SwamCam Pool Alarm Dual Wi-Fi Camera System – ASTM F2208 Certified – Smart Pool Safety System for Inground & Above Ground Pools – Real-Time Alerts, Live View, with Wi-Fi Repeater

Some key takeaways:SUPPORT• Phenomenal American-based support team that spent a whole lot of time on the phone and via email assisting with install and troubleshooting major to even minor issues. Can't emphasize this one enough - you call and talk to humans, you email and they respond often in minutes. Who else does that these days. Unfortunately they seem to mostly be New Yorkers, but nobody's perfect...ACCURACY• Once configured with a customized detection zone that avoids elements that seem to commonly trigger it, we have virtually no false alarms as long as the dog is not in the zone.• On that note, its "Human Detection AI" is very underwhelming compared to Ring or Nest type performance. Claims like "Featuring advanced child-detection software that alerts you wirelessly as your child is approaching the pool" tended to give me the impression this product was so dialed in that only a small human (or at least a human) would trip it. But if the custom zone is not carefully set to avoid them, it is also set off by our areca palms, the waterfall, balls left in the pool - even hanging lights against the screen that reflect into the pool at dusk/dawn and create certain refraction patterns! We have our zone dialed in to only capture the deck immediately around the pool for these reasons.• That said, it's still better and more immediately responsible verses other pool based systems I've seen. I'm sure they also have more liability than Ring missing someone walking in the corner, so Swamcam is probably programmed to be overly cautious.• While it's under $40/year, the required customized zone for what seems like basic functionality means we have yet another subscription, but it is what it is.RELIABILITY• Along with phone alarms and the camera itself sounding off, it has an indoor alarm speaker module that screams louder than my upset toddler (and that's saying something). We really like that a lot because it absolutely gets our attention anywhere in the house or outside.• The voice component of it that says "Swamcam armed/disarmed" is also very (too) loud, but the alarm/voice speakers are separated so a piece of scotch tape over the voice speaker made that an easy fix (thanks to support for the suggestion as it ships without an volume adjustment for certification purposes).• It operates 100% locally, so the reaction time is much faster than our Ring doorbell, and it will operate as normal even if the internet is down (you just won't get phone notifications). This is the BIGGEST factor for me - it doesn't rely on network switches, routers, wi-fi, or any other features. If you have power, the alarm WILL sound.USABILITY• When the alarm sounds, it immediately pushes a screenshot off the suspected person to your push notifications and email (see attachment). This ended up being super helpful while getting the zone just right (or seeing that it was just the wife or dog walking to the pool because someone left the alarm on by accident).• The app can Arm/Disarm it, and it comes with a wireless PIN arm/disarm battery powered keypad that can be put anywhere without needing the phone.• You can listen to audio and talk through the camera, which isn't really used now but maybe when kids are old enough to swim alone together while we watch the screen, we will yell "time to come inside!!"• It can be programmed to auto arm the system after a set time of being disarmed, but not based on detected activity. In other words, if you set it to auto arm after 30 minutes, if you're in the pool for longer than that - it will arm and then immediately sound the alarm. It would make far more sense to say "auto arm after xx minutes of inactivity." Not sure if there's a liability or technical reason that can't be done, or if it just hasn't been completed yet - but as soon as that is in place, we will ditch my hacked together solution below:• I use Kasa wifi plugs to "Arm" and "Disarm" by just turning on and off the power to it. That allows me to set up push notification reminders to our phones after either 1 hour or you can snooze it until a particular time of day. So when it's a nice day with the baby at daycare, I can turn it off and it won't start sending me reminders again until 4:30pm.• Hopefully SwamCam can integrate some kind of push notification reminders rather than just auto arming after a pre-set time - maybe a push alert 5-15 minutes before it rearms asking if you'd like to snooze for a particular length of time?• I can also arm it from Alexa by simply turning on and off those plugs.All in all, we ended up not using the keypad whatsoever because I wanted to be able to integrate Tasker reminders. I do keep it there with the PIN visible in case the tablet malfunctions and we have a guest over.Just wanted to post our experience for anyone searching in the future. With the ubiquitous nature of Ring, this feels like something that should have existed many years ago but it seems like a relatively new field altogether. I definitely wasn't been thrilled with the time it took to get it to consistently eliminate false alarms, but support was excellent in their responsiveness to get me to that point. Also, I just don't really see any viable competitors that can do all of this, so I do think this is absolutely worthwhile for anyone with young kids. Gives us a lot of peace of mind that it will always go off when we need it to.

FINALLY - a pool alarm that works in outdoor pools without all those “gotta go outside in a thunderstorm to turn of the false alarm AGAIN” frustrations! I scoured the internet for a viable option, reading bad reviews after bad reviews on other in-pool alarm products, all inherently having major issues including 1) false alarming all the time, 2) poor consistency with detection, 3) have to shut off in person (sucks when raining or at night, or when it goes off for hours and ticks your neighbors off bc you’re not home to turn it off), and 4) controls only at the actual unit to turn on/off (one product did have Bluetooth - but not wifi, so it isn’t helpful if you aren’t nearby!). Just when I’d given up and decided there was literally no decent product on the market for pool alarms, I found this gem!This pool alarm is awesome, totally destroying all competing products in literally all categories. After a month in use, here are my observations - It’s fully wifi integrated, so I can turn on/off the alarm, check the live video feed on the pool if the alarm goes off, and use the two way mic to communicate to people by the pool - all from my phone - whether I’m home or at work via the app. The outdoor touchpad is awesome for when you don’t have your phone handy. We’ve had this up now for 4 weeks and had not a single false alarm - even when windy/raining and when our pool vac (Polaris) surfaces! We’ve also tried to sneak in to see if it’s working and gotten awesome detection all the way around the area we set the swam cam to monitor. It detects/alarms well at night via the night view on the camera for 24/7 protection. I love that I can log in and see the pool in real time and turn the alarm off via the app. So convenient! The app is easy to use and will allow you to push the emergency button to call 911 directly, should you ever need to do this. We found settings in the app to program in quiet hours (eg at night) and also to adjust the motion sensitivity settings (we set ours on sensitive since our pool is long and the cam is on one side). The camera is suitable for placement in inclement weather (we live in Tx so have hard rains and heat for days) and comes with a warranty guarantee on that. We love that the alarm will sound at the camera, at the receiver box inside (small, plugs into wall), and on our phones to make everyone aware of the intrusion to the monitored zone.I’ve also had awesome experiences with the tech support team when we were trying to figure out the best placement for the camera. They were so knowledgeable and responsive! They even followed up by email a few days later to make sure everything was working well and we were happy with the final placement.So far, we have LOVED our Swam Cam. I highly recommend this for anyone sick and tired of false alarms, pool alarms that break when they get a drop of water on them, and annoying alarms that you have to physically turn off in person. This one is awesome, really well thought out and designed, and so worth the investment!