LiveWatch Medical Alert System Review – 2022

LiveWatch offers rather basic medical alert monitoring to its subscribers. A few panic buttons across their equipment and 24/7 professional monitoring can hardly count as a full-fledged medical alert system, but if you’ve already invested in their home security system, you can use it for medical alerts.

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Table of Contents

Summary

LiveWatch is a competent but pricey home security monitoring system. Its medical alert features come as an afterthought, unfortunately.

Pros

  • Water-resistant panic button pendant
  • Key fob with a panic button feature
  • A panic button for medical alerts on the control panel
  • 24/7 monitoring
  • ASAPer
  • Cancel anytime
  • Up to five years battery lifespan
  • Fast response rates

Cons

  • The panic button device is bulky
  • Above-average price
  • Not the most user-friendly installation and setup
  • Customer service experience may vary

Quality and Warranty

LifeWatch uses Alarm.com equipment, so you get the standard quality and generic looks. But with a 365-day return policy backed by a full refund guarantee, it makes sense to focus on its features rather than looks. Most of its addon equipment comes from GE, as is the case with its water-resistant panic pendants.

A two-year warranty covers all equipment, but the company also provides a lifetime warranty upon request.

Features

LiveWatch control panels, Simon XTi-5 and IQ Gen 2, both come with two-way voice assists communicator. When an alarm is triggered, the monitoring station tries to reach you via your control panel to confirm the alert. It’s a fast and secure way to communicate with your monitoring professionals and ask for help or cancel the alert if a false alarm has been triggered.

Your control panel also comes with an embedded panic button – a white cross on the red background. You have the option to set off an audible or a silent alarm. Per LiveWatch manual, if the alarm is silent, the monitoring station dispatches police to your home. If the siren is set to audible, the monitoring station dispatches an ambulance.

LiveWatch water-resistant pendant panic sensor by GE works within an undisclosed range around your base console. The company states it works “just about anywhere” – at home, in the shower, or in the yard. In theory, the pendant should have 300-500 feet range to work outside your house.

Its features include:

  • LiveWatch medical pendant is water-resistant – you can wear it in the shower, but you shouldn’t submerge it in the water entirely.
  • It’s quite bulky, unlike other portable medical pendants from competitors, and looks more like a plastic doorbell than a panic button.
  • You can clip it to your belt, hang it around your neck, or attach it to a wall.
  • The battery should last you up to five years.
  • You need to press the panic button for at least two seconds to trigger an alarm.

When you press the panic button on your panic sensor, the embedded transmitter sends a distress signal to your control panel, which then sends a signal to your monitoring station.

Finally, the third option to trigger a medical alarm is by activating the panic button feature in your remote key fob that comes with the GE Simon XT panel:

  • It is semi-waterproof and has a 500-feet range around your control panel.
  • Its battery should last up to five years.
  • Its operating temperature ranges from 10 to 120°F (-12 to 49°C).
  • It’s compact at 1.26 × 1.96 × 0.34 inches, and you can wear it on a keychain, in your pocket, or in your purse.
  • The key fob doesn’t have a standalone panic button, but a combination of Lock and Unlock buttons activates its panic button feature and sends a distress signal to the central station.
  • There is no way of configuring this feature to stand for medical emergencies, however. You need to specify your emergency to the monitoring agent during your confirmation call.

Price​

With LiveWatch, you sign a one-year contract for 24/7 home security monitoring and pay the upfront cost of your equipment. The hardware kits can cost anywhere between $99 and $699. LiveWatch also lets you cancel anytime without incurring an early termination fee.

A one-time activation fee is $19.95 while the lifetime warranty costs an extra $50.

There are currently two preset equipment kits on offer:

  • Plug and Protect Basic at $599, which includes two door sensors, one motions sensor, and a high dB siren with mobile alerts.
  • Plug and Protect Complete at $699, bundling a touchscreen control panel and Bluetooth hands-free disarming.

None of the kits include the panic button device or the key fob since they count as addon equipment available at an extra cost. For instance, a key fob is $30, but you need to request a quote from the LiveWatch sales representative for the water-resistant panic pendant.

LiveWatch four monthly monitoring plans are as follows:

  • Basic at $19.95/mo includes ASAPer and 24/7 monitoring.
  • Mobile Pro at $34.95/mo adds remote arm/disarm, live voice assistance, and crash-and-smash protection.
  • Total Home at $39.95/mo bundles a mobile app, and a laundry list of home automation features, advanced alerts, and motion sensors.
  • Total Home + Video at $49.95/mo adds an ability to access live streams of your security camera.

Medical alert monitoring is included in the base cost of the monitoring plans.

Support

LiveWatch runs three monitoring stations for redundancy. The company also has a nifty ASAPer feature, which stands for As Soon As Possible emergency response. When your panic button is triggered, and the security agent can’t reach you, the monitoring station contacts everyone on your emergency contact list – by phone, text, or email based on your preferences. This allows LiveWatch to offer faster-than-average response rates.

As for their sales agents, be ready to handle pushy sales tactics.

Installation

LiveWatch systems come pre-configured, so that you can install your system in a matter of an hour. The setup is a bit convoluted, though. You need to create an account, then request an activation call, and then set up your system and connect devices.

A brief look at the instructions on how to activate a panic button device is enough to tell the company needs to focus on usability.

Things to Consider

  • Medical alert features are basic at best.
  • It’s not the cheapest – nor the most user-friendly – system, especially for seniors.
  • You can buy the same equipment on Amazon, and chances are you will find a better deal than with LiveWatch.

Important Tips

If the panic button device does not respond to you pressing the button, the company suggests it needs a new battery, which is a standard 3.5 VDC ½ AA Lithium Battery you can change all by yourself.