Home Security Gadgets & Reviews

Security timers for your home’s lights, both internal and external, are a good idea if you’re going to be out of town, or even if you work late and don’t get home until after dark. Burglars prefer an easy mark, and they’re less likely to take risks with houses where someone might be home. They don’t want to be caught or identified, so they definitely go for the homes that are obviously vacant.

So, how do you make it look like you’re home when you’re not? Security timers can turn on your lights at night, so it looks like someone is there. The downside is that most of them turn on the lights at the same time every day. A smart burglar might observe this and realize you’re not really home.

That’s why a programmable timer is a smart choice. With a tool like Intermatic’s timer, you can program the lights to come on at different times every night, thus keeping a burglar guessing. At less than $50, it’s not a bad home security investment.

Intermatic Programmable 24-hour Security Timer

You can spend thousands of dollars building a fancy home security system to protect your material belongings from burglars, but don’t forget about home safety; it’s just as important to protect your family from accidents.

If you’ve got a swimming pool in your backyard, this is a place where people, especially small children, can be injured or even drowned. Kids just shouldn’t be using the pool without adult supervision. Try telling them that though.

If you’re worried your children, or perhaps the neighborhood children, will enter your pool when you’re not in the yard, a pool alarm is a good way to add some peace of mind. These devices alert you whenever someone tries to get into the water.

The Aquaguard alarm from Frontgate has two sirens to ensure you’ll be alerted if a child enters the pool, but they aren’t supposed to go off (false alarms) due to high winds or other “natural” disturbances. The system looks pretty easy to install and is available online for about $500.

Frontgate

A lot of home security is designed to keep unwanted people out of your home, but it’s important to think about safety on the inside too–especially if you have a family including small children. A lock on the front door is great, but what if there’s a door leading to steep steps or a pantry with cleaning agents inside and you don’t want your kids to be able to get through? That’s where a child safety lock like this one can come in handy.

The Door Guardian Security Latch is an inside home security and child safety device that mounts to the wood or metal frames of inward swinging doors. It’s supposed to be easy to install (no special tools required) and is available in 5 finishes (brass, satin chrome, antique brass, satin nickel, and white) so you can find a version that matches your decor. The lock is $22 and is available from Amazon where reviews are positive:

Door Guardian Home Security and Child Safety Lock

If you want to set up security monitoring as part of your home security system, there are lots of kits out there that make it easy to do it yourself these days. Wireless is definitely easier to set up than wired systems (which involve drilling into walls and running wires behind the drywall–unless you fancy cords all over your house), and today’s systems are much more reliable than older models.

This 4-camera kit from Smarthome lets you place 4 security cameras around your house, where they transmit their images to a central monitoring station (i.e. your PC). Footage can be recorded or viewed in real life. You can even get software that lets you check in on your cameras’ feeds while you are away from home.

Mini-Air Watch 4 Wireless Color Camera Kit

For most people, a little safe that is bolted to the floor in their bedroom closet is enough security for their valuables, but if you need more room, you could check into having a dedicated vault built for your home or home-based business (if you sell on the Internet and store items in your home, they would be much better protected in a vault than in the basement).

A company called FireLock makes modular fireproof vaults that can be made for residential use (with modular construction, the vault is built at the factory and then assembled on site–this usually means higher quality construction, as factory settings are easier to control than climate, weather, etc. which is a factor when building on site). A perk of modular vaults is that they’re not necessarily permanent structures. Old-fashioned vaults were set in poured concrete, so you had no chance of taking it with you if you moved. A modular vault can be disassembled and reassembled at a new locale if needed.

http://www.firelock.com

As far as home security and home safety goes, it’s a good idea to have house numbers that are easily visible not only by day but by night too. That way if the police or an ambulance has to find your house in the middle of the night, they won’t have to guess at which home is yours (and it helps the pizza delivery guy get your dinner there on time too).

These illuminated house numbers are made with long-lasting LEDs that are more visible than solar-powered signs. You can get your choice of blue, green, red, or white, and the sign can be powered by a standard-wired doorbell system or another low voltage power supply.

Prices start at $85 (for one number… you folks with long addresses will have to fork over more cash) and the signs are available at Unica Home.

If you’re worried about what kind of Internet sites your kids are surfing to, or who they’re chatting with online, when you’re not in the room or at home, this gadget may help. The Snoop Stick is a USB device that allows you to monitor who’s doing what on your home computer.

At first, I thought you stuck the drive into a free slot on your home computer and it downloaded recordings (and all someone would have to do is unplug it to evade its eye), but it looks like the drive is for the monitor not the monitoree (ok, that’s not a word, I’m sure). You take it with you to work or wherever and plug it into that computer, and then it lets you sync up with your home computer to see what’s going on there.

The device can monitor in real time or play back recent activity. The Snoop Stick is $60 and can be used to monitor up to 3 different computers.

http://www.snoopstick.com/

In this day and age, it’s just stupid to leave the keys to your car in the ignition (even if the vehicle is in the garage), and it’s not much better to just toss them on a table just inside the doorway (like so many of us do). Anybody who comes into the house or the garage (whether neighbors, potential thieves, or just your kids who think they should be driving your car…) can make away with your prized ride. And if you’ve got extra vehicles (snow mobiles or other grown-up toys), there’s just that much more of value that could be stolen.

One way to protect your goods is to keep your keys in a key safe when you’re not using them. A simple wall-mounted safe like the GE AccessPoint Slimline KeySafe is easy to use (you can pick your own combination) and gives you the peace of mind of knowing nobody can take off with your cars and other vehicles.

A key safe can also be used to store an extra house key (in case your kids are always losing theirs but get home from school before you do). A key safe is just a smart addition for any home.

This one is available online for $27:

GE AccessPoint Slimline KeySafe