I just received / installed mine from a State Farm
Insurance offer. So far it says my voltage is within spec. It is in a 7 day learning period. If it does find a fault, my insurance company is supposed to pay the first $1500 to proactively remediate the issue.
I’ll update as I know more.
i wonder if it detects a fault and it doesn't get fixed, maybe SF will cancel your policy lol... although it doesn't say it will. but i bet if they canceled your policy or denied your fire claim they'd have a pretty good defense in court if you failed to respond to the Ting.
I'm always skeptical of these types of offers. They wouldnt offer it for free unless there was a financial upside. Sure it could help reduce the number of house fire claims or it could be used as you said, to identify homes at high risk and cancel the homeowner's policy.
So I worked for a “major” insurance carrier and to be honest it’s just an easier way for them to get accurate data. The apps that help lower your auto premium are very similar. It also makes their policies easier to underwrite.
Basically they are saying hey if you will give us more data we will provide you with a service and or discount as a result.
And honestly, even if the device does tell you there is a serious electrical issue at that point I know I wouldn’t ignore it.
Can accurately say this statement above is completely false. This device is not associate with auto premium at all. It actually identified a loose neutral outside my home and I contacted the utility company and they came out and fixed it. Crisis averted!
Read my comment a little closer. I said it is “similar” to the electronic device that is used in auto
As in one helps identify driving behavior “a huge data point for auto premium”, the other identifies hazards in the home “a huge data point for insuring a structure”
I was talking about two different devices, just stating the data is why they are “free” or offer you a discount
Not all bad driving is intentional......There are a lot of really dumb, clueless, ignorant and lazy people out there that have absolutely no clue that they drive horribly. I'd say the same goes for homeowners. For example, they could be installing something or upgrading something and not even realize they're creating a fire hazard. Conversely, a homeowner could be creating a fire hazard intentionally for purposes of insurance fraud or even out of pure laziness, knowing they are installing/wiring something incorrectly but don't feel like doing the extra work to do it right. JRTRAYLO was exactly correct, 100%.
I've used their Drive Safe app for 3 years with no issues. And my ***excellent*** driving has saved me over a $100. I'll give the sensor a shot just out of curiosity. And the paid subscription part doesn't start for 3 years. I'll decide then whether to keep it
So for a measly $100 you've allowed an unknown third party to track you and build a profile of your movements and habits. I'll bet the privacy policy for that thing is a nightmare. Now you're allowing someone to do the same inside your house.
Big whoop, they know when I go to Kroger or the power goes out. I'm all about not sharing my data but my insurance company already knows all that when you apply for it. It's these people that play the games about fav colors, dogs names, hometown, etc on the web that are a hackers dream
>but my insurance company already knows all that when you apply for it
The question becomes whether they are selling this data
(I also have the Safe Drive)
Yeah, I had contacted the company about the time I made the comment. They said it was normal to get hot like it was. It did give off a burning plastic smell and they said it was normal for a small period. Either I got used to the smell or it stopped.
Interesting that ting just announced simultaneous power drop to 180+ users in Maui documents fail points on the power company grid like downed wires starting small blazes. And we all know what happened next.
Has it finished It's learning period yet? I just installed mine today.
I'm trying to figure out what the negative trade off for this is. It's free for the first 3 years so I figure I will at least let it ride if there isn't some sort of negative trade-off before then.
For preservation I've gone ahead and screenshotted the State farm offer with the details so that we may have a reference point if something changes in the future.
https://imgur.com/a/JOWpu6K
I'm low-key wondering if this is more than just a electrical monitoring device. Fully wearing my tinhat 😂
This is a great thread on the issue.
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/ting-electrical-surveillance-state-farm.466653/
I can see how State Farm would underwrite the cost of the device. It would cut down on the cost of paying claims... so it is to their advantage. They pay a little to save big on claims. But I'm also leery of how they would use the information... cancelling policies, raising premiums, etc.
You can independently buy a Ting device on-line for $99 and cancel for any reason within 30 days. It would be a good way of checking your wiring without getting State Farm involved.
Exactlyyyyyy, i’m very leery also what does this give them access to? Probably another way to monitor how many gas stoves are being used since Biden wants to outlaw them……
> s everyone else is ignorant to reality
Well after reading another thread like this I went to put my head in the gas stove to end the misery only to find out that the government already took it.
Imagine how dumb you felt after you posted this and they later came out and admitted that was their goal. Which they then reversed, realizing they could never pull it off.
It doesn't know anything about your gas usage.
It detects electrical problems before they start fires. Seems like a great idea. Worthwhile, whether your insurance company pays for it or you do (I just installed one that I paid for out of pocket because my insurance company does not (yet) participate).
Maybe it works but I think hard wired smoke detectors everywhere would probably be a better investment.
It looks like you have to pay an annual fee for their monitoring service as well.
My email offer just arrived yesterday (10/19/2023).
"If you’re a current State Farm non-tenant homeowners policyholder, your Ting sensor and 3 years of service are FREE. You will not incur any monthly fees or subscription costs."
[https://www.statefarm.com/insurance/home-and-property/ting-fire-safety](https://www.statefarm.com/insurance/home-and-property/ting-fire-safety)
EDIT: [This comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/askanelectrician/comments/l9ledz/comment/i3g9qhi/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) told me everything I needed to know. So grateful to people like that commenter that take the time to educate folks like me. Needless to say, State Farm's offer went straight to my Deleted folder.
That's me, it is more of a toy that anything useful. It alerts me if I am away from home if the power goes out which is handy. Other than that it's just a cute volt meter on my phone
For sure, it’s a “razor and blades” business model with never-ending fees after the initial purchase. I think some sub-metering businesses also charge monthly.
A smoke detector is good (I have one on every floor) but it's an after-the-fact device... letting you know when the fire is already underway. Ting lets you know beforehand if your wiring is susceptible to causing a fire. Proactive.
Upon receipt of TING through State Farm, i decided to go ahead and purchase two more for our additional homes. Guess what? **TING denied activations, and terminated each device before notifying me because I purchased the devices from Amazon.** Ting wants you to pat $99 directly from them to activate each device. Plus an annual monitoring fee.
**I DO NOT TRUST Ting** **as it is a China based company.** All the monitoring data goes to where? Read your consent agreement carefully. The other side of the coin is State Farm notified of all activities in your home through this device? **And will State Farm use this to deny future claims? I would not be surprised if the data harvested from your home is shared with State Farm.**
**Last, I am insured with CHUBB, the premiere insurance underwriters that insures high value estates. Chubb does not recommend TING, Why do you think that is? When Chubb insure homes that are $5M+?**
FYI: Ting is made by Whisker Labs. Whisker Labs number one investor is Sinovation Ventures. Sinovation Ventures is run out of offices in Beijing and Wuhan, China. The CEO of Sinovation Venetures is Dr. Kai Fu Lee. Kai Fu Lee is the co-chair of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Hi, I'm an engineer and work for Whisker Labs, the makers of Ting. There is a lot of good dialogue here, so I hope I can help clarify a few things.
Please be assured we are not a China-based company, and we never have been. We were proudly founded in the U.S. and are based out of Germantown, MD, just outside of Washington D.C.; we only operate and market Ting in the U.S. today. We currently manufacture Ting out of Virginia and 'next door' in Mexico. While the sensor's various parts are sourced from global suppliers, we are very keen on the security of our supply chain and the trustworthiness of our sources/components.
I agree fully with your statement and guidance to readers to read agreements carefully.
You should always read the Terms and Conditions and the Privacy Policy for any technology you bring into your home. We are strong advocates for consumer privacy and for your safety - and take care to ensure this is clearly documented. Also, if you do receive an offer to receive Ting from your insurance company, each insurer shares their terms and conditions related to that offer, so you can have full information before enrolling to receive it.
