When it comes to Security and Fire protection, myself I would rather be protected by equipment that has shown that it won’t fail randomly like Wyze products do frequently.
Back to your post about “Self-Monitoring” at least my unit will work without monitoring, and there are plenty of other professional alarm systems that will work without monitoring too. And a web SMS interface will send free of monthly charges a basic text notification of alarm.
Personally, I’m not at all pleased that Wyze has deleted the “Wyze Sense” product line and is now only offering a monitoring subscription package. I do not need any outside entity “monitoring” my domicile. At my house, someone is ALWAYS home (and armed), so we will not EVER be in the market to pay anyone to “monitor” our security. We will do it ourselves.
I do have a couple of extra Wyze door/window sensors and a couple of motion sensors that I haven’t yet added to my system, so I have room for expansion, but if Wyze ever turns off support for these and/or they stop working, I’ll be even less pleased. These things have uses that are not connected to “home monitoring” and fees are therefore unnecessary. For example, right now, I use a contact sensor on my master closet which turns on the closet light when I open the door. Hey Wyze - do I need you to monitor anything for this? NOPE. Making so that I can no longer simply buy the sensors I want UNLESS I pay for monitoring is… UNwise (yes, pun intended).
WYZE: Return to selling these items without the monitoring subscription.
This is why I stopped looking into the Wyze products for security, nothing they offer can give anyone home security like it’s intended to be done. The security of your home cannot be dependant on any other service like the internet or some subscription to keep it active. Those things should only be secondary options for notifying if there’s a breach in security. Every system should be able to be maintained, monitored and controlled independently within your home because the internet or the subscribing service have no guarantee they will be operating all the time, before the internet was here or the ability to monitor via any other method the security systems were still here. The Wyze products are a good product for having around for the price they are, you get what you paid for, it’s lie having a toy for your system to have around but outside of that there’s no security application they would applicable for.
I’d say you picked the wrong company then. Wyze is mostly a group of former Amazon engineers so their system is designed to be used with the Echo/Alexa infrastructure. So the lack of inclusion of self monitoring would make sense as they are just trying to add basic monitored security service to this infrastructure. The chip shortage has slowed everything down as I imagine it to be by design they are rolling these devices out so you need the service which would limit the number of users at first so they can work monitoring bugs easier with a smaller group of users. This low cost startup that use programs like Amazon and other GoFund style investments to get started usually use early users as Guinee Pigs to test, hence the special introductory pricing on most new devices.
The Wyze system is working just fine for me. If my cameras lose power they aren’t going to record. That’s going to happen with any system that isn’t on a battery back-up. The motion & contact sensors I have work just fine. I thought I might buy some more, but I just realized yesterday that I have 4 contact sensors, 4 motion sensors, and 1 v2 cam that I had in a box not even being used, so I shouldn’t need anything for a while.
I’m still in “test mode”, however, I expect my phone to “go crazy” whenever my alarm siren goes off. Is there a particular set of settings to make this happen?
I know there are notification settings, but I have the master notification setting set to “OFF” cuz I don’t need to know anything except if my Wyze alarm goes off.
Do you get contact sensor or motions ensor notifications? Think of them as standalone products that are synced to the HMS service. You can go into the individual sensors and turn their notifications on, off or whatever just like the previous v1 Sense sensors. So you could turn off all their push notifications, and only have HMS on, and only get hms notifications.
As an alarm investigator for an alarm company, I can inform you that UL also issues certifications for alarm companies. While products are tested for safety etc., they issue certs for insurance purposes (among other reasons). To be a certified central station many things must be met (must have firearm within reach, back up power automated and good for at least a certain amount of time etc. The point is UL is not only testing products for safety.
Exactly, the Wyze system is not a UL listed alarm device therefore I would never trust it for Security especially with Wyze’s history.
I would rather pay a few dollars more a month for Quality monitoring service and Install Quality alarm equipment that has tons of accessories available rather than accessories “Coming Soon”…LOL
I converted everything over from IFTTT to Alexa and I can say with certainty the V1 and V2 devices (motion and contact sensors) directed toward the Wyze HMS hub can easily be used in Alexa routines without any subscription. Other answers seemed to infer that if you don’t subscribe to the home monitoring then the system was not worth it because they could only be used for automation triggers. That’s all I use it for. I have a couple of Wyze triggers that start a particular camera but for the most part Alexa routines rule the day. The HMS hub does make a weird noise when the freezer and fridge door is left open too long. Kind sounds like a wiffle bat hitting a fence post. It’s not loud enough to wake me up but I wish I could turn it off. I use it to turn on a very bright red or white LED plugged into a “Smart Life” outlet strip in both the kitchen and bedroom. I wonder if there is a use for the keypad without subscribing?
