Cove Home Security vs Protect America: An Expert Comparison
Today we will be comparing home security providers Cove Home Security and Protect America, and see how they stack up! We’ll go over equipment, monitoring plans, and more!
Being a homeowner is a great feeling, but owning a home comes with quite a bit of responsibility. Most homeowners know that owning a home comes with unexpected expenses, and that includes home invasion. The best way to keep yourself and your family safe from home invasions, is to invest in a home security system. There are several really great security companies that can provide you with a personalized security solution. Today we will be looking at what Cove and Protect America (now Brinks Home) have to offer you.
Cove Control Panel
Cove offers a control panel that is packed full of features, and has a great modern-day design. Their control panel is called the Cove Touch Alarm. All your security and other devices connect wirelessly to it. It has a full colored touchscreen that easily lets you arm and disarm your system with a push of a single button. The Cove Touch Alarm is a wireless panel that is powered through an AC power source. It comes with a 24-hour backup battery. It also includes a built-in audible alarm that will be triggered when your Cove security system detects an event. You can have up to 20 customized user codes for the Cove Touch Alarm panel, and they can easily be disabled and enabled at any time. It also includes a 2-way audio feature that allows you to directly communicate with your central monitoring station. Another really cool feature of the Cove Touch Alarm is that is includes Crash and Smash technology. What this means is that the Cove Touch Alarm has a cellular chip that will still transmit a signal to your central monitoring station even when your control panel has been damaged. The Cove Touch Alarm will make sure your system is working properly by using its self-diagnosing software that constantly makes sure your hub and security devices are working properly.
To see our Crash and Smash enabled control panel by Qolsys, check out Link Interactive >>
Protect America/Brinks Home Control Panel
Protect America/Brinks Home offers a thin designed 7-inch full colored touchscreen. Their full color touchscreen is cellular, but it also connects to your home’s WIFI as an extra backup connection. It is powered by an AC power source, and it includes a 24-hour backup battery just in case your power goes out. All of the features of your control panel, system, and any connected devices can be controlled right from the Protect America’s 7-inch full colored touchscreen. Most features of your system, like arming and disarming your system, can be done with the touch of a button right on the touchscreen. The touchscreen will also display your local time and temperature. A unique feature of Protect America’s control panel is that it has a 5 MP front facing camera that can take snapshots of when your system is being armed and disarmed. It includes Bluetooth arming and disarming as well. You can store your pictures on an SD card due to Protect America’s control panel including a Micro SD slot. A Micro SD card is not included with the panel. It has a built-in glass break sensor and motion sensors. If your system or any connected devices are triggered, Protect America’s control panel will sound its internal siren. Protect America’s control panel is very expandable and it includes a Z-wave protocol that lets you use lots of great home automation devices with it.
Recommended: An alternative DIY (do-it-yourself) option, our home security system at Link Interactive >>
Who wins?
Cove offers one great central hub to connect all of your devices to one place. While other companies’ control panels might be more traditional in their approach, Cove offers a full colored touchscreen control panel that is easy to use and extremely intuitive. For this reason, we are giving Cove the win for this category.
Cove Equipment
Cove offers all the sensors you need to give your home total security protection. The first type of security sensors that Cove has to offer are door/window sensors. Their door/window sensors are battery-operated and wireless. They can easily be installed on either your door or window frames due to their adhesive double-sided stick tape backs. The next sensors that are offered by Cove are motion sensors that are also wireless and battery-operated. You generally want to install motion sensors in large rooms that you want coverage for. Cove’s motion sensors are pet immune which means that as long as your furry friend are under 45-pounds they will not trigger these sensors. Cove offers glass break sensors to help protect the windows of your home. Cove’s glass break sensors are also wireless and battery-operated. Cove’s glass break sensors have a range of 360-degrees allowing them to cover multiple windows. Cove has keychain remotes that are battery-operated. Their keychain remotes have a four-button design, and you can arm your system in stay, away, or home mode with this keychain remote. It includes a built-in panic button that will immediately alert your central monitoring stations that there is an emergency.
Cove offers wireless and battery-operated smoke, CO, and flood sensors. Their smoke and CO sensors will detect rises in smoke and CO gas, and they will make an audible alert and trigger an event with your system if these rises are detected. Their flood sensors will detect rises in water, and it will also trigger your system when rises or leaks are detected. All the equipment that purchase from Cove is DIY (do it yourself), but Cove does include a step by step guide on how to set up everything quickly and easily.
Cove Home Automation
Cove doesn’t have a huge selection of add-on equipment for you to choose form, and when it comes to home automation, they don’t currently offer any of those types of products on their website. You will need to call them directly to find out about their home automation products. They do offer the Cove Medical Alert System which is a medical alert device that has a portable design that allows it to easily be transported from place to place. The Cove Medical Alert System would be a great addition to your Cove security system especially if you have someone in your home who has medical issues. The Cove Medical Alert System is a wireless push button sensor that is battery-operated. It has an LED indicator light to let you know that a distress call has been made. When the Cove Medical Alert System’s button has been pushed your central monitoring station will be immediately notified.