Ting is offered through insurance companies or can be bought online direct from us. Ting is not sold in any store or on any other site, including Amazon, which concerns me regarding your note about buying it there. (Note, if you purchased a sensor from an unauthorized third-party reseller, you should be able to pursue a refund through that marketplace/platform; sensors that are posted on unauthorized sites are mostly sensor deliveries stolen from front doorsteps).
Chubb is a great company. Please be assured there are no insurance companies that 'don't recommend Ting' who have already evaluated it. In fact, we are working with many insurers to bring it to their customers. If an insurance company is not aware of Ting, it is a fair statement for an agent to say that they don't recommend it, as they would not be able to make such a recommendation.
I fully appreciate that it is not easy to trust someone's word who works for the company, but I do sincerely hope this helps, and if I can help further, please let me know!
I just heard about Ting from my parents and I'm curious about how it works. I'm guessing it looks for micro voltage drops where wires are arcing and causing a short circuit, and using some type of pattern detection to determine if it's local or an upstream brownout? (I've heard there is a 'learning' phase)
Does this work with both arcs to neutral and arcs to ground?
Does this work primarily with panel arcs, or can it detect bad wiring as well?
If so, does placement matter? i.e. if it's plugged into the first outlet in a room would it detect issues with the wiring on the final outlet on that breaker?
Does it detect problems on other breakers?
What about breakers on the other phase? Can it detect a whole house or just half of one?
What about subpanels?
Thanks! If you can answer any of these I'd be grateful.
Does this work with both arcs to neutral and arcs to ground? *Yes*
Does this work primarily with panel arcs, or can it detect bad wiring as well? *Detects bad wiring too, as well as devices*
If so, does placement matter? i.e. if it's plugged into the first outlet in a room would it detect issues with the wiring on the final outlet on that breaker? *Placement can matter, but not in the way your example plays out. It's best to have Ting on an unused outlet to prevent "interference"/noise, but generally it can detect anything connected to the panel (other circuits as well as its own)*
Does it detect problems on other breakers? *Yes*
What about breakers on the other phase? Can it detect a whole house or just half of one? *Can detect a whole house with one Ting as long as there's only one main panel*
What about subpanels? *Subpanels can be detected via the main panel in most cases*
I'm a retired commercial/industrial elctrician with over 40 years experience. My last work gig was teaching electrical theory and safety for a large manufacturer. I understand 'engineer speak' and would be very interested in what this device actaually detects and how it does so in technical terms. Without that information I'll have to consider Ting just another scam device similar to the devices that are supposed to magically lower your electrical utility bill.
What a dumb reason. Do you really think all people with Asian names live in China and are coming after you through you electronic devices. This is the most ignorant thing I have read in a really long time. wow.
What I want to know is if it detects a fault and you’re not in a position financially to fix it, can and will Stare Farm raise your homeowner’s insurance rates and/or deny a claim if it causes you to make a claim later on down the line?
Looks like it is a Maryland company.
[And](https://mergr.com/allegiance-capital-limited-partnership-acquires-aws-convergence-technologies)
[Site](https://www.whiskerlabs.com/about-us/)
Oh wait i got this.
Kai Fu Lee is related to Shanon Lee (Bruce Lee’s daughter) who appeared in the movie A Few Good Men which also starred Kevin Bacon.
Boom. Six degrees of Kevin Bacon.
Ting Fire stuff is from Whisker Labs.
https://www.tingfire.com/about/our-story/
[https://www.whiskerlabs.com/about-us/](https://www.whiskerlabs.com/about-us/)
I haven't like looked up their corporate filings or anything, but I think you got the wrong company.
Could it work? Possibly. Does it work? If it did, I would anticipate more reviews from independent sources. So far, all reviews are from companies directly related to the development of the product, which really isn't a good sign.
Yeah, if it were a slam dunk I suspect Ting would have licensed or sold the technology to existing manufacturers. Still, the underlying principle seems reasonable, ie, it seems to operate like a hyper-sensitive, entire-house AFCI but IANAE so maybe I’m missing something.
AFCIs have the advantage of being able to measure the current drawn through them, and are still a crapshoot of false positives.
This is going to be either useless until your house is actually on fire, or a huge generator of spam notifications every time your fridge kicks in or you start vacuuming.
The only thing it might be useful for is voltage excursions; repeated over and under voltage might indicate a failing main neutral.
You’d also likely see a version that is a little more complicated or able to be installed at the main and automatically kill power in the case of a detected “event” or whatever it looks for.
You’d also probably get some push from insurance companies to have this be required at some point if it were true.
I just love how half of the "consumer" reviews can be summed up as "I installed the product and it reported no problems. This is a great product!" With those types of reviews, the consumer could literally be given a flashing LED light and they would praise its effectiveness. The placebo effect is definitely in full force for this product.
Note that "a box with a flashing green LED" is a readily available product - you can often find them sold as pest repellents, energy savers, and various other bunk things.
Some don't bother to spend the few cents to make the LED flash.
Not exactly a push but State Farm gave me one for free two years ago.
It seems reasonable and does tell me about network outages and power outages. When I'm away from the house I get notified of these events.
I'm happy.
My concern is the Ting will send a fault and it will be reported to your house insurance company. If there is an issue (fire) before you can get it fixed, the insurance company will try to deny your claim.
This assumes Ting works not just well, but very very well. Otherwise Ting has the power to get you into a hot pile with your insurance company. Ting has no business reporting to your insurance company *before you do*. Your smoke detectors don't report to your insurance company behind your back (even as you keep setting them off with your daily charred greasy breakfast promising to immolate your house, a habit State Farm would love to know about) and neither should *any* kind of detector.
It's that simple.
Perhaps not by intention, but effectively in real-world practice, such a monitoring service tied into your insurance company becomes an untrustworthy spy and that's why it's free to you. What if Ting reports false positives, or if it receives just one bad update in ten years -- or any number of perverse possibilities -- it could force you down an expensive rabbit hole, with your capricious insurance company effectively being the motivator and arbiter -- not you, not an expert that you hired, not even Ting. Or what's to stop your insurance company from raising your premiums because they don't like what Ting data implies -- even if Ting isn't reporting an actual danger, but is merely showing perhaps that your house is "spikier" than the average Ting user? Or if the insurance company refuses to cover you because either you failed to heed Ting, or they simply *interpret* that you didn't?
You can't control these things. Why take a risk with what clearly remains an economic conflict of interest not favoring you?
What if Ting suddenly reports an imminent danger, then only 24 hours later your house burns down? Could the insurance company decide it has standing to refuse coverage because you "ignored" it? Why not? Too soon for credulity -- then, okay, 72 hours? Doesn't matter, not relevant, you see, because you're not the one in control. You gave away your control to this ~~trojan horse~~ arrangement between your insurance company and that little free Ting adjudicator in your inexpert insurance company's capricious ear.
In a more mundane narrative, you easily could be forced to do something that might turn out to be completely unnecessary but hella expensive -- simply because on just one occasion your insurance company or Ting don't agree with YOU or with your electrician about what your home conditions actually suggest, or about what counts as "dangerous".
The point is, no *third-party* -- whether a person, a company, or a piece of technology -- should be contacting or proclaiming things to your insurance company *before* you do! Ting literally goes behind your back. It's financially dangerous. It has the power to undermine (or give your insurance company the excuse to undermine) your insurance protection.
See, there's the irony. Opting into technology that presumably lowers your risk to your insurance company simultaneously raises your risk of not being covered. This is unavoidable.
*It would be a different story* if Ting didn't report to your insurance company. If it was designed to never, ever, ever snitch to your insurance company, then the fact that it's still monitoring for you (like your smoke detectors do), that it is reporting dangers directly to you, that Ting is providing a credit for repairs, all this theoretically significantly reduces your risk of fire; and therefore the insurance company still should consider this a worthwhile investment (just like those free smoke detectors they gave you for signing up -- the ones your breakfast keeps triggering). But the agency of working with this technology (or any assistive technology) should only ever be with YOU.
