Home Security

Fire safety is, arguably, one of the most important aspects to home ownership. Not only are you responsible for yourself, but also everyone else living in the home. If your home is not already equipped with hardwired smoke detectors, it's simple to add wireless smoke detectors to SmartThings (or any Z-Wave home automation system) for less than $50.

The garage door is a common roadblock for home automation, because garage door openers are “dumb”, expensive, and not something you'd want to break. Have no fear! If you pair a SmartThings hub with the Chamberlin MyQ Garage Door Kit, you can control your garage door remotely, and check its current status. You can even automate it using IFTTT and webCoRE.

This compact siren and strobe plugs directly into the wall outlet. It extends up about 3 inches, but, the device can be plugged-in upside down if necessary. It boasts a 105dB audio siren, with 5 different alert tones available to choose from. The bright LED strobe is a white light that can flash when triggered. No other customization can be done to the strobe light functionality.

For both standard and non-standard doors, or doors with decorative door handles, you should consider adding a deadbolt-only smart device to the door to enable remote control and access. A smart deadbolt is simply a locking mechanism that fits into the existing deadbolt cut-out in your door, and connects to the internet to allow for remote access and programming.

Ring Motion-Activated Spotlight Camera The Ring Spotlight cam combines motion-activated security lighting with Wifi security camera. Similar to other Ring products, the Ring Spotlight Cam (Available on Amazon) is controlled and setup using the Ring mobile app, and can send push notification alerts to multiple...

The Aeotec Multisensor (Available on Amazon) has six sensors combined into 1 small, 1.8″ square plastic housing. When the Aeotech Multisensor is placed in a hallway or room, you can use the SmartThings app to monitor motion, humidity, temperature, light lux (brightness), UV, and vibration. On top of all those features, the Aeotec Multisensor 6 is natively compatible with SmartThings, so no custom device handlers or coding is necessary out-of-the-box.

Industry security standards, for access control and personnel door locks, ensure the quality and durability of locks within defined and agreed-upon benchmarks of durability, operational stability, and overall security offered by the device. The two most highly recognized and widely accepted organizations for assessing the...

Before you buy a Schlage door lock for yourself, it’s important to determine which of the three types you need: Schlage Touch, Schlage Connect, or Schlage Sense. If you're shopping for a smart door lock from Schlage, you've likely seen multiple product lines, and ultimately...

Schlage Smart Locks for SmartThings Security is a core component of any modern smart home, and ultimately smart home security boils down to access control. There are a number of ways to control ingress and egress through doors and windows, but the most popular consumer...

As you grow your home automation network, the need for triggers and automation using contact sensors becomes commonplace. There are a wide variety of options, but the Visionic sensor costs less than $20 online, which was the lowest priced SmartThings-native contact sensor (at time of...