Brinks Home Security Review

Installing Brinks

Being a more old-school security company, Brinks offers professional installation by a technician. We were told that normally, they can send out a technician as soon as the next day after customers finalize their purchase. Unfortunately, there was a high demand we called, so we had to schedule an appointment two days out. But what’s two more days of waiting, right?

On installation day, a white van pulled up and out came a professional looking gentleman with a boxed package on one hand and a toolbox on the other. He was 30 minutes early. That’s something you’d want to anticipate when getting a security system professionally installed. They usually don’t give you a specific time – just a two-hour window – so keep your day clear just to be safe.

The installation went smoothly. The technician worked fast and smoothly and once the system was set up, he helped us do some practice alarm calls. A note on that: Be sure to download the Brinks Home Mobile App on all the devices you’ll control your Brinks system with so the technician can integrate them into the system. Also make sure that your internet is working. Otherwise, you’d have to make another appointment, since Brinks is internet-reliant.

All in all, it was a nice, personable experience, especially compared to most traditional security companies!

Brinks Video Review

To see Brinks in action, watch our video review embedded below.

What Does the Brinks Home Complete with Video Package Include?

We ordered the Brinks Home Complete with Video Package which included a Home Touch screen panel, a video doorbell from SkyBell, a glass break detector and a cellular communicator, along with the Brinks Home Indoor Camera, although they’ve changed their packaging since. They also offer door sensors, motion sensors, and smart detectors for smoke, carbon monoxide and water leaks, but we’ll focus on the package we purchased and tested.

Brinks Home Touch

The Home Touch is basically a panel that integrated our entire security system and allowed us to control it on the touchscreen, hence the name. Here, we armed and disarmed our system.

The Home Touch offers nifty little features as well. It has two-way audio, for example, that patches you through the monitoring center during an alarm event. It also features a front-facing camera and a slot for a micro-SD card. With those two, you can set the hub to capture and store a snapshot every time someone disarms the system. That’s a nice way to monitor the comings and goings of a household. Lastly, it has an 85 dB alarm. It’s not very loud when you’re in a different room, but loud enough to startle someone entering your home.

It’s also the Home Touch where the cellular chip is stored. We’re really happy that Brinks included cellular backup for its security system, as this means it’ll stay on even if the power or your internet goes out. While this may seem like it should be standard, this isn’t usually the case, as we’ve seen from more traditional companies whose systems we’ve tested.

Skybell Slim Line Video Doorbell

While Brinks doesn’t make its own video doorbell, they do offer the SkyBell Slim Line Video Doorbell. The technician who installed our Brinks system had to wire the SkyBell doorbell into our existing doorbell setup, but he explained that it can work with our existing mechanical chime. That’s thanks to a battery in the doorbell. He also said that folks sometimes get confused because they see in the box that the doorbell has a battery that can last for three to five years. The battery, however, doesn’t make the doorbell run. It still needs power from electrical wiring. The battery is just there for the chime set up.

As for the doorbell itself, it has an incredibly large temperature range. It works in temperatures from negative 40 all the way up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, which was more than enough for our pretty temperate New York weather.

On the flip side, the Slim Line didn’t provide footage that was as clear as we would’ve liked. It’s only 720p HD, which is not up to the industry standard of 1080p HD. And while the shot was extremely wide (180 degrees, to be exact), in our opinion this doesn’t make up for the pixelated video display.

Of course, the Slim Line has two-way audio, which lets us actually greet our visitors. We did this through the Brinks Home app. This was especially helpful as we received countless online deliveries and could give the delivery people instructions straight from the source.

Now, the Brinks Home app is new. When we started testing Brinks, it still used the app from Alarm.com, which is the company that provides most of Brinks’ equipment. It was a bit annoying to have to set up what is essentially a third-party account to use Brinks; we would have preferred if everything was under one centralized app. But nonetheless, we got 1,000 video clips stored per month (5,000 more clips would’ve cost an extra $5 a month, which we declined). In general, we like to have both cloud and local storage, but the Slim Line lacks a slot for a micro-SD card, so instead, we had to download the footage from Alarm.com manually and import it onto a separate hard drive. Again, this wasn’t the most elegant process in the world, another drawback of the Slim Line.

On top of that, the Slim Line only recorded when it detected motion of any kind, unable to differentiate between people and other moving objects like cars, animals or another inanimate, moving objects. Since our Slim Line Doorbell Camera faced a fairly busy New York street, we received a ton of false notifications, mostly from strangers passing by on the sidewalk and cars driving by, along with the occasional squirrel (yes, there is wildlife in NYC, believe it or not!). It was pretty annoying to have to sort through hundreds of clips of cars, only to find the few clips of actual people visiting or dropping off packages at our house. Overall, the Slim Line isn’t the best Doorbell Camera, but it might work better for someone that lives in a more suburban or rural area.

Glass Break Detector

The glass break detector can detect, you guessed it, glass breaking within a 20-foot range. Many intruders will simply break through a window to avoid setting off window sensors, so this wireless device was a welcome addition to our security system. We recommend using it on first-floor windows in particular.