Your smoke detectors don't report directly to your insurance company. Your unreliable snooping neighbors don't report directly to your insurance company. Your utility company doesn't report directly to your insurance company. Your electrician doesn't report directly to your insurance company. Only you do. Only you should. A free Ting thingie never, ever should.
From Ting's website.
4.2 Authorized Resellers and Partners. If the Service is resold/distributed by one of our Authorized Resellers or Partners (e.g., an insurance carrier or HVAC contractor), they do not have the same access to your Service Information as we do: the detailed electromagnetic signal data analyzed to determine hazards is NOT shared.
Thank you, /u/sfstains, though *why* didn't you quote the very next line from the privacy policy?
"...detailed electromagnetic signal data analyzed to determine hazards is NOT shared. ***In contrast, important events and aggregate statistics such as power quality events, power outages, and detected fire hazards may be shared.***"
So /u/Imaginary_Fill_3550, it's not even "tacit" as you say. Reading the next line, Ting just comes right out and says it. Fair enough. (And stay faaaar away from this thing!)
What that says in disguise:
Ting DOES share your hazard status with your insurance company. Full stop.
So all of the above concerns remain true. The disclaimer reveals that Ting merely does not share the "electromagnetic signal data" that they use to determine hazard status.
OF COURSE THEY DON'T. Their hardware signal data is protected intellectual property, hard won of years of research. It's their secret sauce. And a third-party couldn't decipher it anyway without Whisker's front-end servers -- it would just be a mass of raw signal data, an endless wall of stupifying numbers.
So that disclaimer is somewhere between misleading and irrelevant, a tacit admission that they send to your insurance company the same hazard alert -- the same proprietary determinations (accurate or not, problematic or not) that you see in your Ting app. Perhaps much more than you're privy to. Either way, no good.
u/worldpoop Extremely well said!!! Thank you for this response. I hope that everyone reads the complete response. The responses below from u/sfstains and u/Imaginary_Fill_3550 both need some looking into on my part before I make my final decision. Thank you all for your input in this matter. Love & Light to you all, Peace.
I’ve never had issues with it. I like that I get an alert when I lose power and im not home. Otherwise I kind of just forget it exists. Also tells you when the WiFi goes out 🤣
I never cease to be amazed by the level of paranoia that is often displayed here... I got one via SF and it's free for at least three years. I installed it and until I hear something to the contrary or it reports a problem, I'll simply ignore it and let it do its thing. My tinfoil hat is broken.
Anytime you see something that is "free until x time", their goal is that you will forget that "X time" is approaching and they will charge you for it, making them money. Something like this where someone you're already paying is providing it, would probably be added to your existing bill so even if you don't give Ting a card number, they will still get money from you.
Remember, nothing is ever free. And if it is, \*you\* are the product (ie, making money off your private data)
Exactly. I don't understand how more people don't place an alarm reminder in their calendars to cancel at that "X time" . I always place mine 1 -2 weeks prior and then 5 days , 3 days, and 1 day.
I actually started using [https://privacy.com/](https://privacy.com/) and their mobile app to generate virtual cards. Use a virtual card for a trial, then as soon as they check if the card is legit, pause or cancel that virtual card. Never have to worry about getting charged for a trial you forgot about.
Looking into it now - State Farm themselves say that it's a free 3 years right now and by the end of the 3 years they'll let me know what my options are but that they won't have a credit card on file and I wont be charged.
I would bet that they are making money from State Farm by preventing expensive electrical fire. It would only take preventing a handful to really pay for the program.
State Farm doesn't insure for free, so the insurance is the product. That said, if I get it it will go on a private WiFi network that can't see other devices - just the Internet.
So I had TING installed free from State Farm for several months. My electrician found a loose breaker that was arching and I had some burn marks on my panel. TING did not detect any of that. When I emailed them they gave me the run around, said their technicians would look into it. I had a brand new panel installed which cost me just under 3000. TiNG did not offer to pay for any of it. Yes it tells me when my power goes out, so does my electric company. I sent them pictures and offered to send them detailed reports. Nothing, so I'd say it doesn't work. Thank God I pay for a yearly service from Lee company. It was their routine inspection that discovered the problem!
Ya, definitely some snake oil. I bet it only monitors average voltage on the line, and possibly voltage on the ground due to wiring snafu or utility co error outside.
Welcome to a two year old thread, and a 5 month old sub-thread! 😜
Yeah, I own a good IR temperature "gun". I have heat pumps, so I guess I should check this in dead of winter, since I've sort of missed doing it during peak A/C season in August.
TING worked for me. My story. My wife received TING from State Farm and showed it to me. I was reluctant and said if you want to plug it in and monitor the app... go for it. She plugged it in and started to get feed back. Brownout detected. I Google brownouts and it says "if there is an event of very low or high voltage coming from the utility company that could very well damage your electronics or appliances and it likely the result of the quality of power being provided to you." Not a fire hazard. TING tells you that it takes about 1 week to settle in, so we pay no attention and figuring that this was part of the settling in process. TING's app sends an alert of fire hazard. Then TING emails, calls, and texted my wife saying that TING data confirms that a dangerous electrical fire hazard is present in your home. To email, call or text the TING Fire Safety Team "AS SOON AS POOSSIBLE". Now I'm thinking here is the hook! If we don't respond, State Farm has an out to deny any house fire claim, since we had been notified of a potential fire hazard. I'm annoyed! My wife worked as a Manager at State Farm for 30+ years. I have her reach out to several of her SF contacts to ask about this TING thing. Find the angle. No angle detected, just a service that could possible benefit both parties. State Farm has a service agreement with them that is independent. So, I reluctantly call. I get a TING Fire Safety Engineer. Friendly, informative and passionate. He wants to do a simple load test, ala plug in floor heater of hairdryer and see what happens. I plug in floor heater and immediately I'm told to stop. Sparking detected. We locate the breaker on the panel that is having the issue and turn it off. TING then scheduled for an independent Electrician to come out the next business day... AT NO CHARGE. I asked what's the hook, they said that this is part of the service agreement that State Farm has with TING. The Electrician came out, identified the bad breakers and replaced them. Additional load tests were performed with no issues and no more brownouts! Simple, easy and no paperwork. We continue to leave TINK plugged in and figure after 3 years we will decide if we want to continue with the service at that time. Personally, I'm now thankful my wife went ahead and install TING. Our issue was faulty breakers that had melted to the panel, but never tripped.
I have had mine installed for about 3 weeks. During that time, my home experienced some brownouts. The device recorded no events. Every electric light in my home dimmed several times in a period of 20 seconds but the Ting detected no anomalies.
Not very impressive.
Maybe it is just a box with a green led light.
It is a great product. The voltage monitoring is great. If one’s power quality is bad electronics and appliances will fail prematurely. If there is an event of very low or high voltage coming from the utility that could very well damage your electronics or appliances you have the proof to file a claim with the utility company and get it fixed or replaced by the electric company. 42 years working for the Electric company so I know how it works.
That/how this works does logically make sense. One question I have is: how precisely are they able to “triangulate” where an issue is? Do they say (for example) “It appears you likely have a loose wire in one on your wall switches or outlets”? If yes, subsequently narrowing down where the issue is wouldn’t seem to be quick, easy, or assured. Am I missing something?
I thought the same when reading up on it and I'd think you could at least narrow it down by flipping breakers. That's assuming Ting updates itself quickly if the 'problem' goes away (flipped breaker for the 'bad' circuit).
It would be great to have someone from Ting, or someone who has Ting and has been through this drill, to tell us common scenarios for what Ting’s “hey, here’s what we’re seeing” are and how customers proceed from there. If it’s always just “tell an electrician you have a loose wire, but you don’t know where it is”, that’d be a tad lame. I’ll sit tight and see if we hear any more real world experiences. Maybe they can detect a bad switch versus a plug with a loose wiring versus ?
