If you're in need of a medical alert system, you'll want to check out our thorough reviews and our complete guide to the best medical alert systems. Read on for our review of the ADT Medical Alert system
ADT Medical Alert: What you need to know
Better known for its home security systems, ADT has turned its attention to protecting vulnerable members of your family with its ADT Medical Alert system. The company offers three packages covering you both in-home and outside with the GPS option, but there’s currently no in-car option.
Slightly higher starting costs make ADT Medical Alert a little more expensive to get into than some rival systems, with the base package costing $29.95 per month and GPS starting at $39.99. However, as the company has a long history in monitoring security alarms, there’s some additional peace of mind knowing that it can do the same for medical monitoring.
Packages: How much does ADT Medical Alert cost?
ADT has three packages to choose from, each of which can be customized to add in extra features. Unlike other providers, you can’t link packages to provide the features you need, and they all work as standalone products. Here, we’ll run through the options. All of them come with the Foreverate, which means that your price will never change. Existing ADT customers get a $2 a month discount.
ADT Basic
With the Basic package ($29.95 per month), you get a Base that connects to your standard telephone line. This model has a range from the Base to an emergency button of 300 feet, which is quite short compared to the competition, particularly LifeFone. Those who live in bigger houses may want to consider the Plus unit, which has double the range.
The Base has a built-in battery that will last for 20 hours, which should be long enough to get you through most power failures.
You get a free waterproof Wristband or Pendant with the system. If you want to cover a spouse, additional alert buttons cost $14.99 plus a $5 per month monitoring fee. That’s not the end of the world and it’s not a particularly high price to cover another person living at the same address.
There are currently no additional wall-mounted buttons available for this system, so you rely on the Wristband or Pendant for emergencies. There’s also no option for fall detection. The system will monitor your home temperature and send out alerts if it’s too cold or hot.
If you go on vacation (or move house), you can take the system with you but remember to let ADT know your new location.
ADT Plus
A completely different system, Plus, costs $35.99 a month, but it has more options and an extended range of up to 600 feet, making it better for larger homes. The Base unit doesn’t use your phone line, either, connecting via cellular. There’s a built-in battery that lasts for up to 30 hours in the event of power failure.
As with the Basic system, Plus comes with a free waterproof Wristband or Pendant for emergency activation; however, you can choose a free Fall Detection Pendant, although this costs $10 a month extra for monitoring.
You can add up to three additional accessories. For a second person in the house, Pendants or Wristbands cost $14.99 each with a $5 a month monitoring fee; the Fall Detection Pendant costs $24.99 with a $10 a month fee.
There’s also a Wall Mount Button, which costs $2.50 a month. It’s slightly restrictive that you can only add up to three additional accessories, as this limits your options, particularly if you want multiple buttons to cover a larger home.
You get the same temperature monitoring as with the Basic system. And, you can move this system, either permanently or while on vacation, to a new address by phoning the ADT monitoring center.
ADT On-The-Go
With the On-The-Go system ($39.99 a month), you get a GPS and cellular product. The main unit plugs into a charging dock, where a three-hour charge will give you 24-hours of battery life. This system is designed to work inside and out, with a free Wristband or Pendant for activating the emergency alarm, although you can choose the Fall Detection Pendant for an additional $10 a month.
Range is only 100 feet from the GPS unit, so this isn’t an ideal in-home product if you’ve got a larger home. For those in smaller apartments, this range should prove to be enough. Additional Pendants and Wristbands can be bought for $14.99 plus a $5 a month monitoring fee, with Fall Detection Pendants for $24.99 with a $10 a month fee. There are no buttons available.
Additional Wristbands and Pendants aren’t so useful here, as if one person goes out and takes the GPS unit, the person at home is left without alert coverage. It would be better if ADT allowed you to have multiple systems, to give coverage inside and out, but it will only allow you one monitoring device per home.
ADT Extras
Currently, ADT gives a free lockbox away, which can be used to store your keys in, so that medical responders can get into your home without having to break in. This lockbox has a four-digit code that you can set yourself.
ADT Medical Alert: Warranty and cancellation
Free cancellation: N/A
System price (starts at): $0
Monthly costs (starts at): $29.95
In-home monitoring: Yes
GPS monitoring: Yes
As all of your equipment is leased from ADT, you get a free warranty that covers the repair or replacement of it all. That’s very generous, particularly when much of the competition either charge extra for extended warranties or charges for equipment replacements. You also get free battery replacements for all battery-powered devices.
ADT has no contracts with its service, so you can cancel at any point and just return the equipment. This makes it easy to get out of the service if you no longer need it. All equipment can also be moved to a new home, although ADT says that it may charge for a change of address.
How does ADT Medical Alert deal with an alert?
If an alert button is pressed or a fall detected, a call is placed through to the ADT call center. In this case, the base unit acts as a two-way speakerphone on all packages. The caller will try and ascertain what the problem is. If you call for help or ADT can’t get a response, the call center will dispatch emergency services to your home or GPS location.
It’s important that you keep your home address up-to-date, and you should provide ADT with the combination of your lockbox, or detailed instructions on how to get into your home. Make sure that you have told ADT where medical information can be found, too, such as any allergies or medication taken.
ADT Medical Alert: What the users say
We used an array of trusted user review sites to gather information on the quality of ADT’s service. As a relatively new product, there aren’t so many user reviews for ADT’s Medical Alert systems. Even so, there is some feedback out there, and ADT scores 4.3 on Best Company, but it has a truly poor score of 2.6 on TrustPilot, although this score is for the company’s entire range of services focussing on security systems.
Where people liked the service, they talked about the reliability of the system and clear voice calls, with fast response times. Complaints are mostly against ADT’s customer service.
ADT Medical Alert: Verdict
If you’ve got an ADT alarm system already and want to add in medical monitoring, you get a decent but basic choice here. Where ADT loses out is with flexibility. For example, you can’t have alert buttons with Basic or On-the-Go packages; nor can you mix GPS with one of the more powerful in-home monitoring systems. You’re also limited to only adding three accessories per system.
The pricing is decent, particularly as you get a warranty included and ADT promises not to put up the price of your service. If you can live with how basic the system is, there’s nothing wrong with ADT Medical Alert but look at Bay Alarm Medical for a cheaper and more comprehensive system.
