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Looking for a wireless driveway alarm. Any recommendations? Darned hard to find impartial
online reviews--seems like all the sites are "buy mine--it's the greatest".
 
i bought my last one from harbor freight, " brand was called- driveway patrol-"have had it for 5 years, still works great, alerts for cars, people and cats. it was cheap around 20.00?.. i think,, i have to change batteries about 3 times a year in it.also works if you put it inside your car, and someone opens your car door and enters your car..( hotel parking lot).. also good for camping. can set it up on the road to your camp site and it alerts if there is movement in the middle of the night. range is maybe 50 to 100 yards not so great. many uses besides driveway.
 
Harbor Freight has them for $15 dollars. Yes that's cheap. But they work good and they are water proof. I use them all the time and always no when somebody is coming up the driveway or any place else on my property.

OH, crud I must be getting old and slow. Anyhow what he said.
 
If you want a unit with longer range, longer battery life, and more features, look at the Dakota Alert.

I have had a Model 3000 for about five years and find them to be very good. I had to send one transmitter back to the factory when it wouldn't reach 300+ feet (they are rated for 600 feet) and they repaired it free and quickly.

The 3000 is a motion sensor and it can be set off by wind moving vegetation under certain conditions. This can be avoided if you consider that during installation. This unit can be set off by animals or pedestrians. Mine tells us when the deer are coming to feed in the apple orchard or my wife's flowers.

If you only want to monitor vehicle traffic, Dakota Alert makes a sensor that you can bury under the driveway. If I ever get one, I will place it in a piece of PVC conduit so it can be serviced without having to dig up the driveway.

The receivers can be set up to handle up to four transmitters, sounding a different tone for each transmitter so you can tell where the activity is. I have the auxiliary output from the receiver wired to my doorbell, which has two chimes. I use the most simple chime for the driveway alarm and the more complex chime for the doorbell.

I have several receivers located in different buildings, some of which have steel siding. All of them pick up the signals reliably from over 300 feet. 9V batteries in the transmitters last almost a year, even with being set off by the deer all the time. I made an adapter to put two 9V batteries in parallel and haven't had to replace the batteries in well over a year. The unit sounds a second chime each time it activates to indicate a low battery situation, so you can replace the battery before it fails to function.

These units are available on Ebay and Amazon, among other places. Older units don't have some features, like high/low sensitivity, so check out used ones carefully.

All told, these are good units, built in the USA, reliable and with great customer service!

I tried a Harbor Freight unit and it had a short range. It quit working after less than a year and new batteries didn't help. I can see the HF unit being handy as a portable, short-range option.
 
If you want a unit with longer range, longer battery life, and more features, look at the Dakota Alert.

HUGE SNIP

I tried a Harbor Freight unit and it had a short range. It quit working after less than a year and new batteries didn't help. I can see the HF unit being handy as a portable, short-range option.

Wow--great review. Thanks. The Dakota sounds like a good unit. Lot's of make/models out there, I'm getting it down to a short list. Looks like it's coming down to go cheap and hope it works, or pay
up for the higher end unit. Doesn't appear to be a lot of middle ground.
 
Home Depot has a few. I think they're like $30. For years I've been using wireless models that you can plug stuff into, like a light. I used mine more for perimeter/zones.. I prefer a light instead of a buzzer (though you could plug in a radio and a light or whatever # of things you like) as it's silent and what makes it look like someone is alert and at home at night?.. a light coming on.. inside
 

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