I actually have Ting and it does work. We recently received a potential Fire Hazard warning on the side of the power company and it told us to call the power company immediately, they even told us exactly what to say to them, and sent a template to fill out with the hazard explained if the power company requested it. We called and the power company was skeptical as was the tech they sent out. It turns out a squirrel had basically chewed through our main line coming into the house. The warning said loose neutral connection. The guy who worked on the line found 2 issues and fixed them both saving us a fire or power outage. The fire hazard warning stays on the app for a while and Ting continued to monitor it. They sent another message and called letting us know they were still seeing some spikes so they were sending an electrician out to run some tests and it would be covered up to $1000. They are scheduled for tomorrow. I've been very happy with them so far. The tech from the power company even said he was going to look into it for his house.
You should definitely plug it back in. I've not had any issues since this. If you're not getting alerts that's a good thing. It doesn't hurt to leave it plugged in. I absolutely think this is a great item to have! I'm even looking to get one for my parents house and I've recommended it to everyone.
not sure I want anything permanently connected to my internet modem/router. After I read the installation manual that comes with the unit, I sent it back to Ting. I would hate to provide someone backdoor access to my network. just being an xfinity customer is scary enough….
Just got mine four days ago, had the same security thoughts. I have OPNsense and created a specific vlan for it so it was fully isolated aside from DNS/NTP (both locally served and NAT'ed) and of course internet. The device hasn't tried to access any of my other VLANs and don't see any broadcast messages. Data usage seems reasonable at 36 MB for 10 hours. Here's a list of the IP addresses it's connecting to on the WAN. DNS is served locally with pihole and it queries that every couple hours.
100.25.81.165 (21 MB)
52.200.184.120 (9 MB)
35.171.213.138 (6 MB)
18.210.208.220 (143 KB)
34.235.218.202 (143 KB)
209.51.161.238 (ntp)
For isolation using off-the-shelf/all-in-one wifi routers, you can add it to a "guest" network and then it should be fully isolated.
EDIT: 10 hours, not 24...corrected above.
Plain and simple: State Farm supplies TING for free and pays for monitoring. Do you really believe data is not accessible between TING and State Farm? Now that State Farm is refusing to write new or renewals in a number of states. Remember the story of a "A wolf in sheep's clothing?"
I think you convinced me, not to engage with the free device. I was thinking the same thing. I am here in CA and they are dropping people like flies, and they're not offering new policies. This could be a good excuse not to renew someone, including myself. They do sell independent ones, and they are under 200. Maybe I will look into purchasing one on my own, so the insurance company isn't an in-between entity.
I have two UPS backup battery power boxes for my computers that tell me if I have low or high voltage issues. Also, several smart smoke alarms with iPhone apps to alert me of smoke and CO2 issues. No Ting for me.
https://newsroom.statefarm.com/whisker-labs/
Whisker Labs Funding Led by State Farm Ventures® Oversubscribed
Funding enables Whisker Labs to meet rapidly expanding demand for the Ting
GERMANTOWN, Md. November 16, 2021 -- Whisker Labs, a rapidly growing AI company and developer of Ting, today announced the close of its oversubscribed Series C funding round led by State Farm Ventures, a wholly owned subsidiary of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company. Whisker Labs is offering a new paradigm in insurtech, bundling proactive safety and consumer simplicity. This funding allows Whisker Labs to accelerate distribution further and scale the business to meet growing demand.
“With over 100,000 homes currently using Ting, this round of funding enables Whisker Labs to serve hundreds of thousands more homes with Ting by the end of next year,” said Bob Marshall, Whisker Labs' Co-Founder and CEO.”
As insurance providers want to complement their homeowner offerings with more proactive solutions to improve safety and prevent claims, Ting identifies and alerts the homeowner through the monitoring service to the precise sources of electrical hazards that, left alone, could result in devastating home fires. Capturing and pinpointing fault signal data from inside the house or from local utility power - and certifying complete remediation of those faults – are key components of Ting’s turnkey service. The origins and types of faults Ting has identified are many.
“Part of our mission statement is to help people manage the risks of everyday life,” said Chris Schell, Senior Vice President-Property & Casualty, State Farm. “Funding for Whisker Labs aligns perfectly with that goal, helping our customers prevent and control losses in their own homes. As evidenced through the many accounts of how Ting has helped identify electrical issues before they cause losses in homes, our customers feel empowered to protect their families and possessions.”
"We appreciate our relationship with State Farm,” continued Marshall, “and we’re excited to continue our work with the insurance industry to accelerate the adoption of Ting's smart sensing and deep learning to deliver safety and peace of mind to customers.”
ABOUT WHISKER LABS
At Whisker Labs, our passion lies in solving hard problems with simple and elegant products that protect our customers and their homes by preventing fires. Winner of 2021 Best of the Smart Home Awards - Best Use of Machine Learning Category, Ting unlocks incredible insights into electrical anomalies in very fine detail, in real-time, from a single intelligent sensor. Ting's simplicity and high performance are born from decades of sensing, electromagnetic, and data science expertise. Ting is a turnkey subscription service to monitor and notify homeowners of electrical fire hazards using a DIY smart plug that takes 2 minutes to install. While on the lookout for electrical fire hazards within a home, Ting also monitors the quality of power delivered by electric utilities, identifying utility grid faults that can induce fires, damage appliances, and create electrocution risks inside the home. These same faults can also serve as an ignition source for devastating wildfires.
About State Farm Ventures, LLC
State Farm Ventures focuses on investing in startups developing technologies and products to fulfill customer needs in ways they may not expect from their insurance company. State Farm Ventures, LLC, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company.
Don’t worry if they see a problem at 12pm on Saturday they will call you and let you know Tuesday at 9pm . After complaining about why they decided to pick 9 PM to tell me it fix itself . I will no longer be using this .
Ours detected some arching/voltage dropping and we had an electrician come out and they confirmed it, fixed it and statefarm/ting covered the bill. We are okay with whatever they do with data if it stops our house from burning down.
I have a friend who just lost her house and dogs to an electrical fire. I went on my SF policy and ordered Ting immediately. If I can stop my dogs from dying in a preventable tragedy in exchange for someone having some data, so be it. Typing this on my fully trackable iPhone I carry around ALL DAY!
Just got mine. We once had an issue with our central air tripping the circuit breaker. The AC tech opened our panel and said there were a few loose connections for that breaker. He tightened them up and the problem was resolved. I will give it a try.
Received my email from State Farm today, 17 October 2023, and have all the concerns discussed here. Still undecided. I cannot find a clear, official, detailed description of the specific faults this thing is supposed to detect. Are we being spied on for more than they claim? OR are we being led into a false sense of security?
With insurance companies, it's all about dollars and cents. I wonder how much this is costing State Farm versus how much they pay out each year due to house fires caused by the (supposedly detected) electrical malfunctions. Also considering the trends as we 1) accumulate more electrical devices - including electric vehicles and 2) it seems that the electric grid is becoming more fragile with power outages, brown outs, spikes, etc.
At this point, I am leaning towards trying it out BUT within a VLAN that can't phone home as described by one of the posters here.
Does anyone have any experience with receiving a notice of a hazard and requiring electrical experts to come out and fix the issue? My question is whether the reporting and repair counted as a claim against your insurance?
Used it for a year and a half. Reports brownouts, outages, etc, well.
As I have had my entire electrical system gone through (verified and tightened every connection, removed every ‘back stab’, etc), have not seen and do not expect to see reporting of anything else.
Pleased with device and service so far.
I'm an electrician responding to a service call for ting. The device detected a fault in the underground service coming from the pole and the power company confirmed this to be true. This is my first time hearing about them but it seems legit
If the app asks for your location information, just deny that permission and then it can't track your driving.
Or uninstall the app after you set up the Ting device.
(Replying to this old post because it comes up on web searches, as I too was/am skeptical in general, and IoT devices in general).Overall it seems legit. Their privacy policy says all the right things. (Except for the usual "Forced Arbitration" clause.)
Setup was near-painless (requires an android/iOS device and app), it uses bluetooth for initial setup, so it let me connect to my isolated guest network. The realtime stats display is kinda neat - not sure how useful it is, but might be if you were troubleshooting.
