Gadgetory

hey I'm right Chris from Siena and today we're looking at the iris home management system from Lowe's now this is a system you can get in a variety of kits the two options across 179 are the safe and secure kit and the care and comfort kit safe and secure we'll give you the keypad the motion sensor and the two contact sensors for doors and windows along with the hub that controls at all if you go up the care and control route you'll get the thermostat and this plug and play module your third option is the smart kit which costs $2.99 that'll give you everything you see here Plus this range extender to help make your system a little more robust as home automation networks go iris does shine for its wide compatibility with a variety of z-wave sensors and devices you can use smoke detectors and leak sensors you can use a whole multitude of sensors to monitor your home and the iris app and website will cover at all that's pretty comprehensive we like that quite a bit however some of the components that come with the system didn't work quite as well as we'd like they work reliably and they do what they're supposed to but take this keypad for instance for one it's not that loud if the alarm goes off it's not a hugely significant alarm I don't think it would be as frightening or as alarming to an intruder as you'd like it to be also it's a little bit laggy the buttons when you press them don't always respond as quickly as you'd like when the alarm is going off I put my code in and hit off and it would take a couple of tries to go through and disarm the system that would be a little annoying if I had to do that every time I came in from work at the end of the day so I'm not sure I like this keypad that much I also don't like that it doesn't have an inherent cellular backup you can get that as an add-on that will tack on an additional five to ten dollars a month in your monthly fees as far as fees go you'll have to pay $10 a month to access the full features of the system and that includes automating things and scheduling things and doing all the stuff you probably want to do with it if you decide you don't want to pay that $10 a month you can still use this system but it's in a very limited capacity I think you're probably going to want to be ready to pay that $10 a month iris gives you two free months of access to the complete slated features so you can decide for yourself if it's worth it I think you probably will so if you're hoping for a fee free option this probably isn't the one for you all in all I like the potential of this system for home automation a little less for home security I think that it's got a great amount of compatibility with z-wave devices you can add locks lights and you can think of over Zi will probably work with it so that's great however like I said it's not perfect I don't really like that you have to pay $10 a month for everything when there are fee free options like smart things that do a great job so I would shop around before committing but give it consideration for CNET I'm rec wrist