Hi all,
Long time lurker, first time poster.
I am getting ready to setup our alarm system through hubitat and all the z-wave and zigbee alarms have 'meh' reviews.
I am curious to see which models you use, and/or if you think getting a standard alarm that's plugged into a z-wave outlet would be best and most reliable.
Thanks!
I have both the Dome Siren and the Aeotec Siren 6.
As a siren they both work well. Probably prefer the Siren6 based on features such as being able to plug it in with battery backup and its very loud.
However if you want either as a door chime (where it dings when you open a door/window) then I can't recommend either as their is this annoying multichime bug. I think its more of a zwave issue and not a device issue though.
But just as a siren you will be happy.
I have 3 Dome Sirens and 1 Aoetec Siren Gen 5. The Gen 5 does not have a battery backup but I prefer it because the Dome Sirens burn through batteries. They sound on smoke alarm events and our kitchen stove hood is inadequate so we often will have an event when we fry or brown food.
I've found a Dome siren's batteries are good for 3 to 5 minutes worth of siren at loudest volume. So, instead of being able to finish the steak you are browning on the cast iron you have to DROP EVERYTHING and turn off the alert right away because you don't want to have to change a CR123A in the Domes.
If I had to choose now I would get the Aeotec 6 because of the battery backup.
Also, as a side note I have Ring devices integrated into Hubitat that can also sound as sirens.
For inside I have two of the Everspring (Iris branded) Z-wave sirens with strobes. I don't use the strobe function because I do not want to give away the siren location when they go off. They are loud and they work. For outside I have Ring floodlight cameras and I use @codahq 's excellent Ring connect app and tap into the Ring sirens. All work as they should. The Ring sirens turn off after 30 seconds but that is a Ring hard coded feature. 
I have the Dome Siren and don't like it. Most of the time when the siren is sounding, I cannot get it to shut up in anything close to real time. It is like it won't take stop or off commands if it is busy making noise. (Dome Siren trigger on dashboard not working for more on this). But it seems that not many people see that issue with theirs.
I use Halo+. Sadly the company went out of business and you can only get them on ebay here and there.
Smoke, Co+, Night light, Siren/hush button (very loud), Strobe and voice alerts, color coded alerts for different types of issues (smoke/CO). And a great ZigBee repeater. Real shame they don't make anymore, but if you can get them they work great in HE.
I have three of these. How are you getting access to the siren? Have you been able to gain access to set the weather radio channel settings with Hubitat?
If you are looking at implementing a security system, you should probably look at a panel that can connect to Hubitat. I'm not sure what panel integrations are available, but I am sure someone will speak up. I do know Konnected has an integration available.
Unfortunately not. Just the default using the button, and no weather alerts.
I use an Aeotec Siren/Chime 6. It is excellent.
Thanks, folks. I was looking at the Aeotec Siren 6, but amazon reviews were mixed. I think I'll give it a try.
Pretty much every Z-Wave product has mixed reviews on Amazon. Some of this comes down to Z-Wave being intrinsically more difficult than WiFi to setup. Some of it comes down to the systems that use Z-Wave being more difficult to understand and use than standalone WiFi devices (that don't require hubs). The rest of it actually comes down to the device itself. I don't put a lot of weight into Amazon reviews for Z-Wave products. I put a little weight in SmartThings and Hubitat threads.
I have two of the Dome sirens and both have this same issue. Really takes a while to get them to stop sounding the alarm. They both also have the "multi-chime" issue. When used as a chime, they sometimes will sound 2, 3 or 4 times instead of only once.
I have a dome siren and 3 aoetec 6 sirens but I stop using all of them because of various problems so I started using 3 google home minis to announce that there is an alarm an what sensor was set off works great.
So many issues with these sirens, or just crap sounding sirens. Would be nice if Amazon started selling just the Ring hub. I would add a second just for the Siren.
I've written SmartThings handlers for 11 sirens/chimes and this is my favorite device, but it's also the most complex and it uses the sound switch z-wave command class which is somewhat new and not supported by many hubs.
Because of that it's not fully functional with many platforms and that most likely contributes to some of the bad reviews.
I'm only aware of one user with the duplicate issue that most of the other siren/chimes have, but that might have been a mesh issue.
There's an usually high number of people reporting the device being DOA or dying within a couple of weeks, but I don't believe I've seen any reports from users that have had it longer than that so if the device lasts that long you'll probably be fine.
Have you considered getting a cheap (but loud) 12v siren and plugging it into a z-wave outlet to turn on/off? This was the zwave siren alternative i was considering.
For me this wouldn't work. I want everything to do with alarm contained within the Ring system. But it seems to be impossible for a while, since Ring cannot currently turn ON outlets from an alarm event. Lame 
i have a zooz multisiren battery operated works good and its z wave
I built and run a Shelly Alarm its been rock solid. Anyways if you enjoying tinkering then give it a shot.
http://blog.smarterhome.club/2019/09/07/shelly1strobealarm
Fyi, there's a Shelly Alarm specific HE driver for it too.
Download the Hubitat app