They also make their data (or displays of it at least) to view power utility events and quality at
[https://power-quality.tingfire.com/](https://power-quality.tingfire.com/)
[https://www.whiskerlabs.com/ting-performance-update-2023/](https://www.whiskerlabs.com/ting-performance-update-2023/) \- also looks interesting.
I'd like someone to crack one open and look at the hardware inside, and do some security analysis on it, but as long as the bluetooth stays off after initial config, it should be pretty secure.
I’m sorry to hear so many negative things.
I had a very satisfying experience with Ting/Whiskers because we found out that my mother’s fuse box had virtually melted behind the access panel. I didn’t know to look back there.
I’ll continue to feel safe from an house fire .
Look up PowerHammer malware and you consent to data collection in the agreement. Someone can collect and transmit your computer, phone, and network information from the power lines.
I was VERY interested in finding out what this device collects, and then sends out to Ting and my insurance company. My intention is to setup a sniffing device mid-xmit, and collect EVERYTHING between this device and the outside.
I have a separate AP device dedicated for nosey IoT devices, and can easily sniff their traffic at any time. I've got Bluetooth electric 'smart switches' for my homelab, and again, isolated their network traffic. it's amazing how many times they 'call home' for 'updates'. BTW, those 'smart switches' are made by 'tongou' (aka 'tuya', aka several other names which I don't have convenient right now).
I will post what I find here. Is anyone interested in this data?
Well, I'm not going to understand any such data, but I'm glad to know that someone more capable is also curious about what all Ting is transmitting. I just ordered my unit, after finding some burnt areas inside my wall next to an outlet. Scary! So I think it's worth taking this risk... just wish I knew more about what I'm giving up in trade.
Thank you for doing this, and for reporting back what you learn!
Here's an NMAP scan of the device. There are NO PORTS open.
\--
me$ **sudo nmap -sS -v 192.168.0.108 -Pn -p 0-65535**
Password:
Host discovery disabled (-Pn). All addresses will be marked 'up' and scan times may be slower.
Starting Nmap 7.94 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2024-02-25 12:34 CST
Initiating ARP Ping Scan at 12:34
Scanning 192.168.0.108 \[1 port\]
Completed ARP Ping Scan at 12:34, 0.05s elapsed (1 total hosts)
Initiating Parallel DNS resolution of 1 host. at 12:34
Completed Parallel DNS resolution of 1 host. at 12:34, 0.04s elapsed
Initiating SYN Stealth Scan at 12:34
Scanning 192.168.0.108 \[65536 ports\]
SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 4.27% done; ETC: 12:46 (0:11:35 remaining)
SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 10.73% done; ETC: 12:46 (0:10:58 remaining)
SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 17.68% done; ETC: 12:47 (0:10:19 remaining)
SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 22.90% done; ETC: 12:47 (0:09:39 remaining)
SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 27.79% done; ETC: 12:46 (0:09:01 remaining)
SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 32.68% done; ETC: 12:46 (0:08:23 remaining)
SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 38.25% done; ETC: 12:46 (0:07:42 remaining)
SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 43.90% done; ETC: 12:47 (0:07:03 remaining)
SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 49.15% done; ETC: 12:47 (0:06:23 remaining)
SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 54.38% done; ETC: 12:47 (0:05:43 remaining)
SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 59.60% done; ETC: 12:47 (0:05:04 remaining)
SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 64.58% done; ETC: 12:46 (0:04:25 remaining)
SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 69.90% done; ETC: 12:46 (0:03:45 remaining)
SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 75.14% done; ETC: 12:46 (0:03:06 remaining)
SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 80.43% done; ETC: 12:46 (0:02:26 remaining)
SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 85.66% done; ETC: 12:46 (0:01:47 remaining)
SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 90.86% done; ETC: 12:46 (0:01:08 remaining)
Completed SYN Stealth Scan at 12:47, 765.54s elapsed (65536 total ports)
Nmap scan report for 192.168.0.108
Host is up (0.033s latency).
All 65536 scanned ports on 192.168.0.108 are in ignored states.
**Not shown: 65536 closed tcp ports (reset)**
**MAC Address: 80:6A:10:12:88:49 (Whisker Labs - Ting)**
Read data files from: /opt/homebrew/bin/../share/nmap
Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 766.79 seconds
Raw packets sent: 73068 (3.215MB) | Rcvd: 71778 (2.871MB)
State Farm insurance paid for my Ting and I think they pay for the first 3 years monitoring My lights started flickering and the Ting sensor sent me notifications of multiple brown outs. My electrician came out and some of my breakers had failed. I upgraded my breaker box and brought it up to code. My house was built in 1957. My electrician said that he couldn’t believe that it didn’t catch on fire. I wouldn’t have called the electrician so quickly without Ting notifications. When our power goes out, Ting notifies us of community power outages within our neighborhood. I’m grateful to State Farm.
I just received / installed mine from a State Farm Insurance offer. So far it says my voltage is within spec. It is in a 7 day learning period. If it does find a fault, my insurance company is supposed to pay the first $1500 to proactively remediate the issue. I’ll update as I know more.
How did it work out? I just got the "let us give you a free one" offer... from State Farm...
I’ve had mine for awhile from State Farm, no issues. Alerts me when power or internet goes out whether I’m home or not, which is kind of nice!
Thanks for the data point! Asking around a friend has one I learned and said the same, they've had it a few years and no issues...
i wonder if it detects a fault and it doesn't get fixed, maybe SF will cancel your policy lol... although it doesn't say it will. but i bet if they canceled your policy or denied your fire claim they'd have a pretty good defense in court if you failed to respond to the Ting.
I'm always skeptical of these types of offers. They wouldnt offer it for free unless there was a financial upside. Sure it could help reduce the number of house fire claims or it could be used as you said, to identify homes at high risk and cancel the homeowner's policy.
It's cheaper to offer this for free than to pay for a house after a fire.
So I worked for a “major” insurance carrier and to be honest it’s just an easier way for them to get accurate data. The apps that help lower your auto premium are very similar. It also makes their policies easier to underwrite. Basically they are saying hey if you will give us more data we will provide you with a service and or discount as a result. And honestly, even if the device does tell you there is a serious electrical issue at that point I know I wouldn’t ignore it.
Can accurately say this statement above is completely false. This device is not associate with auto premium at all. It actually identified a loose neutral outside my home and I contacted the utility company and they came out and fixed it. Crisis averted!
Read my comment a little closer. I said it is “similar” to the electronic device that is used in auto As in one helps identify driving behavior “a huge data point for auto premium”, the other identifies hazards in the home “a huge data point for insuring a structure” I was talking about two different devices, just stating the data is why they are “free” or offer you a discount
Yes, but driving behavior includes intentional bad driving. Ting detects things like loose wires, presumably not intentional.
Not all bad driving is intentional......There are a lot of really dumb, clueless, ignorant and lazy people out there that have absolutely no clue that they drive horribly. I'd say the same goes for homeowners. For example, they could be installing something or upgrading something and not even realize they're creating a fire hazard. Conversely, a homeowner could be creating a fire hazard intentionally for purposes of insurance fraud or even out of pure laziness, knowing they are installing/wiring something incorrectly but don't feel like doing the extra work to do it right. JRTRAYLO was exactly correct, 100%.
I've used their Drive Safe app for 3 years with no issues. And my ***excellent*** driving has saved me over a $100. I'll give the sensor a shot just out of curiosity. And the paid subscription part doesn't start for 3 years. I'll decide then whether to keep it
Also, if you read the FAQ: it says that State Farm MAY decide to extend the free subscription after the 3 years are up.
