SwamCam WiFi Pool Alarm Camera – ASTM F2208 Certified – Smart Pool Safety System for Inground & Above Ground Pools – Real-Time Alerts & Remote Viewing via App with Wi-Fi Repeater

Some key takeaways: SUPPORT • Phenomenal American-based support team that spent a whole lot of time on the phone and via email assisting with install and troubleshooting major to even minor issues. Can't emphasize this one enough - you call and talk to humans, you email and they respond often in minutes. Who else does that these days. Unfortunately they seem to mostly be New Yorkers, but nobody's perfect... ACCURACY • Once configured with a customized detection zone that avoids elements that seem to commonly trigger it, we have virtually no false alarms as long as the dog is not in the zone. • On that note, its "Human Detection AI" is very underwhelming compared to Ring or Nest type performance. Claims like "Featuring advanced child-detection software that alerts you wirelessly as your child is approaching the pool" tended to give me the impression this product was so dialed in that only a small human (or at least a human) would trip it. But if the custom zone is not carefully set to avoid them, it is also set off by our areca palms, the waterfall, balls left in the pool - even hanging lights against the screen that reflect into the pool at dusk/dawn and create certain refraction patterns! We have our zone dialed in to only capture the deck immediately around the pool for these reasons. • That said, it's still better and more immediately responsible verses other pool based systems I've seen. I'm sure they also have more liability than Ring missing someone walking in the corner, so Swamcam is probably programmed to be overly cautious. • While it's under $40/year, the required customized zone for what seems like basic functionality means we have yet another subscription, but it is what it is. RELIABILITY • Along with phone alarms and the camera itself sounding off, it has an indoor alarm speaker module that screams louder than my upset toddler (and that's saying something). We really like that a lot because it absolutely gets our attention anywhere in the house or outside. • The voice component of it that says "Swamcam armed/disarmed" is also very (too) loud, but the alarm/voice speakers are separated so a piece of scotch tape over the voice speaker made that an easy fix (thanks to support for the suggestion as it ships without an volume adjustment for certification purposes). • It operates 100% locally, so the reaction time is much faster than our Ring doorbell, and it will operate as normal even if the internet is down (you just won't get phone notifications). This is the BIGGEST factor for me - it doesn't rely on network switches, routers, wi-fi, or any other features. If you have power, the alarm WILL sound. USABILITY • When the alarm sounds, it immediately pushes a screenshot off the suspected person to your push notifications and email (see attachment). This ended up being super helpful while getting the zone just right (or seeing that it was just the wife or dog walking to the pool because someone left the alarm on by accident). • The app can Arm/Disarm it, and it comes with a wireless PIN arm/disarm battery powered keypad that can be put anywhere without needing the phone. • You can listen to audio and talk through the camera, which isn't really used now but maybe when kids are old enough to swim alone together while we watch the screen, we will yell "time to come inside!!" • It can be programmed to auto arm the system after a set time of being disarmed, but not based on detected activity. In other words, if you set it to auto arm after 30 minutes, if you're in the pool for longer than that - it will arm and then immediately sound the alarm. It would make far more sense to say "auto arm after xx minutes of inactivity." Not sure if there's a liability or technical reason that can't be done, or if it just hasn't been completed yet - but as soon as that is in place, we will ditch my hacked together solution below: • I use Kasa wifi plugs to "Arm" and "Disarm" by just turning on and off the power to it. That allows me to set up push notification reminders to our phones after either 1 hour or you can snooze it until a particular time of day. So when it's a nice day with the baby at daycare, I can turn it off and it won't start sending me reminders again until 4:30pm. • Hopefully SwamCam can integrate some kind of push notification reminders rather than just auto arming after a pre-set time - maybe a push alert 5-15 minutes before it rearms asking if you'd like to snooze for a particular length of time? • I can also arm it from Alexa by simply turning on and off those plugs. All in all, we ended up not using the keypad whatsoever because I wanted to be able to integrate Tasker reminders. I do keep it there with the PIN visible in case the tablet malfunctions and we have a guest over. Just wanted to post our experience for anyone searching in the future. With the ubiquitous nature of Ring, this feels like something that should have existed many years ago but it seems like a relatively new field altogether. I definitely wasn't been thrilled with the time it took to get it to consistently eliminate false alarms, but support was excellent in their responsiveness to get me to that point. Also, I just don't really see any viable competitors that can do all of this, so I do think this is absolutely worthwhile for anyone with young kids. Gives us a lot of peace of mind that it will always go off when we need it to.

I set this up about 2 months ago, initially I had issues setting up the device and customer support (real people, in the USA who work directly for the conpany and design the devices) walked me through getting it corrected (android incompatibility issues with setup which they have now fixed) and it has worked great since then. No false alarms, no missed alarms either. My keypad started acting up and they replaced it, no muss, no fuss, no complaints. I have ducks that get in the pool occasionally, Floats and a dolphin pool cleaner: I have had zero false alarms. I recommend this camera to everyone, it's better than a gate alarm and the internal alarm is loud (dont have to use it if you dont want to), the outside alarm is volume adjustable but I have it at max volume and it alarms on your phone. You Can turn off the alarm with your phone or keypad and you can set it to auto-rearm which is what saved a life last month. This camera saved the life of a 3 year old. He snuck into the pool area and the alarm saved his life because no one realized he had run back to the pool. He had bypassed the gate because it hadn't closed all the way. The alarm was literally the only thing that saved him. Can't recommend enough. EDIT: I Have had this swam cam for over 2 years now. Still works great and the AI and use interface is improving all the time. Recently had to replace my keypad because it got destroyed in a bad storm but I'm still rocking the camera and repeater.

Researched numerous pool alarms for our newly installed backyard pool. Wasn't happy with reliability of the floating style alarms, so decided to concentrate on the AI cameras. The camera systems are a little more expensive, but with a 3 year granddaughter who loves the water, maximum safety and reliability was our main consideration. One of the reasons I elected to go the SwamCam was it's ability to identify issues within the pool and around the pool deck. The mounting and programming took less than 30 minutes and that included a call to their customer service due to my lack of technical ability! They offer a free trial period on an upgrade customizable version, which allowed me to narrow my detection zone to the immediate area around my pool, which reduces the false detections and alarms. Well worth the nominal fee they charge after the free trial period. Other benefits I like about the unit is the dual alarms, one inside the house that can come with a built-in Wifi extender if needed, which I ended up not needing and and at my request they sent me an inside alarm only at no charge, the second alarm is in the camera itself. Also included is a outdoor activation key pad that can arm/disarm the unit, which can also be done on their phone app. The camera resolution on the app is excellent, plus it comes with mutiple mounting options for the camera. The other factor in my decision, which was expressed in the reviews I read was the excellent customer service that was provided my company. My interaction with them on three different occasions was confirmed that, dealing with companies that stand by and support their products is as important to me as the product itself.

We were excited to get this camera. It worked great for 2 months. Then we went swimming one day, about 5 minutes into swimming the alarm sounds. We realized we had the alarm on and it never sounded even with one adult and two children in the pool!!!! This is so scary!!! It’s worthless at this point. I can’t ever trust it again and it’s past the return point.

Considering the keypad has to be mounted outside, the mount is dysfunctional with tiny little screws that you have to screw into the bottom of the keypad. It needs to have something that it clips into and screws our optional trying to mount that was ridiculous. I ended up using nano tape.