Protect America Review

Our Video Review of Protect America

If you want to see our review of Protect America in video form, check out the below video, where our Director of Content Gabe Turner shows you exactly what the system looks like and how it’s used.

What’s Included with Protect America

Protect America let us create a customized system that included a touchscreen control panel, door/window sensors, motion sensors, garage door sensors, and an indoor camera. Here’s how all these devices performed during testing.

Simon XTI-5 Touchscreen Panel

The touchscreen panel was where we armed and disarmed our security system upon entering and exiting our home, literally with just the touch of our fingertips. You’ll need one of Protect America’s panels to connect the rest of their devices as well as the professional monitoring team and the mobile application, which we’ll discuss more below.

Interlogix Micro Door/Window Sensors

Most burglars enter homes via the doors and windows, with kicking the door in as the most common method of intrusion.3 But with these tiny door and window sensors, which go on the frame and the door/window itself, we got alerted whenever there was any movement. Completely wireless, our contact sensors never ran out of battery and shouldn’t for five years. We also appreciated that Protect America has options for different kinds of doors and windows, from saw doors to crystal recessed windows and everything in between.

Interlogix Motion Detector

But your doors and windows aren’t the only things to protect. We opted to add in a motion detector, also wireless, to protect a 25-foot range. Now, we know what you might be thinking: is my pet going to set off the motion detector every time I leave the house? Fortunately, Protect America thought of that, so their motion detector can differentiate between people and animals under 40 pounds. But if you have a pet over 40 pounds, first of all, congratulations on raising such a big boy or girl! Second of all, you may receive some false notifications, but that’s going to be true with the majority of motion sensors available.

Garage Door Sensors

Since our regular door/window sensors didn’t work with the garage door, we got a separate sensor to see when our garage was opened or closed. Protect America has different options for different types of garage doors, be them roll up, linear, or what have you, as well as controllers, so you don’t have to get out of the car every time you want to back out of your garage. Most security companies don’t offer garage door sensors, so Protect America is a good option to protect and control your garage.

1.0 Megapixel SmartView Indoor Camera

We’re going to be honest: we were a bit disappointed with Protect America’s indoor camera in terms of video and artificial intelligence, or AI. First of all, its video quality was a bit pixelated at only 720p HD, and with only a 60-degree field of view, we weren’t able to see much of our living room. Plus, without any AI capabilities, we got a lot of false notifications from moving objects that weren’t people, which were a bit irritating.

However, the camera did have its good qualities, like excellent infrared night vision, giving us clear, black and white footage in the dark, plus a speaker and microphone for two-way audio.

We stored our footage directly onto a micro-SD card via the camera’s expansion slot. From there, we backed it up onto our own cloud storage on Google Drive, though we could’ve shelled out an extra $2 a month for a week’s worth of storage. We were able to control the SmartView camera using the voice assistant Alexa,4 but we’ll talk more about Protect America’s smart home integrations in a bit. Finally, we plugged in our camera to power, which meant that we didn’t have to worry about the battery running out. Even if the power goes out, we’ll still be connected via cellular backup, but again, let’s not get ahead of ourselves — we’ll get to cellular backup in a bit.

Installing and Using Our Protect America System

All of the Protect America components came pre-programmed with each other, which made setup much easier (not to mention the help over the phone that we got, which was excellent). During setup, the guide had us out each component as we installed it, ensuring it’s all working correctly. In our experience, the tests were all aced. Although this setup isn’t the most sophisticated security system around technologically, it certainly served its function and was easy to arm and disarm. Most of the Protect America security system we tested is made of hardened plastic, which is pretty durable, save for the Megapixel camera, which seemed a bit fragile. But again, this camera wasn’t our favorite for other reasons, as well. Overall, it’s easy to install and use Protect America, and they get extra points for their helpful phone support, which guided us step by step.

Monitoring with Protect America

Free 24/7 professional monitoring may seem too good to be true, but Protect America is the one security company we’ve reviewed to offer it with all of their systems. However, this becomes a bit more believable when we realized we had to sign a three-year, binding contract5 to get cellular backup, which keeps the system on in the event of a power outage. The cost of this contract depends on the customer’s equipment and needs and will lie between $19.99 and $60 a month. This is the exact same price range as other traditional security companies like ADT and even similar to Vivint. Of course, we negotiated our monthly rate, so don’t be afraid to haggle. Learn more about Protect America’s pricing here.

Protect America and the Smart Home

Protect America works with Alexa, the most popular voice assistant4 for the smart home. With our voices alone, we could arm our system, check its status, or control connected devices. Protect America works with a ton of third-party IoT devices, such as:

Security Cameras

• Alarm.com Indoor Wireless Fixed Camera
• 1.0 Megapixel SmartView Indoor Camera
• Alarm.com Outdoor Camera V722W
• 1.0 Megapixel SmartView 64GB Outdoor Camera
• Alarm.com Indoor Fixed Camera with Night Vision ADC-V522IR
• Alarm.com SkyBell Slim Line Doorbell Camera
• Alarm.com WiFi Doorbell Camera
• Alarm.com Pan/Tilt Camera V620PT
• Alarm.com Outdoor Camera V721W
• Vivotek Outdoor Wireless Video Camera
• Vivotek Indoor Video Security Camera
• Vivotek TC5633 Pan/Tilt
• Alarm.com Image Sensor Camera Kit V2
• Alarm.com Outdoor Camera V723

Smart Locks

• Kwikset 916 Touchscreen Deadbolt
• Yale Z-Wave Touchscreen Lock YRD226
• Kwikset 910 Z-Wave Push-Button Deadbolt
• Kwikset Signature Series Z-Wave Traditional Round Deadbolt
• Yale Z-Wave Push Button Deadbolt

Smart Thermostats

• GoControl Z-Wave Thermostat
• Alarm.com (Legacy) Smart Thermostat
• Alarm.com Smart Temperature Sensor
• Alarm.com Smart Thermostat

Smart Speaker

• Echo Dot

Smart Bulbs

• Z-Wave Dimmable LED Light Bulb

Sirens

• Resolutions Wireless Sensor
• Z-Wave Siren with Strobe

Environmental Monitoring

• Home Disaster Sensor
• Trident Environmental Sensor
• Interlogix Wireless Smoke Detector
• Interlogix Carbon Monoxide Detector
• Firefighter Sensor
• Interlogix Wireless Smoke and Heat Detector
• Alarm.com Smart Temperature Sensor

All of these devices can be controlled remotely through the Protect America app7 or controlled through Alexa. Although Protect America doesn’t make a ton of their own devices, we liked the fact that it works with so many connected devices from third parties, allowing for home automation. For example, we had our sirens go off whenever our motion detector went off, because sometimes it’s hard to hear our control panel from upstairs. With so many devices, you’ll be able to really customize your smart home, but if you’re already in the Google smart home ecosystem, Protect America may not be your best bet, as it doesn’t work with Google Assistant.