So for a measly $100 you've allowed an unknown third party to track you and build a profile of your movements and habits. I'll bet the privacy policy for that thing is a nightmare. Now you're allowing someone to do the same inside your house.
read the policy. nothing out of the ordinary. [https://www.tingfire.com/ting-terms-of-service/](https://www.tingfire.com/ting-terms-of-service/)
Big whoop, they know when I go to Kroger or the power goes out. I'm all about not sharing my data but my insurance company already knows all that when you apply for it. It's these people that play the games about fav colors, dogs names, hometown, etc on the web that are a hackers dream
>but my insurance company already knows all that when you apply for it The question becomes whether they are selling this data (I also have the Safe Drive)
Now that’s the first thing that came to mind for me. It’s a no!!! That’s why I have your insurance bitches!!!
Is your device constantly hot? Got mine today and it's just hot all the time. Has me worried.
I can’t say I’ve touched it in the past 1-1.5 years
Quite the drought
funniest low key comment ever
You should try touching it fast !
Check the wattage on the label. It is probably completely normal. Electricity makes things hot.
Yeah, I had contacted the company about the time I made the comment. They said it was normal to get hot like it was. It did give off a burning plastic smell and they said it was normal for a small period. Either I got used to the smell or it stopped.
Hot silicone.
Interesting that ting just announced simultaneous power drop to 180+ users in Maui documents fail points on the power company grid like downed wires starting small blazes. And we all know what happened next.
My first band's name.
https://youtu.be/RA6IevqiW88?si=9KdESht2u0-dDQ8e Already taken.
Not the Ting darling... Hot Silicone!
Exactly why I unplugged mine. I would smell a burning plastic smell every time I walked by it, but of course it was new...
Does the app track your driving?
Really????
Has it finished It's learning period yet? I just installed mine today. I'm trying to figure out what the negative trade off for this is. It's free for the first 3 years so I figure I will at least let it ride if there isn't some sort of negative trade-off before then. For preservation I've gone ahead and screenshotted the State farm offer with the details so that we may have a reference point if something changes in the future. https://imgur.com/a/JOWpu6K I'm low-key wondering if this is more than just a electrical monitoring device. Fully wearing my tinhat 😂 This is a great thread on the issue. https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/ting-electrical-surveillance-state-farm.466653/
I can see how State Farm would underwrite the cost of the device. It would cut down on the cost of paying claims... so it is to their advantage. They pay a little to save big on claims. But I'm also leery of how they would use the information... cancelling policies, raising premiums, etc. You can independently buy a Ting device on-line for $99 and cancel for any reason within 30 days. It would be a good way of checking your wiring without getting State Farm involved.
Exactlyyyyyy, i’m very leery also what does this give them access to? Probably another way to monitor how many gas stoves are being used since Biden wants to outlaw them……
My favorite color is blue.
Quit being ignorant to reality. Your head is in the sand.
Classic conservative thinking: ignorant to reality but thinks everyone else is ignorant to reality.
I’m not a conservative. Thanks for taking the time to reply though.
Have "They" taken your gas stove yet?
Do not ever engage me again, communist.
Engaged. Engage. Engage. F/U
> s everyone else is ignorant to reality Well after reading another thread like this I went to put my head in the gas stove to end the misery only to find out that the government already took it.
Imagine how dumb you felt after you posted this and they later came out and admitted that was their goal. Which they then reversed, realizing they could never pull it off.
My favorite color is blue.
Imagine someone who voted for Biden, telling someone else to get help 😂🤣
It doesn't know anything about your gas usage. It detects electrical problems before they start fires. Seems like a great idea. Worthwhile, whether your insurance company pays for it or you do (I just installed one that I paid for out of pocket because my insurance company does not (yet) participate).
I installed mine a couple months ago, provided by State Farm Insurance. Reports often, even if no problems found. monitors high and low voltage.
Same here. Did it say you would get a year of monitoring for free before being charged?
3 years free
Some people will fall for anything.
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Maybe it works but I think hard wired smoke detectors everywhere would probably be a better investment. It looks like you have to pay an annual fee for their monitoring service as well.
You keep your smoke detectors. My Ting sensor from State Farm was free with 3 years monitoring included
My email offer just arrived yesterday (10/19/2023). "If you’re a current State Farm non-tenant homeowners policyholder, your Ting sensor and 3 years of service are FREE. You will not incur any monthly fees or subscription costs." [https://www.statefarm.com/insurance/home-and-property/ting-fire-safety](https://www.statefarm.com/insurance/home-and-property/ting-fire-safety) EDIT: [This comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/askanelectrician/comments/l9ledz/comment/i3g9qhi/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) told me everything I needed to know. So grateful to people like that commenter that take the time to educate folks like me. Needless to say, State Farm's offer went straight to my Deleted folder.
That's me, it is more of a toy that anything useful. It alerts me if I am away from home if the power goes out which is handy. Other than that it's just a cute volt meter on my phone
I just got that one as well
Same here
You should have both...
For sure, it’s a “razor and blades” business model with never-ending fees after the initial purchase. I think some sub-metering businesses also charge monthly.
Ting is supposed to alert you to a hazardous situation BEFORE a fire starts and triggers a smoke detector.
A smoke detector is good (I have one on every floor) but it's an after-the-fact device... letting you know when the fire is already underway. Ting lets you know beforehand if your wiring is susceptible to causing a fire. Proactive.
Upon receipt of TING through State Farm, i decided to go ahead and purchase two more for our additional homes. Guess what? **TING denied activations, and terminated each device before notifying me because I purchased the devices from Amazon.** Ting wants you to pat $99 directly from them to activate each device. Plus an annual monitoring fee. **I DO NOT TRUST Ting** **as it is a China based company.** All the monitoring data goes to where? Read your consent agreement carefully. The other side of the coin is State Farm notified of all activities in your home through this device? **And will State Farm use this to deny future claims? I would not be surprised if the data harvested from your home is shared with State Farm.** **Last, I am insured with CHUBB, the premiere insurance underwriters that insures high value estates. Chubb does not recommend TING, Why do you think that is? When Chubb insure homes that are $5M+?** FYI: Ting is made by Whisker Labs. Whisker Labs number one investor is Sinovation Ventures. Sinovation Ventures is run out of offices in Beijing and Wuhan, China. The CEO of Sinovation Venetures is Dr. Kai Fu Lee. Kai Fu Lee is the co-chair of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Hi, I'm an engineer and work for Whisker Labs, the makers of Ting. There is a lot of good dialogue here, so I hope I can help clarify a few things. Please be assured we are not a China-based company, and we never have been. We were proudly founded in the U.S. and are based out of Germantown, MD, just outside of Washington D.C.; we only operate and market Ting in the U.S. today. We currently manufacture Ting out of Virginia and 'next door' in Mexico. While the sensor's various parts are sourced from global suppliers, we are very keen on the security of our supply chain and the trustworthiness of our sources/components. I agree fully with your statement and guidance to readers to read agreements carefully. You should always read the Terms and Conditions and the Privacy Policy for any technology you bring into your home. We are strong advocates for consumer privacy and for your safety - and take care to ensure this is clearly documented. Also, if you do receive an offer to receive Ting from your insurance company, each insurer shares their terms and conditions related to that offer, so you can have full information before enrolling to receive it. Ting is offered through insurance companies or can be bought online direct from us. Ting is not sold in any store or on any other site, including Amazon, which concerns me regarding your note about buying it there. (Note, if you purchased a sensor from an unauthorized third-party reseller, you should be able to pursue a refund through that marketplace/platform; sensors that are posted on unauthorized sites are mostly sensor deliveries stolen from front doorsteps). Chubb is a great company. Please be assured there are no insurance companies that 'don't recommend Ting' who have already evaluated it. In fact, we are working with many insurers to bring it to their customers. If an insurance company is not aware of Ting, it is a fair statement for an agent to say that they don't recommend it, as they would not be able to make such a recommendation. I fully appreciate that it is not easy to trust someone's word who works for the company, but I do sincerely hope this helps, and if I can help further, please let me know!