Cove Video Monitoring/Cameras
When it comes to video surveillance equipment Cove Smart is a bit limited. Cove Smart does not offer their own branded video surveillance camera, but they do offer the YI Indoor Camera. The YI Indoor Camera is packed full of features. It has a video resolution of 1080p HD with a 107-degree wide viewing angle. It has night vision technology that allows you to capture images even when there is no light around. You can use the YI Indoor Camera’s zoom feature to zoom in on images up to 4X which allows for crystal clear images. One really cool feature of the YI Indoor Camera is its Baby Cry Detection technology. With YI Indoor Camera’s Baby Cry Detection technology, it will listen for the distinguishing sound of a baby’s cry, and ignore background noise. If this noise is detected by your YI Indoor Camera, it will alert you. It also includes a 2-way audio feature that allow to hear and respond to whomever is around your camera. The YI Indoor Camera is powered through an AC Power source, and it works by connecting to your home’s WIFI network wirelessly. Video clips can be stored on a Micro SD card or viewed through the Cove app.
Protect America/Brinks Home Equipment
Protect America/Brinks Home offers all the basic equipment you need to give your home total protection. They offer wireless and battery-operated intrusion and environmental safety sensors. To protect the interior of your home, Protect America offers a few different styles of door/window sensors, a motion sensor, and a glass break sensor. Door/window sensors will alert if a door or window to your home has been opened or shut. Protect America’s motion sensor will trigger your system if motion is detected. Their glass break sensors will listen for the sound of break glass, and they will trigger your system if this sound is heard. To keep your home safe from environmental dangers, Protect America offers smoke/heat, CO, and water leak sensors. These environmental sensors will make audible alerts if their designed environmental factor is detected while triggering your system. Protect America also offers extra keypads and key remotes for another way to arm and disarm your system as well as control it. They have external sirens for an extra way for you to hear your system being triggered. They even offer medical alert pendants that work like a panic button that will send emergency services when it is pressed. For a more complete list of all of their equipment you can visit their website. All equipment offered by Protect America is DIY (do it yourself), but all their equipment includes a startup guide.
Home Automation
Protect America has a great variety of add-on equipment. Protect America offers several different brands of smart locks for you to choose from. Their smart locks can be controlled on the go and allow you to create different user codes for different users. You can also unlock any smart lock purchased through Protect America through their app as well as receive push notifications for when your smart locks have been locked and unlocked. Protect America offers the Linear Garage Door Controller which will allow you to remotely shut and open your garage doors while on the go. You will get alerts for when you garage door has been opened or shut through their app. Protect America offers a few types of smart thermostats including the Alarm.com Smart Thermostat which is great at cutting down on your home’s energy consumption per month. They also offer a smart outlet and a light switch control which are also devices that help you cut down on your home’s energy consumption per month. These devices can be controlled remotely through the Protect America app, and you can set custom timers for when they come on and go off.
Video Monitoring/Cameras
Protect America also has a nice selection of video surveillance cameras you can use with their system as well. They offer an indoor, outdoor, and video doorbell camera. These cameras include night vision, 2-way audio, motion sensors, and the ability to record video in HD. Protect America’s video surveillance cameras work by connecting wirelessly to your home’s WIFI network.
Recommended: See all of our Alarm.com powered video monitoring options at Link Interactive >>
Who wins?
Cove offers all the basic equipment you need to give your home complete protection, including both wired and wireless versions of all the basic equipment which gives you some options. This category was really close, but because Cove offers both wired and wireless versions of their basic equipment and are pretty comprehensive when it comes to other forms of protection, we are giving them the win for this category.
Cove vs Protect America/Brinks Home App
Both companies offer professional, self, and video monitoring services. For self-monitoring, the apps are free to download and work for Apple and Android devices. Their apps will allow you to remotely control your system and all connected equipment while you’re on the go. You will also receive push-notifications whenever your system is triggered. You can also view and stream video through their apps. Professional monitoring services work the same. You will have a professional monitoring station watching over your home 24/7.
Recommended: For a better way to control your safety, look at our security system here at Link Interactive. Our system comes complete with Crash & Smash protection, and all the bells and whistles of a modern day home security system!
Click here to see Link Interactive’s app >>
Cove vs Protect America/Brinks Home vs Link Interactive
Honestly, as great as both of these companies are, we feel you could do a lot better, easily. Case in point: Link Interactive. A Link Interactive system is an Alarm.com powered security system (the gold standard in home security), that not only fits your budget, but blows every other security system on the market out of the water in terms of features and reliability. The number one way to do this is to get a security kit and monitoring plan from Link Interactive. Link Interactive is one of Alarm.com’s top home security providers. The Link system is an easy to use security solution, with month to month monitoring costs being some of the most affordable out there. Click here to see Link Interactive’s offer >>
More Info: Link Interactive
Link Interactive offers a superior security solution without making you skimp on features and quality of service. Take a look at the Link Interactive home alarm system.
Link Interactive is powered by Alarm.com. That means Link’s equipment and monitoring services are the same as Alarm.com’s. Link Interactive offers the Qolsys IQ 2 Panel with Alarm.com self-monitoring and third-party professional monitoring. Cutting-edge video monitoring services are also available, all at a far more affordable price point!
We encourage you take a look at Link’s offer here, get a quote and compare. You can also call direct at 1-877-826-5443 for further details and speak with a rep!
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