Problems and Getting Angry
I know… a strange place to start an article on DIY… but hear me out.
We all get angry from time to time. Especially when we have things we need or want to do, and some emergency pulls us away.
When it comes to your home alarm system you may be used to having an alarm company to call and ‘scream at’ to demand immediate service and repair of whatever is wrong. This is especially true if you have just purchased the system, or - in your mind - the thing was terribly expensive and still should be operating flawlessly. (Even though it may be 5 years old, it may be new ‘to you’.) You demand to get your money’s worth.
If you’ve opted for DIY you may have realized by now that the support dynamic is completely different. The “it” in ‘do it yourself’ includes the support and upkeep of the system. This post explores what your responsibilities are once you choose the DIY route.
You’ve decided to do the DIY approach. Great! Right?
What is your time worth?
Why did you decide to do the DIY approach in the first place? If the answer was just to save money - you’ve already deceived yourself a bit.
By doing DIY you’ve really just shifted costs. You’ve traded your time, expertise, and in some sense - your freedom for paying less both for the initial system installation and ongoing maintenance and support. Even if you are technically proficient the time investment can be appreciable. if you aren’t technically proficient, your time investment will be even higher!
With DIY - Who do you call?
The Complaint Department
Have a failure on a holiday weekend? Guess what?
You are the support technician!
Have a complaint about crappy service, or the system acting strange? That door sensor that senses a door close only some of the time?
That is all on you.
While hardware and software failures are possible, and do happen, the oness is on you to troubleshoot, investigate and resolve.
Problems can happen when you don’t want them to!
My day job is in IT. I’ve lost Christmas Day, countless weekends, pulled 48 hour shifts, etc just because something I or my team was responsible for had failed in some way. This might be the same for you as the DIYer.
If the system is down or even worse - constantly beeping or blaring - you might need to fix it now, and not later… and “now” might be in the middle of a holiday, or when you are on a business trip out of town. While your dealer may be able to remotely help in some cases, this responsibility falls to you in this case as the primary support tech.
Let me speak to the manager
If you demand to speak to the manager, get a mirror, look into it, and have a conversation with yourself. I’m sure the person in the mirror will understand, and address your issue promptly. 
What DIY is NOT:
Full service. Well, at least the way you might be used to…
With DIY we need to be the tech and deal with issues, gotchas, and ‘beyond the instructions’ troubleshooting. It is part of the deal of doing DIY over a full-service setup from a local dealer. It is why the costs are less - because we are doing all the labor/work.
But, But, But - the problem is these darn products!
I believe alarm equipment manufacturers (like Qolsys for example) build and distribute products intended for trained, licensed technicians rather than DIY. Therefore us DIYers really have a responsibility to step up a bit. (No offense to anyone - but none of us DIYers have been to a Qolsys training class for example, although I personally would love to!)
Even if the problem is with hardware or software defects, you will burn time troubleshooting AND you will need to have technical prowess and do your own investigations. If you aren’t willing to do this, you need to not do the DIY approach!
Why even do DIY when this is all on me?
The benefits of DIY can be substantial if you really understand what you are getting out of this relationship with the system. Here are a few examples:
Fastest Support and Issue Resolution
If you are the tech, and you built it, it is very likely when things go wrong you can fix it FAST. You know your system since you installed it and you know where all the bodies are buried, so to speak. (Like that one dodgy splice in the crawlspace because it was 11pm and you were tired, but you knew might come apart one day.)
Contrast that to opening a ticket with your full service provider, living through their call queue, troubleshooting over the phone, and then trying to get someone out to fix. Heaven help you if you have some sort of custom configuration, because the tech that shows up won’t know about it (or won’t remember) and when he leaves something else is now likely not working.
Admittedly I’m focusing on big provider examples here like ADT. But I have to say if you use a local alarm provider your experience would be massively different. In the case of a local provider I use for one of my businesses, I simply text him and the next day the problem is fixed. It is totally hands off and very prompt. Great local support does exist. It is just hard to find. When you do, never let them go!
Full System Access
With a dealer installed and managed system you get access typically to a ‘master code’ which limits what you can do substantially. You may be able to add/remove user codes and possibly even a z-wave device or two, maybe even a sensor if they are on the phone with you at the time, but overall you are locked out of any real panel programming.
With DIY you have full access with the Dealer, Installer and Master codes. You can literally control all the parameters of the system.
“Hidden” Features
When I had my ADT system it not only was super expensive, it didn’t do a lot of what I needed. As a result I had a separate camera system, a separate home automation system and other standalone smart systems throughout the house. I had no idea, honestly, that the panel I already had in my house could have handled all of that!
Looking back, that old alarm panel got a bad rap simply because ADT was so hard to deal with, and so expensive. It actually had all the features hidden inside of it that my current IQ 4 panel has - I just really had no idea. And certainly ADT was no help.
I once had a malfunction and was willing to pay any amount to have a tech show up and ‘just fix it’ and ADT refused to dispatch. If they wouldn’t fix what was broken, why would they help me expand or grow the system’s use? The answer is they won’t! They have their monthly fee from you and that’s all they want. Helping you grow your smart home or helping you make your life easier isn’t even on their radar.
Thinking Outside the Box
Since you have full panel access, that allows you to customize the system as you wish. You also can expand the system as you need to, at your own pace, for likely just the cost of the sensor (and your time).
Sometimes 1 + 1 = 5
Reading the installer manual and understanding how all the various features and settings actually work can spark ideas and innovation. What you can do is develop a solution to a problem, or an automation to make your life better by simply installing and configuring options in your system a certain way. There is no cookbook for this - you can develop it on your own - but the outcome is innovation.
By contrast, imagine calling your old alarm company and asking them to put a sensor on your mailbox that sends you an SMS message when your mail is delivered each day. They’d look at you strange, charge you a few hundred dollars, and likely misconfigure the alert resulting in a second service call. With DIY this is a $20 investment and about 15 minutes of your time.
OK. So I’m DIY - How do I get help?
Your Dealer
The dealer where you get your solution offers support and help to the DIY community. They also have an impressive amount of remote control and diagnostic capability. I personally use and really like and endorse the team over at Suretyhome.com. However I also watched almost all of the videos on Alarm Grid’s YouTube channel. I’m sure they are equally awesome. At this point I definitely owe Dylan at Alarm Grid and Jason and Ryan at Surety a beer or two.
The Community
Beyond your dealer, the Reddit community across several subs such as r/homesecurity, r/Qolsys, r/alarmdotcom and r/Savethepanel will react and band together to try and assist with your issues.
Recently we saw this in action - over a holiday weekend no less - to help someone else in need. And this is what makes this particular DIY community so strong, honestly.
Should I do DIY?
If you have the time, the technical prowess, the troubleshooting skills and if you find this stuff fun and engaging, the answer is YES.
If you want a “full service experience” and things to “just work” please do not do DIY, and instead find a local dealer with awesome service. You will be much happier. (And if you need a local dealer referral in Southern NJ, just let me know.)
Simply wanting to save money on your monthly bill is not reason enough to go DIY. You need to be aware of the non-monetary investments needed to make DIY shine.
This article was fueled by a recent Redditor that had an anti-Qolsys and anti-dealer meltdown when his system stopped working. Everything was someone else’s fault. I’m not sure his responsibility and role in DIY was fully understood.