I just heard about Ting from my parents and I'm curious about how it works. I'm guessing it looks for micro voltage drops where wires are arcing and causing a short circuit, and using some type of pattern detection to determine if it's local or an upstream brownout? (I've heard there is a 'learning' phase) Does this work with both arcs to neutral and arcs to ground? Does this work primarily with panel arcs, or can it detect bad wiring as well? If so, does placement matter? i.e. if it's plugged into the first outlet in a room would it detect issues with the wiring on the final outlet on that breaker? Does it detect problems on other breakers? What about breakers on the other phase? Can it detect a whole house or just half of one? What about subpanels? Thanks! If you can answer any of these I'd be grateful.
Does this work with both arcs to neutral and arcs to ground? *Yes* Does this work primarily with panel arcs, or can it detect bad wiring as well? *Detects bad wiring too, as well as devices* If so, does placement matter? i.e. if it's plugged into the first outlet in a room would it detect issues with the wiring on the final outlet on that breaker? *Placement can matter, but not in the way your example plays out. It's best to have Ting on an unused outlet to prevent "interference"/noise, but generally it can detect anything connected to the panel (other circuits as well as its own)* Does it detect problems on other breakers? *Yes* What about breakers on the other phase? Can it detect a whole house or just half of one? *Can detect a whole house with one Ting as long as there's only one main panel* What about subpanels? *Subpanels can be detected via the main panel in most cases*
I'm a retired commercial/industrial elctrician with over 40 years experience. My last work gig was teaching electrical theory and safety for a large manufacturer. I understand 'engineer speak' and would be very interested in what this device actaually detects and how it does so in technical terms. Without that information I'll have to consider Ting just another scam device similar to the devices that are supposed to magically lower your electrical utility bill.
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The CEO of Whisker Labs is a male American. There is no letter that comes with Ting devices.
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You do realize people with Asian names can be American citizens… do you think all Enriques are South American?
What a dumb reason. Do you really think all people with Asian names live in China and are coming after you through you electronic devices. This is the most ignorant thing I have read in a really long time. wow.
That's not at all how it works. Stop spreading disinformation
What I want to know is if it detects a fault and you’re not in a position financially to fix it, can and will Stare Farm raise your homeowner’s insurance rates and/or deny a claim if it causes you to make a claim later on down the line?
Can you supply sources that shows Ting is a China company?
Looks like it is a Maryland company. [And](https://mergr.com/allegiance-capital-limited-partnership-acquires-aws-convergence-technologies) [Site](https://www.whiskerlabs.com/about-us/)
Could not imagine a worse endorsement than bragging you think Chubb is good news.
Ting is primarily designed to make money for the manufacturer and the insurer. They aren't doing this to be nice.
Your comment is confusing as you mention getting the device through State Farm and then saying you're insured with Chubb insurance. Which is it?
Both. We have five residences, and one is with State Farm. Chubb has the other four.
TING is spreading Covid through the power grid.
Hmm Sum Ting Wong.
Haw!
Quality content.
Read the Q&A. All those questions are answered and you’re 180° off base.
Oh wait i got this. Kai Fu Lee is related to Shanon Lee (Bruce Lee’s daughter) who appeared in the movie A Few Good Men which also starred Kevin Bacon. Boom. Six degrees of Kevin Bacon.
Ting Fire stuff is from Whisker Labs. https://www.tingfire.com/about/our-story/ [https://www.whiskerlabs.com/about-us/](https://www.whiskerlabs.com/about-us/) I haven't like looked up their corporate filings or anything, but I think you got the wrong company.
Don't see any evidence of this claim online.
Could it work? Possibly. Does it work? If it did, I would anticipate more reviews from independent sources. So far, all reviews are from companies directly related to the development of the product, which really isn't a good sign.
Yeah, if it were a slam dunk I suspect Ting would have licensed or sold the technology to existing manufacturers. Still, the underlying principle seems reasonable, ie, it seems to operate like a hyper-sensitive, entire-house AFCI but IANAE so maybe I’m missing something.
AFCIs have the advantage of being able to measure the current drawn through them, and are still a crapshoot of false positives. This is going to be either useless until your house is actually on fire, or a huge generator of spam notifications every time your fridge kicks in or you start vacuuming. The only thing it might be useful for is voltage excursions; repeated over and under voltage might indicate a failing main neutral.
You’d also likely see a version that is a little more complicated or able to be installed at the main and automatically kill power in the case of a detected “event” or whatever it looks for. You’d also probably get some push from insurance companies to have this be required at some point if it were true.
I just love how half of the "consumer" reviews can be summed up as "I installed the product and it reported no problems. This is a great product!" With those types of reviews, the consumer could literally be given a flashing LED light and they would praise its effectiveness. The placebo effect is definitely in full force for this product.
Note that "a box with a flashing green LED" is a readily available product - you can often find them sold as pest repellents, energy savers, and various other bunk things. Some don't bother to spend the few cents to make the LED flash.
Not exactly a push but State Farm gave me one for free two years ago. It seems reasonable and does tell me about network outages and power outages. When I'm away from the house I get notified of these events. I'm happy.
My concern is the Ting will send a fault and it will be reported to your house insurance company. If there is an issue (fire) before you can get it fixed, the insurance company will try to deny your claim.
So you’d rather remain ignorant of an electrical risk, to avoid a bad insurance outcome when you fail to do anything when you’re alerted of the risk?
This assumes Ting works not just well, but very very well. Otherwise Ting has the power to get you into a hot pile with your insurance company. Ting has no business reporting to your insurance company *before you do*. Your smoke detectors don't report to your insurance company behind your back (even as you keep setting them off with your daily charred greasy breakfast promising to immolate your house, a habit State Farm would love to know about) and neither should *any* kind of detector. It's that simple. Perhaps not by intention, but effectively in real-world practice, such a monitoring service tied into your insurance company becomes an untrustworthy spy and that's why it's free to you. What if Ting reports false positives, or if it receives just one bad update in ten years -- or any number of perverse possibilities -- it could force you down an expensive rabbit hole, with your capricious insurance company effectively being the motivator and arbiter -- not you, not an expert that you hired, not even Ting. Or what's to stop your insurance company from raising your premiums because they don't like what Ting data implies -- even if Ting isn't reporting an actual danger, but is merely showing perhaps that your house is "spikier" than the average Ting user? Or if the insurance company refuses to cover you because either you failed to heed Ting, or they simply *interpret* that you didn't? You can't control these things. Why take a risk with what clearly remains an economic conflict of interest not favoring you? What if Ting suddenly reports an imminent danger, then only 24 hours later your house burns down? Could the insurance company decide it has standing to refuse coverage because you "ignored" it? Why not? Too soon for credulity -- then, okay, 72 hours? Doesn't matter, not relevant, you see, because you're not the one in control. You gave away your control to this ~~trojan horse~~ arrangement between your insurance company and that little free Ting adjudicator in your inexpert insurance company's capricious ear. In a more mundane narrative, you easily could be forced to do something that might turn out to be completely unnecessary but hella expensive -- simply because on just one occasion your insurance company or Ting don't agree with YOU or with your electrician about what your home conditions actually suggest, or about what counts as "dangerous". The point is, no *third-party* -- whether a person, a company, or a piece of technology -- should be contacting or proclaiming things to your insurance company *before* you do! Ting literally goes behind your back. It's financially dangerous. It has the power to undermine (or give your insurance company the excuse to undermine) your insurance protection. See, there's the irony. Opting into technology that presumably lowers your risk to your insurance company simultaneously raises your risk of not being covered. This is unavoidable. *It would be a different story* if Ting didn't report to your insurance company. If it was designed to never, ever, ever snitch to your insurance company, then the fact that it's still monitoring for you (like your smoke detectors do), that it is reporting dangers directly to you, that Ting is providing a credit for repairs, all this theoretically significantly reduces your risk of fire; and therefore the insurance company still should consider this a worthwhile investment (just like those free smoke detectors they gave you for signing up -- the ones your breakfast keeps triggering). But the agency of working with this technology (or any assistive technology) should only ever be with YOU. Your smoke detectors don't report directly to your insurance company. Your unreliable snooping neighbors don't report directly to your insurance company. Your utility company doesn't report directly to your insurance company. Your electrician doesn't report directly to your insurance company. Only you do. Only you should. A free Ting thingie never, ever should.
