If you have been using FortrezZ SSA2 Sirens please give your feedback/thoughts on how well they work, how loud they are (seems like conflicting info on Amazon reviews) and maybe some interesting ways you use them in Scenes/Events?
thx for helping!
Extremely loud (deafening at close range) and works very well… until the speaker blows out after only a handful of activations. Seems to be a common problem with the SSA2. I opened mine up and replaced the piezo buzzer speaker with a slightly lower decibel one I found at radio shack. Has been working fine since October 2012.
Seems odd the speaker would blow - you’d think a problem like that would have been caught in QA testing. Do they replace it under warranty if it does?
Anyone have experience with the SSA3?
I got a FortrezZ SSA2 on a discount ($40 shipped) so I thought I’d try it. It is definitely not as loud as I had hoped.
Here’s what I found…
- It is VERY loud IF you are in the same room
- it is moderately loud (still very annoying) indoors in other rooms
… the issue is the frequency does not seems penetrate walls well and definitely exterior walls so it is barely audible outside. I only have 2x4 and stucco construction so even at that is it can barely be heard (you have to really listen for it) 30’ away outdoors.
I’m going to try putting it in my attic near the attic vent to see if that helps. I will report back.
I’ve had two FortrezZ SSA2 sirens and both failed after a few notifications. Outcomer, you have a great suggestion to replace the piezo buzzer with a Radio Shack version; I’ll try that.
After the FortrezZ failures, I switched to a siren made by Everspring: Amazon.com
The Everspring units have been working flawlessly for several months. The downside for some may be that they are only battery operated.
Lonestar,
Can the Everspring siren be set so that a scene would only trigger the strobe function without the siren? I was looking into that siren and would find it useful to set some scenes up where the strobe goes off so that I could be visually alerted without the audio portion (siren) going off too.
Unfortunately, it’s all or nothing with the Everspring. The light and siren together are either on or off; there is no ability that I have found to operate the light or siren separately, which is a nice feature of the SSA2 (during its short life).
Lowes is now selling Utilitech brand sirens that are identical to the Everspring, but at a much lower price – $29.95.
They work with the Lowes Iris system, but they speak Zwave. They are battery operated, but can be powered with a 6V 600mA power adapter.
Cool, thanks for the heads-up LoneStar. I might check one of these out even though the siren and strobe are tied together like you said earlier.
the sound level on this one says 86db where the Everspring says 90/100.
… so they might be slightly different?
[quote=“Aaron, post:10, topic:176750”]the sound level on this one says 86db where the Everspring says 90/100.
… so they might be slightly different?[/quote]
I can’t tell the difference. They are both very LOUD. I let one run continuously for five minutes and the sound did not diminish. It certainly did not destroy itself the way my FortrezZ alarm did.
[quote=“Lonestar10, post:11, topic:176750”][quote=“Aaron, post:10, topic:176750”]the sound level on this one says 86db where the Everspring says 90/100.
… so they might be slightly different?[/quote]
I can’t tell the difference. They are both very LOUD. I let one run continuously for five minutes and the sound did not diminish. It certainly did not destroy itself the way my FortrezZ alarm did.[/quote]
I played with the Fortrezz I have… says it is 117db but it is barely audible outside the home - not enough to let the neighbors know something is wrong - so I put mine on my back patio. It is loud if you are in the same room but that is about it IMO.
So I went out today and purchased one of the Utilitech Z-Wave sirens that’s marketed as a part of the Lowe’s Iris system. The siren was easy to pair with Vera and when switched on the strobe works as does the siren (It is LOUD) 
My question now is the Vera functionality has it as two states “On” and “Off” – how can I pair this siren with a scene? For example: I have a scene titled “Armed - Away” which I set when I leave my home. After a 60-second delay Vera changes my door/window sensors from “bypass” to “arm” and arm’s the motion sensors on my foscam cameras. How can I add the new Utilitech siren to that scene where if in the “armed” state any sensor is tripped then the siren is activated? Thanks for the help!
Scene creation is off topic for this thread - please do some searches and/or post your questions in the appropriate forum.
There are several ways to accomplish what you want using Ver’a Automation, PLEG, and others.
Scene creation is off topic for this thread - please do some searches and/or post your questions in the appropriate forum.
There are several ways to accomplish what you want using Ver’a Automation, PLEG, and others.[/quote]
Already got it figured out…
I’ve two SSA02, one everspring and one SSA03. My SSA02 are still running well… But not enought to be heard outside…
The SSA03 is by far the loudest of the three. It si very powerfull… You can only flash the lights, there is a tampering switch and a 9V backup battery… The only downside of the SSA03 is that it doesn’t look really waterproof for an outside device.
thought SSA03 says it is for outdoors?