Do you ever wonder if you heard your front door or garage open and then begin to panic that someone is in the house? Or, maybe you’re the parent of young children and worry that they may have slipped out of the house unsupervised. With an entry alert installed at your front door, back door or garage, you can be notified each time someone enters or exits the house.

Use Entry Alert to Greet Visitors or Warn of Intruders

A wireless entry alert has a small transmitter that mounts to any door and a portable receiver that plugs into any electrical outlet. When the door is opened, a signal is sent to the receiver and the person’s arrival (or departure) is announced by a musical tune or chime to greet visitors. Seniors living alone (especially those with hearing impairments) will appreciate getting these notifications when visitors have come or gone.

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The primary reason to get a driveway alert is to detect when a vehicle or person enters or leaves your driveway, but there are a lot of other ways you can use your driveway alert. Driveway alerts are detection systems that have two main components – a sensor that gets installed next to the driveway and a receiver that is located indoors. When something or someone passes by the driveway sensor, it sends a signal to the receiver which emits an alarm in the form of a chime, beep and/or flashing light.

Driveway alert sensors can be wireless or hard-hardwired. The wireless versions are the easiest to install and some models are now available with solar-powered sensors so you don’t have to worry about changing batteries. Read the rest of this entry »

While the majority of drowning accidents involve young children, medically-frail seniors and handicapped persons are also at high risk of drowning or near-drowning injuries, tragedies that can be prevented by better caregiver supervision and the use of a pool alarm. Water is a great source of therapy for handicapped and older persons because it can restore agility and strength and improve circulation, but backyard pools must have the right pool safety equipment to be truly beneficial.

A large percentage of drowning accidents occur when supervising adults are near the victim, but not paying close attention when he or she falls into the water. Oftentimes the victim slips under the water’s surface silently and isn’t noticed until it’s too late. Seniors who suffer from ailments that can affect their vision, judgment, balance or coordination — like epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes or a heart condition — are especially vulnerable when they are near the open water.

New Immersion Pool Alarm for Adults

A new “immersion” pool alarm designed specifically for adults is ideal for protecting elderly and handicapped persons against drowning. “Immersion” pool alarms have a water-activated sensor worn by the user, usually on a wristband. If the user falls into a pool, spa or other fresh water, the sensor immediately signals a nearby base station, which sounds a loud alarm. The alarm continues to sound until it is reset.

Offered by Safety Turtle, the SOS adult immersion pool alarm provides continuous protection to anyone wearing the sensor wristband. (The sensor can also be attached to a lifejacket.) Caregivers and family will hear a loud alarm as soon as their loved one enters the water, even if they don’t hear or see the splash.

Combine with Other Layers of Protection

Many towns and cities have swimming pool safety laws that require homeowners to enclose their pool area with a fence at least four feet high. A self-closing gate with a gate alarm is often recommended or required. These barriers may be enough to keep children or wandering adults out of the pool area, but the addition of a pool alarm that will sound when someone actually falls into the water adds another important layer of protection to prevent accidental drowning.

Protects Boaters and Workers Too

The Safety Turtle SOS adult immersion pool alarm is portable and can be taken anywhere. Boaters can use it as a “man overboard” warning device to protect the captain or crew when crossing fresh water lakes and rivers. It can also be used by businesses to protect workers on bridges or employees who are working around other types of water hazards.  Additional wristbands can be added to protect multiple crew members or workers.

Drowning can Happen Anywhere, Anytime

Drowning accidents are common and can happen anywhere and to just about anyone, but most victims are small children and ill or weakened adults who may not be able to lift their head above the water. If you are responsible for the well-being of a medically-frail adult or handicapped person and have a backyard swimming pool, a Safety Turtle SOS adult immersion pool alarm can help protect them from accidental drowning and give you peace-of-mind.

Seven Things You Can Do With a Freeze Alarm

Installing a temperature sensor alarm (also called a freeze alarm) is a good way to protect your vacation home from temperatures that are too high or too low, but did you know that some freeze alarms can do a lot more than just monitor temperatures? Some functions require the addition of a simple accessory like a sensor, while others are conveniently built right in.

