Brinks Home Security Review

If you’ve ever questioned the responsiveness of your home security monitoring service, we suggest trying Brinks Home. Brinks Home has a bunch of extra safety features wrapped into its monitoring, creating multiple fail safes in the event of an emergency. It’s not the most cost-effective system, but you’ll sleep soundly at night knowing the monitoring service is so extensive.

The basic Brinks Home plan is probably the best deal—you’ll get all the company’s signature monitoring features and app access plus smart home connectivity. But if you want home security cameras, this plan isn’t the right fit for you.

Brinks Home is champion of middling home security prices.

For a Brinks Home alarm system, you’ll pay anywhere from $200 to $700.

The $200 gets you a five-piece system that’s comparable to a Ring starter kit in terms of equipment. On the other end, $700 is more than a base Vivint system costs, but the Brinks Home package comes with two cameras, which makes the price seem more reasonable.

You can choose to finance Brinks Home equipment if you don’t want to buy it all at once.

But while Brinks Home equipment won’t necessarily cost you an arm and a leg, its monitoring might.

Brinks Home requires a 36-month contract, which is an industry standard. Security contracts are growing increasingly outdated, but if a company requires a long-term commitment, two or three years is much better than, say, five years. (Yes Vivint, that is a callout.)

Brinks Home recently redid its monitoring tiers. Its minimum price is pretty expensive: $40 a month. That’s $10 to $20 more than popular DIY systems’ monitoring, and it’s about $10 more than most professional systems’ lowest tier.

The next tier is $45 a month, and the highest tier is $50 a month. No matter which tier you go with, you’ll spend a big chunk of change.

But all the monthly fees also include smart home connectivity capability, making them a better deal than they initially appear to be. The two more expensive tiers also cover video storage costs. Plus, the Brinks Home professional monitoring service includes a bunch of emergency features, making it one of the more carefully designed monitoring systems out there.

If you choose to cancel your three-year contract early, you’re on the hook for the rest of the money as a cancellation fee—unless you cancel within the 30-day trial.

Brinks Home doesn’t have installation fees unless you choose to have a professional install your system. (More on that later.) The company doesn’t share a flat installation fee on the website, though, which makes us suspect it may vary based on the equipment installed.

If you get the Ultimate package, your professional installation is free.

A lot of Brinks Home equipment is from Alarm.com. It’s not anything special, like Vivint- or Cove- or SimpliSafe-exclusive equipment. But it’s still reliable stuff used by systems like ADT and tons of local security providers.

Brinks Home also utilizes equipment from other brands, like its SkyBell doorbell or the Qolsys IQ panel that serves as the heart of the Brinks Home system.

You can get three different basic equipment packages with Brinks Home. And if Brinks Home sells something that doesn’t come in your package, you can also buy it on the side. You just have to call Brinks Home directly for customization instead of buying online.

Like many home security providers, Brinks Home doesn’t provide its prices immediately. Unfortunately, it’s moved away from a more transparent model to a call-only sales approach. You’re probably going to have to provide some sensitive information to get a full quote.

Brinks Home says you can add up to 119 security or smart home devices that will connect with your control panel. You don’t necessarily have to get all those from Brinks Home, but the company does offer a ton of different devices.

Brinks Home equipment:

Brinks Home equipment has quite a few emergency features built in.

Both the control panel and the remote keychain sport an emergency button.

When you set up your Brinks Home system, you’ll create two codes. One is your typical disarming code. The other is a duress disarming code.

You can use this code if someone ever forces you to disarm the security against your will. It will disarm the system, but it will also let Brinks Home know that you need help.

ASAPer is a Brinks Home home security system feature from one of its associated companies, MONI.

This technology not only sends alerts to the monitoring center and your emergency contacts, it also quickly and automatically connects you with all of them through text or email. And it makes it easy for you to cancel false alarms as soon as possible (thus the product name).

