first step in setting up the Home Kit is charging the phone and connecting the base to the Internet and phone line. Next, we set up the console by the front door, which is the keypad that we’ll use to arm the security system before leaving the home, going to bed, and so forth. Next, we connected the grid extender, which allows for maximum wireless coverage all through the house.

After this, we installed sensors over the front door, back door, fire alarm, and three windows. You attach the sensor to the frame with a bracket with double sided tape, then place a corresponding magnet on the window or door itself. They provide you with several spacers in the package, so you can customize the height of the magnet and sensor as needed for each entry – the only place we had to improvise a bit was on the back door. My house was built in 1929 and is undergoing full renovations, so the back door currently has a huge, wacky door frame that we put up to fix the door temporarily until it gets replaced. Because of the odd dimensions, we nailed a small block of wood onto the door to make the magnet fit properly.

Only three of the windows in the house open, so we still have three sensors left. We could use these inside the home on cabinets – you can set up your system to chime or send you a notification when someone opens a cabinet containing medicine, liquor, etc.

Once all the sensors were installed and programmed, we were able to activate the system. The LifeShield Home Kit offers an array of features, which I found to be quite impressive:

• Security & Alarms: You can arm your LifeShield system at night, to alert you if anyone enters through a monitored door or window; you can also arm the system before leaving the house for work or a vacation. When the system is triggered, an alarm sounds all through the house and notifies LifeShield’s home monitoring center, who will then attempt to contact you and notify the authorities. If the alarm gets set off by accident, you have 30 seconds to enter in your code and cancel it – this can be done from the console or your cordless phone. There is also a panic button on the console which you can press and hold for 2 seconds for an immediate emergency dispatch – it will give you the option for police, ambulance, or fire; if a selection is not made in 5 seconds, it will automatically contact the police. There is also a panic button on the phone, which you can access by sliding down a panel that is provided to prevent you from accidentally pressing it. (The panic option can not be canceled once pressed.) You can also activate panic mode by holding down two buttons on your remote keychain at the same time.
• Remote access: You can control your security system from anywhere in the world by logging in to the LifeShield website. You can set up alerts, and even view a detailed event history of each time a door or window was opened in your home.
• Cordless phone: The system comes with a fully functional phone which includes features like voicemail, “Do not disturb” settings, and more.
• Keypad console: This main console allows you to arm your system and even view the weather forecast and severe weather alerts, the time, missed calls, and shows when doors and windows are opened in the home. You can also use the console in conjunction with the cordless phone as an intercom or baby monitor.
• Siren detector: This sensor sits next to your smoke alarm, and when it detects that the fire alarm is going off and meets certain audio requirements, it will set off the house alarm and notify the monitoring center.

Our system will be in “Practice mode” for the next seven days, so we can avoid any false alarms while we get used to how it operates. I’m very excited to have this system set up and I think it will be a great asset to my home – not just for the security that it adds, but the extra peace of mind also. Now when I hear those bumps in the night (Usually deer or raccoons that like to hang out in my yard!), I can rest easier knowing that my security system will alert me if any intruders try to enter. I also think this is a fabulous way to deter would-be criminals in the first place – the kit comes with a “Protected by LifeShield” sign, which I hung on my front door, as well as stickers which I placed on the back door and bedroom window. If some ne’er-do-well does attempt to break in, they certainly won’t want to stick around when they hear the alarm going off. I also like the inclusion of the panic button, which I think could be valuable for medical emergencies as well as intruders; it’s comforting to think that I could summon an ambulance at the push of a button if needed. I will be posting updates over the coming months to keep you posted on how the LifeShield system is working out for us, so stay tuned!

Special Discount:

LifeShield would also like to offer a special discount for Contest Corner readers. You can receive $50.00 off the HomeKit and one month of free monitoring by visiting www.lifeshield.com/momdeal and entering promo code “momdeal50” at checkout.