If you want to protect your vacation home or primary residence, or even your RV or boat, here’s what a multi-functional freeze alarm (like the “Deluxe” model by Control Products) can do for you:

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Thanks to a key safe lockbox that contained the key to the front door, emergency medical crews were able to gain immediate access to the home of an unconscious patient in Franklin Township, N.J. last January. The homeowner had the foresight to register the combination code for the lockbox with the Franklin Township police department and that allowed the first responders to get into the house in seconds to render aid, without having to break down the door or smash a window.

What is a key safe lockbox?

A key safe lockbox is a combination lock with a secure compartment that holds a door key. The shackle of the lockbox is typically attached to a door knob, railing or other rigid fixture near the door. Key safe lockboxes are popular with real estate companies so multiple sales agents can have access to a vacant home. Businesses and rental apartments also use lockboxes to provide emergency workers with quick entry to their buildings at all times.

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A pool alarm is one of the most effective ways to prevent backyard drowning of unsupervised children or pets. Once a child slips under the water, it only takes minutes for her to lose consciousness, followed soon by permanent brain damage or death. To prevent an accidental drowning in your backyard, get a pool alarm that will alert adults of the emergency so they can intervene, before it’s too late.

To help you choose the right pool alarm for your home, here’s an overview of the different types of pool alarm systems that work well in above ground swimming pools and some recommended models for each type.

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Elderly seniors who live alone need a way to get emergency help quickly, but with so many different personal emergency response systems on the market today, you really need to do your homework and compare all of the features before buying or leasing. That’s what my friends Bob and Kate Gibson did when Bob’s father became a widower and insisted on staying in his own home and living independently.

Kate and Bob made a list of the key features they needed and began comparing personal emergency response systems until they found the one that fit the bill. If you are also shopping around for one of these systems, you might want to use their checklist to narrow down your choices:

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The projection clock we gave my elderly mother was the perfect solution to her nighttime dilemma of not being able to read the bedside clock. Because it was so hard for her to roll over in bed, she had difficulty maneuvering so she could face the clock. And even if she was able to position herself to see the clock, she still couldn’t read the numbers without her reading glasses on!

Poor mom was fatigued and frustrated almost every single night. Like so many older people, she was a poor sleeper and rarely slept straight through to daybreak. “It’s just awful not knowing what time it is, especially in the middle of the night,” she said. “I never know whether morning is coming in one hour or five hours!”

A projection alarm clock — which displays the time onto a wall or ceiling — turned out to be the answer to Mom’s problem. The numbers it projects on either the ceiling or wall are large enough for most people to read without glasses. And many projection clocks have a swivel feature that makes it easy to point the display at exactly the right spot where the numbers can be seen just by glancing up.

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With drowning ranked as the second leading cause of unintentional death to children nationwide, you would think more homeowners would make pool safety a priority. Sadly, three-quarters of all pool- or spa-related fatalities involve children under the age of 5 according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. In California, drowning is the number one cause of accidental death for children ages 1 to 4 years old!

Never Heard the Splash

Many families of young drowning victims report that they never heard a splash when the child fell into the pool and slipped below the water’s surface. Oftentimes one parent mistakenly thinks the other parent is watching the child and in reality, no one is supervising! In California, a babysitter went inside to use the bathroom for a few minutes and while she was gone, the two toddlers in her charge opened a sliding door and found their way to the pool. One drowned and the other suffered permanent brain damage.

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Early spring is a good time to check your home for normal wear-and-tear and to look around for damage caused by the harsh winter. Here’s a checklist of home maintenance items that can be reviewed in a weekend. If you discover any problems, it’s a good idea to take care of repairs now before they become big ticket items.

1. Check roof and gutters — Interior water damage often originates at the top of the house on the roof, so grab a ladder and check your roof for missing or broken shingles. While you are up there, inspect flashings and joints around chimneys and skylights. Bring a bucket with you to scoop out leaves and branches that are clogging gutters and valleys and finish by flushing gutters and downspouts with a garden hose.

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