Looking for advice on moving to Surety

Hey All,

I’m currently a Brinks Home customer, and looking to switch. Our current situation is that we have had a system for about 5-ish years. Up until recently it worked mostly fine, with all of it being monitored via Alarm.com. Here’s a quick inventory of what we have:

(1) 2GIG Go!Control Touch Screen Wireless Control Panel [2GIG-CP21-345E]: https://suretyhome.com/product/2gig-gocontrol-touch-screen-wireless-control-panel/
(1) 916 SmartCode Traditional Electronic Deadbolt with Z-Wave Technology [916TRL ZW 15]: Satin Nickel 916 SmartCode Traditional Electronic Deadbolt with Z-Wave Technology | Kwikset
(1) Aeotec z-wave extender [DSD37-ZWSUS]: Aeon Labs Plug-In Z-Wave Repeater (DSD37-ZWUS) - Surety
(4) Window/Door sensors [2GIG-DW10-345]: https://suretyhome.com/product/2gig-thin-doorwindow-contact/
(3) Glass break sensors [2GIG-GB1-345]: 2GIG Wireless Glass Break Detector - Surety

A couple of weeks ago, we had a cold snap that dropped temps down to -30F. At the same time, almost all of our sensors (except the door lock and panel) stopped working. They all reported ‘malfunction’, with a couple also reporting ‘replace battery’. I’m not sure if the cold snap caused it (some of the sensors are internal to the house, and weren’t really affected by outside temps). I replaced the battery in one of the window/door sensors, which did not help. I reached out to Brink support, and their solution was to start replacing all the malfunctioning sensors, which was going to be expensive.

We haven’t been happy with Brinks, and really want to get away. Ever since they took over our account (bought up a local company we were happy with), they have been less-than-useful in times like this, and to add insult to injury they don’t even have our account information correct (and they can’t seem to fix it). It’s also expensive @ ~$40/month.

So at this point I’m wondering what the right thing to do is. I think I’ve boiled everything down to one of these options:

  • Move the existing panel over to Surety using the ’ Get Surety with your 2GIG GC2’ kit (https://suretyhome.com/product/2gig-switch-to-diy-kit/). I think this would work, but I’m concerned that the issues I’m having now are with my panel and not the individual sensors. I also don’t have the installer code (I tried the defaults, and they didn’t work). Probably the cheapest option though.
  • Buy a new panel. The no-brainer option is the Qolsys IQP4003, and it looks like it will work with all my existing equipment (Could someone verify this?). It’s ~$250 more than just the upgrade kit, but it might be time to upgrade anyway (thoughts?).
  • Replace all the sensors. This would obviously be the ‘nuclear’ option, not to mention the most expensive.

Any thoughts on the direction I should take? Any other directions I should be considering?

Thanks all!

I also don’t have the installer code

I think if you’re replacing the cellular module (like you would be) then you don’t need the installer code. They can reset it remotely for you once you get connected with the new module. Probably best to wait for support to confirm that before ordering.

First I think it would be best to address the malfunction/low battery. Are those sensors all 5ish years old and have the batteries ever been changed? If not, it may indeed be signal weakness from battery levels. When replacing batteries, generally you’ll need to leave the old batteries out for 30-60 seconds for the battery level measurements to resolve.

I would expect this to have resulted in more staggered offline malfunctions. If they all occurred simultaneously more or less you may instead be looking at a problem with the transceiver itself or panel software.

Just to confirm, you have the unencrypted version of the 2GIG panel and sensors, correct? (The non-E-Series ones)

As long as they are not E-Series versions you could reuse the sensors with a Qolsys IQ Panel 4 345Mhz version below. If they are the exact models you linked above you should be fine.

If you are happy with the panel you have though then you could of course just swap the module using the switch kit you linked.

The installer code is not required. As long as you have the master user code (user #1) you can complete activation steps.

Hey All,

Thanks again for the info. I spent some time troubleshooting the existing sensors I had, and I’ve decided to order the new panel. Can someone provide me the steps that I’ll need to do when I receive my new panel to swap over to it (initial setup, rediscovering all my sensors, etc)?

Thanks again!

Service activation is a step by step process on our website. Get started at suretyhome.com/setup

Follow the install guide for physical setup. Download here.

Programming guide is below:

Ok, so I’ve received my new panel, and I have it powered up. When I go to https://suretyhome.com/setup, Step 2 includes putting in my Alarm.com information. Unfortunately, this assumes you don’t already have a Username out there. When I put in my Alarm.com username, it gives me this error:

Usernames must be unique and contain at least 4 characters. This name is not available. (note you can also change your Alarm.com username later)

Is this not possible, or is there something else I should be doing?

Per the error you must enter a unique username that is not associated with an existing Alarm.com account. Each Alarm.com account must have a unique set of credentials.

If this is a second location, after activation you can link the accounts together so that you can access both with one login, but the new account must have its own unique primary login.

Awesome, thanks Jason! I was able to get my new panel setup and connected to everything successfully.

Thanks again!