How to Choose the Right Driveway Alert Kit

Let’s face it: crime is on the rise. According to the website Policy Advice, there are almost three burglaries every minute in the USA, equating to approximately 2.5 million per year. Most of these are opportunity-based thefts, meaning they are not planned ahead of time. While many of us do various things to protect our home or office, we often neglect the need or use of a driveway alert kit to provide an extra layer of protection. By monitoring traffic and movement in and out of our driveway, we may get a few extra seconds of advance warning that someone unwanted has entered our property.

In addition to physical security, driveway sensors may also benefit businesses. At our offices, we have placed driveway sensors, such as the ERA-DSTX, that shoot across entrances to our parking lot. This gives us advanced warning when customers arrive and alerts us to deliver trucks so we never miss anything important.

This is an in-depth series of articles to help consumers choose the top driveway alarm system offered at 1800doorbell.com. In the first article, we will review the basics of driveway alarms, what they are, how they work, and the significant components of each. The series culminates with recommendations and an overall top choice based on the type of sensor.

Choosing a Driveway Alert Kit

When it comes to choosing a driveway alert kit, there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind. First, consider the size of your driveway and the range you’ll need the sensor to cover. While the length of your driveway is necessary, the terrain and obstacles are also critical. For example, If you have many trees or bushes, you’ll need a sensor with a longer range to detect still people or animals walking by.

You’ll also want to consider how you want to be alerted when someone or something is near your driveway, such as a chime sound, flashing light, siren, etc. Choose the method that works best for you and your lifestyle.

Think about what kind of alerts you’d like to receive – visual, auditory, or both. Finally, decide whether you’d prefer a wired or wireless system.

Finally, consider the price of the driveway alert kit. While you may be tempted to choose the cheapest option, remember that more affordable options may not always be the best in quality and performance. Finding a balance between price and quality is essential to get the best product for you. So, take some time to consider all of your options before making a decision. The suitable driveway alert kit will give you peace of mind and help keep your home safe.

What is a driveway alarm?

A driveway alarm is a system that alerts you when someone or something enters your driveway. It can be used as a security measure to deter burglars or intruders or simply to let you know when someone has arrived. Many types of driveway alarms are available on the market, so choosing one that best suits your needs is essential.

In years past, wireless alerts have gotten a bad rap. This is primarily because of the wireless range we will discuss below. Things have changed over the last 5-10 years, and the systems have improved dramatically, as the wireless transmission range has been enhanced while power consumption has remained low.

Wireless products also provide much more versatility. Many of the models on 1800doorbell.com are robust enough to allow you to add different sensor and transmitter types, such as push buttons, door alert contacts, motion alert sensors, and more, to your kit and additional receivers.

We always recommend wireless kits to our customers because of the flexibility, expandability, and increased reliability as technology has improved. We stand by these recommendations by offering a 30-day money-back guarantee on top of the manufacturer’s warranty.

What are the Components of a Driveway Monitoring Kit?

In most cases, a driveway monitoring system consists of two major components. First is the sensor, which detects an object entering the driveway. Since we are talking about wireless alert kits in this article, we will also refer to these sensors as transmitters, as they transmit a radio signal from the sensor to the receiving chime unit.

The second component is the chime or receiver. This unit will be placed in your home, office, or shop. It will “listen” for the driveway motion sensor/transmitter to signal that someone has arrived and then emit a sound letting you know someone is there. When triggered, it will play some sort of alerting signal, a chime sound in most cases.

What are the different types of driveway alarm Sensors?

When we discuss driveway alarms, we will also discuss the type of sensor or transmitter the driveway alarm kit will use. Much of this will depend on what you want to monitor. This article discusses four main types of driveway alarm sensors.

Passive Infrared Driveway Motion Alert Sensors (PIR):

These are the most common types of driveway alarm sensors (we often refer to them as driveway motion alerts). They work by detecting a change in infrared radiation. Infrared driveway sensors use infrared technology to detect heat emitted by vehicles (and animals, too). These sensors are mounted on a post or wall along the driveway and point across the driveway to shoot a narrow, invisible beam.

They are similar to door motion sensors in your home alarm system, except that a driveway motion sensor has to be outdoor rated and will typically shoot a more narrow beam across the monitored zone. You don’t want a far-reaching beam, as it tends to pick up more false positives than a narrow beam.

These types of sensors can detect both people and animals, which can be a pro or a con depending on your use, terrain, and monitoring objective. However, they tend to be the most cost-effective form of driveway alarm sensors.

Magnetometer Probe Driveway Alert Sensors:

A magnetometer probe driveway sensor uses a magnetic field to detect vehicles. These sensors have a sensing probe buried in the ground along or under the driveway.

This probe emits a magnetic field. As a car drives over it, the magnetic field is disturbed, sending a signal to the transmitter, which then sends an alert.