Brinks Home sells a few different cameras. They are as follows:

• Indoor camera
• Outdoor camera
• SkyBell Slim Line Video Doorbell

The following points are of particular interest to potential buyers (aka you):

• The outdoor camera’s field of view is quite limited, so it will miss a lot.
• The night vision on all cameras is minimal.
• None of the cameras have two-way audio because the IQ 2.0 control panel has two-way audio (meaning you can’t address people at the door unless you’re viewing the camera footage through the panel itself).

Some reviewers say you can get local storage for the indoor and outdoor security cameras as long as you have a DVR. However, Brinks Home’s website isn’t clear on that. Either way, with the free cloud storage, fewer people would probably want local storage anyways.

Overall, for the cost, these cameras leave a lot to be desired.

You can connect quite a few smart home products with Brinks Home.

As far as home automation goes, Brinks Home connects with the Amazon Alexa and Google Home smart assistants and the Z-Wave protocol. That means that you can connect Brinks Home to a wide variety of smart devices through both direct and indirect channels.

Brinks Home smart home integrations:

• Amazon Alexa
• Google Assistant
• Z-Wave

Smart home products that work directly with Brinks Home connect through the Brinks Home Security app, creating one go-to spot for all smart home control.

When we say “Brinks Home app,” we actually mean “Alarm.com app,” as Brinks Home uses this generic app for its smart home needs. There’s nothing wrong with that—the app is highly rated—but know that you could get the same app experience with a smaller, local company.

Is Brinks Home a professionally installed system? Is it a DIY system? It’s both.

If you get an Essential or Complete package, installation is your responsibility. But you’re not alone; the company provides phone assistance to walk you through the installation. And if you don’t want to DIY it, you can also arrange for a Brinks Home tech to come and install it for you.

If you get the Ultimate package, professional installation is included.

One thing to note: unlike most professional installers, Brinks Home doesn’t offer a home security consultation beforehand. So it’s up to you to choose the equipment you think you’ll need.

A lot of recent Brinks Home reviews are positive, especially regarding the reps who help users install and troubleshoot their systems. But there are plenty of negative reviews in the mix too.

Many negative reviews suggest that Brinks Home has some communication issues with its customers, possibly because the company seems to be involved in more takeover of other security companies than typical. It sounds like a lot of customers don’t like their new provider compared to their old ones.

Either way, know that you could have a potentially frustrating experience with Brinks Home customer service.

Although Brinks Home isn’t a bad system, it doesn’t stand out as much as most of its competitors. When compared to other home security systems, Brinks Home isn’t our first choice unless we’re specifically looking at monitoring features.

Brinks Home is a pretty unassuming offering. It’s not expensive but it’s not cheap, it’s not overly innovative but it’s not entirely behind the times—and it’s not flashy in any way. The only thing that really sets Brinks Home apart is that it offers a lot of useful monitoring features.

So if you want to get the most out of your monitoring, you and Brinks Home will get along like nobody’s business. But if you’re more into gadgets, or you want something flashier, you should look elsewhere.

• Pricing: Brinks Home’s prices are reasonable, especially considering the video storage and emergency monitoring features.
• Equipment: Brinks Home offers equipment from other manufacturers that gets the job done, and there are a lot of different options.
• Home automation: You can create a nice smart home setup with Brinks Home compatibility, which includes Amazon, Alexa, and Z-Wave.
• Installation: Install it yourself, or don’t if you want help. Brinks Home offers both sides of the installation spectrum.
• Customer experience: Brinks Home has a few kinks when it comes to customer service, especially surrounding communication.

If you’re still mulling this one over, visit our Best Home Security Systems for some expert comparison.

Stick around while we answer questions about Brinks Home.

We’ve spent a lot of time reading reviews of Brinks Home’s products and services, and we’ve also conducted extensive research on the company’s website. We intend to personally use a Brinks Home security system in the near future for even more detailed information.

• Brinks Home vs. Vivint Review
• Alarm.com Smart Thermostat Review

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