Posted July 24th, 2015 by SimpliSafe

When you get a home security system, you’re thinking about the safety of your home and family. You’re looking for peace of mind. Home security is a great way of finding it. But home security keeps you safe in more ways than just triggering sirens for opened windows, motion sensed, and smoke- it let’s you call for help in an emergency.

There are two “duress” features of the SimpliSafe system: “Silent Mode” for the Panic Button and the duress PIN. These features are very important and life-saving. It’s important to take time to set up these features, hoping you’ll never have to use them.

Silent Alarm:

Silent Mode on the Panic Button triggers a silent alarm. If you press a panic button set to silent, it will send a duress signal to the monitoring company and it will not trigger the siren in your home. When the monitoring company receives a duress signal, they will not give you a call on your primary numbers. Instead, they will directly dispatch the police.

This let’s the police get to your location quickly, without letting a potential intruder know that they are on their way, for your own safety.

Duress PIN:

Like the Silent Alarm through your Panic Button, the Duress PIN sends out a signal to the monitoring company. It’s used in the case that someone is making you disarm the system against your will. By entering the Duress PIN on your keypad, the system appears disarmed as if you entered your Master PIN. Instead the duress signal is set to the monitoring company. They do not give you a call, and instead dispatch your local police.

How to Set Up a Duress Signal:

Only the stand alone Panic Button can best set to Silent. Make sure to test a Panic Button first, before setting it to silent. Once it’s set to silent, you will not be able to test it. You can set up a Silent Panic Alarm through your Easy Setup Wizard on your Keychain Remote, or if you have the Interactive Monitoring plan, you can do it through your Customer account online.

If you’re doing it through the Easy Setup Wizard, select “Adjust Settings” and then “Manage Components.” Here, find your Panic Button using its serial number and set it to “Silent Alarm.” Make sure to save the settings when you are done, and the insert the Keychain Remote into the top of the Base Station and synchronize your settings.

Using your Interactive Features, select “Alarm Settings” on the left. Then find your Panic Button, and select “Silent Alarm”. Make sure to press “Send Changes to The Base Station” to make your changes!

You can similarly add or change your Duress PIN through the Easy Setup Wizard, or Online command features. In the Easy Setup Wizard, click “Setup PIN” and you can adjust this here.

Setting up these duress precautions allows you to know that no matter what happens, help is on the way. It’s one thing you’ll want to set, but never forget.