Magnet probe driveway sensors are less likely to generate false positives than other driveway alerts since it takes a physical object like a car to disturb the magnetic field and trigger an alert. For some, a downside to this type of sensor is that it won’t detect people, animals, etc. These types of sensors tend to be more costly than PIR sensors.

Hose-Style, Pneumatic “Rubber Hose” Driveway Alarm Sensors:

The best way to think of these sensor types is the “ding” bell sound when approaching a dry cleaner or old-time gas station drive-through. These systems have a rubber hose that stretches across the driveway. When a car, truck, or other heavy item rolls over the hose, the change in air pressure inside the hose triggers the sensor to transmit to a receiver.

Usually, these products have a simple bell that emits a ding sound. However, as will be shown later, wireless products now give you the best of both worlds: a rubber hose sensor that transmits a radio signal to a remote chime location.

As you can see, many driveway alert kits are on the market. With all these choices, choosing the right one for your needs can be confusing and challenging. This guide will explain the different types available, how they operate, and considerations for making your decision.

Photoelectric Beam Driveway Alarms:

A photoelectric beam driveway alarm uses an infrared light beam to detect movement. This beam shoots across the driveway to another photoelectric sensor or some type of reflector commonly.

When a car, truck, or person breaks the beam by passing between the two elements, it triggers the sensor which sends an alert to the receiver..

These were the first types of sensors on the market, along with rubber hose driveway alarms. Over the years, these types of “break-beam” alerts have evolved and are much more robust than ones of years past.

Driveway Alarm Receivers:

Almost all receivers will have some core features, with some offering a slightly more robust offering than others. A great thing about driveway alarm receivers is the ability to add additional receivers to your kit.

All the wireless kits featured on 1800 doorbell feature 1 x sensor/transmitter and 1 x receiver). In almost all cases, you can add receivers from the same brand model line to place receivers throughout your home, office, shop, or warehouse.

The two big differences are plugin receivers versus battery-operated receivers, and some have both options. Below are the three different ERA receivers currently offered on 1800doorbell.com. The receiver on the left is the ERA-DCRX, which is a plugin receiver using the supplied cord. In the middle is the ERA-RXPG plugin receiver, which plugs directly into a standard wall outlet. On the right is the ERA-VPRX portable door chime receiver with rechargeable batteries and an included charger.

Plugin receivers will plug into a standard wall outlet. As the name implies, battery-operated receivers are powered by batteries.

At 1800doorbell.com, we also have some battery-powered receivers that can be plugged in.

An example of this is the ERA-VPRX. This portable driveway alarm receiver uses rechargeable batteries with a 6-7 day standby time. The kit includes a wall charger that charges the battery pack while allowing the receiver to continue to function.

The ERA-DCRX is a desktop receiver with a plug-in transformer, while the ERA-RXPG plugs directly into a standard wall outlet.

The Range of Wireless Driveway Alert Kits:

When we discuss range, it is important to note that we are referring to the “line of sight.” This distance is calculated using math using the electrical components of the transmitter and receiver. Understand that in the real world, various factors will reduce the alerting kit’s actual transmission range.

Terrain, interference, and building materials will reduce the overall transmission range of the driveway alarm kit. Where and how you mount the sensor/transmitter, where in your home or office you place the receiver, and what is in between your receiver and transmitter will all play a significant role.

For example, we carry the LRA-DR100 Driveway Alarm kit with a range of up to 1,000 ft. While this is a much longer range than you get with some lesser brands, we would not recommend this product for a large office with concrete construction. But if you have an average-sized home, it will work perfectly fine.

The MURS-BS-KIT is one of the longest-range monitoring kits on the market today with a LOS (line-of-sight) range of several miles. There are some situations where we would 100% recommend this product, like a home with an extremely long driveway, but for an average-sized home, it’s overkill. It’s much more expensive than the LRA-DR1000 and has a shorter battery life. But it’s the go-to kit when you need something over an extremely long distance.

Several models and brands fall somewhere in the middle. We will discuss all of these models a little further down the page.

Driveway Monitoring Kits Features

Finally, the features you need are another deciding factor. Do you need a driveway monitor that works as an intruder alert?

In our recommendations below, we will cover the features of the specific model, but here, we will list some basic to consider

• Wireless range – discussed above, this is the line of sight range of the product.
• Alert sensor type
• Battery-powered or plugin
• Can you add more sensors & receivers to the kit
• Volume, volume control
• Visual indicators such as a flashing light, LED, or even a strobe
• Outputs: For example, in the Safeguard Supply ERA-DSDCR kit, the receiver features 4 x 12V DC outputs. This allows you to add strobe lights, sirens, fire alarm bells, and buzzers to the receiver to provide visual indicators and increase volume output.
• Can the unit integrate with other devices? The ERA-DCRX ( the receiver in the ERA-DSDCR kit) and the Dakota Alert RE-4K-PLUS have a C-FORM relay for integration into other devices.

Our Driveway Alert Kit Recommendations

In our next article, we will recommend a driveway alarm kit for each sensor type, with a top recommendation. Stay tuned!