Great review! I own this system and for the most part, I like several things about it (many of which you covered in this video) but there are a few things I do not like, which is the reason I'm switching to a different system. One interesting perk though, is Kangaroo sent me a free motion sensor ($15 value) on my 30-day anniversary; that was nice. Anyway, back to what I don't like about it. 1. The time it takes to alarm the home after leaving is too long and can't be shortened, but the time it takes to set the at-home alarm is almost instant. They should fix that. 2. It takes 45 seconds before the siren will sound after a sensor has been breached. In my opinion, this is way too long and there is no setting to change it. A lot can happen in that amount of time. Fix this too. 3. The video doorbell is only that; video. It offers no audio, so you can see who's at your door but you can't interact with them like you can with most other video doorbells. However, for only $20, you shouldn't expect much more anyway. 4. They offer an indoor camera but no outdoor camera so it's difficult to form a complete Kangaroo security ecosystem. 5. Although there is a Kangaroo Alexa skill, it's not very good and rarely works. Despite those factors, Kangaroo is a good budget security system. It's perfect for a small to medium sized apartment or house. I prefer to have a security system with everything I need and without any subscription fees or multiple apps, so I've opted for Eufy since they have a home alarm system, indoor/outdoor cameras, video doorbell, and I can monitor everything from just one app. They also have a smart lock, but until they offer WiFi for it, Wyze has them beat on features and price right now.
Just purchased home insurance with a startup called Hippo Insurance. It looks like Hippo Insurance offers pretty competitive rates because their plan comes with a Kangaroo Starter kit complimentary.
Great review! I’ve had this system for about 3 months now and we love it! We are currently renting a house so we didn’t want to spend a lot of money. We bought the Front Door Security Kit along with a few extra sensors and it only cost $155 after shipping and included 1 year of the Complete Plan. I’ve done a lot of research on DIY security systems and so far, I just don’t think that it can be beat for the price. It has worked great for us and we live in a decent size house. The only downside to this system would be the front doorbell camera. It works exactly as they said but I wish they had an option with a talk back mic and a real video camera. This one only creates GIF’s but it does the job and the doorbell is actually pretty loud.
I’ve had this kit for a little over half a year now and while it does get the job done, it is a very basic experience that comes up wanting in a few spots. The siren, as mentioned, is not very loud and comes only from the keypad. There is no add-on for an extra or separate speaker/siren, so… hopefully your next door apartment neighbors care enough. The keypad device is also very slow and doesn’t always accept the pin the first or even second time. If it happened once in a blue moon, I could live with it, but it’s more like once a day. It’s frustrating when you have your hands full, or the tag is in your pocket, so on. It’s just a slowww device. If you’ve ever sat there and waited for a computer to catch up to you, that’s what this is like, only with a countdown beep going off. Finally, the Alexa and Google integration is laughable. The app notifies you if people come in and out, or of any other alerts, but that’s all you get unless you subscribe. And, when you subscribe you don’t get much. It basically just says “Go to Google Home”, that’s it. When you do, Google Home has no Kangaroo anything in its “works with Google” devices. Eventually, you come to find that it will just arm and disarm the system through Google Home and simply by being on the same wi-fi network. That, and get this, to get it to arm you have to say this exactly, “Hey Google, talk to Kangaroo Home Security Arm Home”. Wow, that just rolls off the tongue. Nothing else will work, google just goes, huh? Same with the disarm, it’s that and the pin in the exact order it needs it said. Just kind of foolish. Even if you try to create an event and use another phrase, it bugs out and won’t do it. The only way you can get it to arm/disarm is to say that and only that. And, forget about adding it to a routine. On top of that, it takes 3 minutes for the system to arm, that’s too long for me since sometimes I hit the button and go. I’m gone in 30 seconds and whoever’s around has 2 1/2 min now. It’s not likely, but possible, and possibles are why I bought it to begin with. You can set it to 5 minutes in battery saver mode, and that’s it. Most give you a minute or 45 second option, but, sorry, not here. It’s pros are that it does provide knowledge of a break-in directly to your phone and the cameras are available to give some video, but it’s choppy. Cons are pretty much everything else you’re looking for in a security system. Low siren limited to keypad base, slow functioning device, barely works with Home devices. Not a lot of configuration available either. Basically, for the base price, it’s a base device.
Thanks. And you should try selling this online and get maybe the ring alarm. I think it’s maybe $200 you can find the full system on eBay and has pretty good reviews. You may have to pay $10 a month for online monitoring but that’s cheap for a security system. I have the regular ring doorbell, I am not subscribed to the plan because I don’t care to be but I like the doorbell in itself
Paid for sms and never received it even if your phone is not connected to the internet. Very not happy about this ripped off. Never reached out to the Kangeroo customer service about it yet! Hopefully they have justification
To anyone considering this system or the Kangaroo ecosystem, this is your sign. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY! The premise is well-meaning, a decentralized system where each component connects to WiFi so if the base station is unplugged you'd still get notifications of a breach. In practice it takes WAY to long for the door sensor to realize the event, send signal to the Kangaroo server, send the notification back to your phone. It is extremely unreliable and sometimes can take 15 seconds - sometimes 45 seconds. When looking at a security system "unreliable" is not a quality you want to pay for. The indoor camera is a joke. The lense because of the ability to turn opaque gives an image that is not clear. When night mode is enabled the IR LEDs bleed light into the lense and you can only make out 30% of the image directly in the center. Every other part of the image is white/washed out. Awful design and rushed to market in my opinion. I got a special when they launched so I didn't pay full price, and when I preordered the indoor camera they send the camera but never charged my card so 🤷🏼♂️ Can't say enough bad things about this system.
