Yale wirefree Premium Alarm Kit HSA6400

Like many of the other reviews, i rate this alarm quite highly. There are a number of features to commend it, notably some of the anti-tamper features, however don't think that its bulletproof. Some wireless alarms can be jammed by the sort of phone jammer you can get on Ebay. This isn't one of them and an attempt to jam the alarm when armed will cause the siren to go off. All of the sensors have tamper features that will sound an alarm if someone trys to remove them or deactivate them. This is also true of the siren which has a spring inside it that will cause an alarm if someone trys to remove it from the wall. I bought mine from Hunters, whose price seems to change like the wind. At the moment, Homebase seems to be the cheapest, especially when on offer

A couple of weak spots though which the install manual doesn't cover:

An easy way to stop the siren ringing is to smash it, therefore site it carefully and if possible, make use of this systems capability to use more than one siren. It comes with a dummy siren, identical to the live siren, so my advice to keep the burglar guessing which siren is live and get another live siren. They're about £40. If the burglar gets lucky and smashes one of your live sirens, the anti-tamper device will trigger and the remaining live siren will sound an alarm.

The conrol panel is a weak spot. Buy a key fob and hide the control panel. Again, if you have a break in, a burglar may try and smash the control panel to stop it calling out. (the siren will be sounding, but it may not call you)

Obvious one : Make sure the telephone plug cannot be removed from the socket. The control panel gives you 30 seconds by default from a door entry to sounding an alarm and calling you. Its unlikely that the burglar will gues your code by then, but its ample time to pull the phone plug out of the socket. The alarm will still sound, but the control panel can't call you. So, hard wire it in with the appropriate connections that any diy store sell for joining phone cables.

Buy more PIR's. The door sensors are ok, but they only work if a door or window is opened. If the window is smashed, the won't trigger an alarm.

Imagine you're a burglar - you know your house better than anyone, so how would YOU bypass the sensors? When you've worked out a 'route', move the sensors to block it off and test the setting on the control box. Have you cut the route off? Don't just blindly screw a sensor to the wall without thinking about it.

PIR sensors can see heat, so don't have them looking at a radiatior or at a IR secuity camera and for obvious reasons, not at a window.

In summary, max this alarm out. It can have 20 additional sensors, yet it comes with just four. Plan it, take your time and don't rush it. Installation is easy and straightforward. It took me about 2 hours to get it set up, but i spent the best part of four weeks beforehand siting sensors and testing them. I'm not so convinced about add flashing lights to the siren. This siren doesn't have flashing lights in order to preserve battery life. Most burglars will be aware that 50% of sirens are dummies and of course the easy way to make something not look like a dummy is to put a flashing light on it. Why make it easier for them? Leave them uncertain and they may just find an easier target to go for. This alarm won't stop you getting broken in to, but its a start and your installation of it may lessen the damage

I bought this alarm after looking round for a while; I wanted a wireless alarm that was expandable enough but not too complicated. This one fits the bill with complaints being limited to a few small nit-picky items.

The alarm kit has been added to with a load of extra pet-friendly PIR sensors, door/window sensors and a couple of remotes. We've set the control panel to beep when doors/windows are opened which is reassuring as we have 2 small children, so we get an indication of anyone opening doors/windows.

The external siren has LEDs in it which we thought would flash to indicate the alarm was on; they flash when the alarm is armed, but they don't run constantly which is what we expected. I've modified mine by adding light sensitive ultra-bright flashing LEDs (Maplins kit) which attracts attention to the siren/dummy siren after dusk.

If you can use a knife and fork and tie your shoe laces, you can fit this.

Seriously...all in all a great system. Would totally recommend it. A couple of issues you might have (as a matter of personal taste). It's a straight transformer type plug into the wall socket. This is convenient to fit but not easy to conceal. The more adept DIYer might fancy taking off from a spur (not possible). similarly the phone socket. I've installed mine under the stairs and purchased two of the fobs - great out of the way solution. All that said the panel is of a good quality and is aesthetically pleasing, as are the PIRs. A bit of mini trunking would help make it look like a semi professional install.
Quality product and given I was quoted nearly 700 bucks for a professional system (fitted), great value.

I have given it 5 * as it's an absolute skoosh to fit and a really clever solution to home security on a budget.

In case you're not sure the auto dialler system simply phones out using your home phone line. It simply plays a messages alerting you to the alarm activation. No service charges, contracts or any such nonsense. A text message would be nice but that's a whole another level of complexity.