Cellular Communicator

Even though it’s 2024, our home’s Wi-Fi can be about as consistent as Netflix’s original programming, which is to say, spotty at best. On top of that, we definitely don’t want our security system to go off with the power, as that’ll leave our home completely unprotected. But no fears, as our Brinks system included a cellular communicator from Simon, which makes sure that our system stays on no matter the circumstances. This came in handy when we accidentally cut off power to the house during a renovation.

Brinks Indoor Camera

In our opinion, an indoor camera is an essential part of any security system, so we were pleased to see that the video quality was much higher than that of the Skybell Slim Line, at that 1080p HD level we like.

While the field of view was a bit narrow at 113 degrees, ultimately the camera let us see more clearly as to what our kids were doing when we weren’t home, especially in regards to homework.

Another advantage is that the indoor camera has that infrared night vision we look for, which as you can see holds up even in the windowless room that we test in. Although our kids wouldn’t like it, this let us see them sneaking midnight snacks, although we ultimately decided to let it slide.

However, that doesn’t mean we couldn’t tell the kids to get moving on stuff through the camera’s speaker and microphone! Unfortunately, the motion detection is the same as the video doorbell, with no person detection or facial recognition. However, since this was an indoor camera, we received way fewer false notifications, as not much is going in our living room when no one is home. This certainly made backing up video clips easier, as there were way less to go through. And that’s it for the Brinks security system components!

Brinks and Our Smart Home

If we haven’t already made it clear, we’re obsessed with optimizing our smart home, which is why we’re happy that Brinks works with the Alarm.com Amazon skill and Google Assistant2 action.

With Google Assistant, we were able to tell Alarm.com to arm our security system, show us different cameras, and even control connected devices, like smart locks. We enjoyed showing our Brinks footage on Nest smart displays like the Nest Hub Max, almost like a streaming service of our home life!

Alexa worked similarly; completely hands-free, we could arm or disarm our system, ask about its status, or control our garage door, thermostat or smart lights. Note that only Alexa let us disarm our system, so if you want to be able to enter your home and turn off your alarms without having to put down all the stuff you’re holding, Alexa might be a better option, especially if you already have Echo Show smart displays in your home.

What Will We Pay Monthly with Brinks?

Let’s get straight to it: Brinks tacks on monthly fees with every system, but they will vary based on what system you buy. We covered all of those options in our Brinks pricing and packages guide, but to sum it up, professional monitoring will cost at least $29.99 a month with any of Brinks’ proprietary packages. Contracts are three years long.

Now, Brinks isn’t the most transparent when it comes to pricing, so we can provide you the details of our monitoring package, but you’d have to call Brinks to find out what will be the final cost for you. The pricing below is just to give you an idea of what it cost us.

Brinks Monitoring Overview

To be honest, these prices are at the higher-end of the market compared to newer security companies which charge as little as $20 a month for the same features, making monitoring a definite drawback of Brinks. On top of that, we had to sign a three-year contract, and given our commitment issues, this was not ideal. However, Brinks isn’t the most expensive company we’ve reviewed in terms of monitoring; we’ve seen traditional security competitors charge as much as $60 per month, so compared to this, Brinks is reasonable if not middle of the road.

Getting Support from Brinks

We had quite a few options when it came to getting help with Brinks, from live chat to their online help center or by phone. Being the anti-social millennials that we are, we typically opted for live chat, which reminds us of the AIM of simpler times. We are happy to say that we got prompt, informative responses. The only thing and this is nit-picky, is that when we clicked to another page on the website, the chatbox disappeared and we had to start a new conversation with another rep. Just make sure you stay on the same page if you’re using the live chat feature.

Similarly, our post-purchase phone call only took about ten minutes, about half the time of other security companies.

The Alarm.com App vs. Brinks Home App

We’re thrilled that Brinks has its own app now, but that wasn’t the case when we started testing it. Like we said, we had to use Alarm.com’s app.

While the idea of a third-party app controlling your security system sounds perplexing, that’s actually a common sight in the industry. Even Frontpoint, at some point, had to use Alarm.com’s app for its Frontpoint security systems.

Brinks may have been late to the app party, but now that the Brinks Home app is live, we can say that it feels much more streamlined. We can also say that the app works, although it’s not yet on the same level of some of our favorite home security app. For example, the Vivint app for Vivint security systems offers more customizations and smart home features. Looking at the ratings, though, it seems that the Brinks Home app is a hit. It has over four stars from the Apple App Store and almost four stars from Google Play.

Recap of the Brinks Security System

Since we reviewed their system last, Brinks has changed a ton, and it’s all for the better; it has an app now, an Alexa integration, and even a touchscreen control keypad. They definitely make the list of our top 10 best security systems of 2024. That being said, we think it would work for some people more than others.

If you’re not sure about Brinks, you can sign up and get 30 days to change your mind; the three-year contract only locks you in after the first month. But with so many awesome features, we think you’re gonna like having Brinks protect your home.