We tested the Ring Alarm — And it exceeded our expectations

South African ICT product distributor MiRO recently sent us the Ring Alarm wireless home security starter kit to try out.

We set it up at one of our journalist’s homes to see how it works and documented our experience.

Ring advertises this starter kit as a simple and affordable way to set up your own alarm system, and while this sort of marketing is often a stretch — we found it accurate here.

The Ring Alarm system was straightforward to set up, taking us 20 minutes before it was ready for action.

This time was mostly spent setting up the sensors, keypad, and central module.

The sensors we tested included Ring’s motion and door sensor, both of which attached to a wall with double-sided tape the company provides with the devices.

Once we had set up the sensors where we wanted them, we plugged in the central module and keypad, and downloaded the Ring app on our smartphone.

The app walked us through completing the setup, and once we had paired the app to the central module, keypad, and sensors, we were all set.

Sensors

We could manage everything about our sensors from our smartphone — including receiving notifications when there was movement within the detection zones.

This makes the Ring Alarm system particularly useful if you’re going away, as you will know immediately if someone is in your home or office.

Importantly, we found that the Ring sensors were extremely accurate. When we moved into the detection zone, we immediately received notifications on our smartphone every time.

We also did not encounter any issues in terms of false detections — every time we received a notification, it was because there had genuinely been someone in the room.

This efficiency impressed us, particularly for an affordable system we had set up ourselves with minimal fuss.

One of the system’s key features is its three sensor modes — Disarmed, Home, and Away. They work as follows:

Disarmed mode is used when you don’t want the sensors to be active.
Home mode allows the sensors to monitor your surroundings when you are in the building and won’t trigger an alarm from the indoor sensors.
Away mode is for when you are away from the building and would like to keep an eye on everything.

Our impression

Overall, the Ring Alarm is an excellent option for anyone who wants a cheap and easy way to monitor their homes or office through their smartphone.

Thanks to its modular design, you can also purchase additional sensors to cover your property in a way that suits you – and these extra sensors and extenders only cost a few hundred rands each.

The Ring 5-Piece Home Security Kit is available from MiRO’s online store or any regional branch.

Browse their Ring solutions here or contact their sales team at [email protected]. Alternatively, you can call (or WhatsApp) them on 012 657 0960.

You can choose from a wide range of Ring products and other complementary IoT and home automation solutions and keep these solutions powered during rolling blackouts without breaking the bank. For their UPS solutions, visit their Acconet range here.