The annual amount is a no-brainer (compared to the monthly).
- $60 total for the whole year upfront with free core starter kit. VS:
- $55 for the core starter kit + first month of HMS.
(But if you start with the monthly option and later switch to the annual plan, they will refund the price of the Starter Core Kit, so it’s not a big risk)
OTHER THINGS WORTH KNOWING:
- Shipping date unknown, Early 2021, probably mid-February.
- 30-day return & refund policy, even if you buy the yearly option (from date of shipping)
- They are also launching their new Version 2 contact and motion sensors (v1’s are no longer offered), but for now, to order extra sensor (motion or contact) devices you have to have the HMS core starter kit and the monitoring service subscription. “If you try to remove the Wyze Home Monitoring service or Core Starter Kit from your cart, your cart will clear and you will have to start over again.” These V2 sensors are roughly twice the size of the V1 sensors, but will use AAA batteries (& still not water resistant). Wyze said the Sensors will be available separately to everyone later, but there is no ETA on that yet.
- You cannot use multiple Hubs at this time (updated clarification from Wyze)
- The hub will have backup storage for events, and logs in the future (not at launch); but will NOT allow storing video footage to the hub (per Wyze Gwendolyn below)
- Can’t be shared with a spouse or others at launch, but they will “support role-based sharing” in the future, which is “sharing between family members and such. It’s the ability to set individual codes.” (so it will be somewhat different/better from the current sharing offered for other devices so far).* [*]Sensor events keep working (logging) without power, and the siren and keypad will work too:
Although we don’t support cellular backup, the Sense Hub has a battery backup in the case of a power outage. If your internet connection drops, Wyze Home Monitoring Service will still work locally.
- You do have to specifically select a cam to be a security cam or not (you can have some as a security cam and some not). Limited to 5 cams total for now (the rest will still work, but won’t be part of the HMS section). 5 cam limit is to ensure the bandwidth is not overloaded when streaming too many cams simultaneously (may change this).
- Lock and Video Doorbell will be integrated soon after launch, but not immediately.
- The v1 sensors are compatible with the standalone hub but NOT with the monitoring service. (so they’ll still work as sensors in the Wyze App but won’t trigger as security system alerts or trigger the alarm)
- You cannot set schedules for notifications from the system. It’s only based on whether you set it to either disarmed, home, or away mode.
- You can do Self-monitoring: There is a “Test Mode” that allows you to “practice” using the system without Noonlight being alerted and risking false alarm dispatch calls (some cities fine for this), but everything else working normally. Wyze confirmed that you can leave the system in “Test Mode” indefinitely, and then if there is a real problem you can hit the emergency button (on the keypad or the app) to call dispatch. Problem solved, no false alarm fees or problems as happens with other companies, or if you just want to do all the monitoring yourself (but you must still pay the subscription for access to the rest of the HMS specific features)
- HMS Includes 1 Cam Plus license (total sound & motion captured events stored on the cloud for 14 days, person detection, pet, package, & vehicle detection, and even facial recognition of specific individuals [everything besides Person detection is in beta testing currently, which I am using and can verify they work].
- “Security cam” events cannot trigger the alarm, only sensors can do that. Cams can trigger an “alert.”
- Move sensors out of the HMS system if you don’t want them triggering alarms
- They are adding leak sensors and temperature sensors next year, and should be adding other things too.
- Doesn’t have “Cellular backup” but you could rig your own if you’re desperate for it, see below:
24/7 Professional Monitoring Meets Your Wyze Home - 12/8/20 - #102 by carverofchoice