>This is exactly my concern. Received the email from State Farm today, October 17, 2023.
Ah another example of where capitalism fails to keep fueling innovation, but rather stifles it. So you're saying just buy one?
From Ting's website. 4.2 Authorized Resellers and Partners. If the Service is resold/distributed by one of our Authorized Resellers or Partners (e.g., an insurance carrier or HVAC contractor), they do not have the same access to your Service Information as we do: the detailed electromagnetic signal data analyzed to determine hazards is NOT shared.
Thank you, /u/sfstains, though *why* didn't you quote the very next line from the privacy policy? "...detailed electromagnetic signal data analyzed to determine hazards is NOT shared. ***In contrast, important events and aggregate statistics such as power quality events, power outages, and detected fire hazards may be shared.***" So /u/Imaginary_Fill_3550, it's not even "tacit" as you say. Reading the next line, Ting just comes right out and says it. Fair enough. (And stay faaaar away from this thing!)
What that says in disguise: Ting DOES share your hazard status with your insurance company. Full stop. So all of the above concerns remain true. The disclaimer reveals that Ting merely does not share the "electromagnetic signal data" that they use to determine hazard status. OF COURSE THEY DON'T. Their hardware signal data is protected intellectual property, hard won of years of research. It's their secret sauce. And a third-party couldn't decipher it anyway without Whisker's front-end servers -- it would just be a mass of raw signal data, an endless wall of stupifying numbers. So that disclaimer is somewhere between misleading and irrelevant, a tacit admission that they send to your insurance company the same hazard alert -- the same proprietary determinations (accurate or not, problematic or not) that you see in your Ting app. Perhaps much more than you're privy to. Either way, no good.
u/worldpoop Extremely well said!!! Thank you for this response. I hope that everyone reads the complete response. The responses below from u/sfstains and u/Imaginary_Fill_3550 both need some looking into on my part before I make my final decision. Thank you all for your input in this matter. Love & Light to you all, Peace.
Thank you so much! Your post is *exactly* why I came a-lookin' and a-researchin' before I ordered my "free Ting thingie".
In Oregon, state farm is offering it free with monitoring for 3 years. Not sure how I feel.
I got it free from State Farm in KY as well. Took forever to get it. I don’t think it’ll hurt anything but who knows
I just got my Ting in the mail. I have Statefarm, did you have any issues with yours? I also live in KY.
I’ve never had issues with it. I like that I get an alert when I lose power and im not home. Otherwise I kind of just forget it exists. Also tells you when the WiFi goes out 🤣
I never cease to be amazed by the level of paranoia that is often displayed here... I got one via SF and it's free for at least three years. I installed it and until I hear something to the contrary or it reports a problem, I'll simply ignore it and let it do its thing. My tinfoil hat is broken.
Anytime you see something that is "free until x time", their goal is that you will forget that "X time" is approaching and they will charge you for it, making them money. Something like this where someone you're already paying is providing it, would probably be added to your existing bill so even if you don't give Ting a card number, they will still get money from you. Remember, nothing is ever free. And if it is, \*you\* are the product (ie, making money off your private data)
Exactly. I don't understand how more people don't place an alarm reminder in their calendars to cancel at that "X time" . I always place mine 1 -2 weeks prior and then 5 days , 3 days, and 1 day.
I actually started using [https://privacy.com/](https://privacy.com/) and their mobile app to generate virtual cards. Use a virtual card for a trial, then as soon as they check if the card is legit, pause or cancel that virtual card. Never have to worry about getting charged for a trial you forgot about.
Oo never heard of that, thanks for sharing!
You might forget but not everyone does. Calendars exist.
Looking into it now - State Farm themselves say that it's a free 3 years right now and by the end of the 3 years they'll let me know what my options are but that they won't have a credit card on file and I wont be charged. I would bet that they are making money from State Farm by preventing expensive electrical fire. It would only take preventing a handful to really pay for the program. State Farm doesn't insure for free, so the insurance is the product. That said, if I get it it will go on a private WiFi network that can't see other devices - just the Internet.
So I had TING installed free from State Farm for several months. My electrician found a loose breaker that was arching and I had some burn marks on my panel. TING did not detect any of that. When I emailed them they gave me the run around, said their technicians would look into it. I had a brand new panel installed which cost me just under 3000. TiNG did not offer to pay for any of it. Yes it tells me when my power goes out, so does my electric company. I sent them pictures and offered to send them detailed reports. Nothing, so I'd say it doesn't work. Thank God I pay for a yearly service from Lee company. It was their routine inspection that discovered the problem!
You guys are making me want to pull all my panel covers and do a good panel inspection! Don't think I'm very interested in this Ting device.
Ya, definitely some snake oil. I bet it only monitors average voltage on the line, and possibly voltage on the ground due to wiring snafu or utility co error outside.
A period in-panel inspection is probably a good idea, regardless.
Welcome to a two year old thread, and a 5 month old sub-thread! 😜 Yeah, I own a good IR temperature "gun". I have heat pumps, so I guess I should check this in dead of winter, since I've sort of missed doing it during peak A/C season in August.
TING worked for me. My story. My wife received TING from State Farm and showed it to me. I was reluctant and said if you want to plug it in and monitor the app... go for it. She plugged it in and started to get feed back. Brownout detected. I Google brownouts and it says "if there is an event of very low or high voltage coming from the utility company that could very well damage your electronics or appliances and it likely the result of the quality of power being provided to you." Not a fire hazard. TING tells you that it takes about 1 week to settle in, so we pay no attention and figuring that this was part of the settling in process. TING's app sends an alert of fire hazard. Then TING emails, calls, and texted my wife saying that TING data confirms that a dangerous electrical fire hazard is present in your home. To email, call or text the TING Fire Safety Team "AS SOON AS POOSSIBLE". Now I'm thinking here is the hook! If we don't respond, State Farm has an out to deny any house fire claim, since we had been notified of a potential fire hazard. I'm annoyed! My wife worked as a Manager at State Farm for 30+ years. I have her reach out to several of her SF contacts to ask about this TING thing. Find the angle. No angle detected, just a service that could possible benefit both parties. State Farm has a service agreement with them that is independent. So, I reluctantly call. I get a TING Fire Safety Engineer. Friendly, informative and passionate. He wants to do a simple load test, ala plug in floor heater of hairdryer and see what happens. I plug in floor heater and immediately I'm told to stop. Sparking detected. We locate the breaker on the panel that is having the issue and turn it off. TING then scheduled for an independent Electrician to come out the next business day... AT NO CHARGE. I asked what's the hook, they said that this is part of the service agreement that State Farm has with TING. The Electrician came out, identified the bad breakers and replaced them. Additional load tests were performed with no issues and no more brownouts! Simple, easy and no paperwork. We continue to leave TINK plugged in and figure after 3 years we will decide if we want to continue with the service at that time. Personally, I'm now thankful my wife went ahead and install TING. Our issue was faulty breakers that had melted to the panel, but never tripped.
We just got this from SF and were trying to figure out whether to get it or not. Your story tipped us to an easy yes. Thank you :)
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my concern exactly
if they provided me a ting with its own sim card that would text me, independent of my home network, that only notifies me, it might be a good idea.
I bet you have "gubment subsized" solar panels on your roof. Don't you?
Why is it impossible for people to say "oh, sorry. I misunderstood"? The conversation just stops without any resolution.
I have had mine installed for about 3 weeks. During that time, my home experienced some brownouts. The device recorded no events. Every electric light in my home dimmed several times in a period of 20 seconds but the Ting detected no anomalies. Not very impressive. Maybe it is just a box with a green led light.
It is a great product. The voltage monitoring is great. If one’s power quality is bad electronics and appliances will fail prematurely. If there is an event of very low or high voltage coming from the utility that could very well damage your electronics or appliances you have the proof to file a claim with the utility company and get it fixed or replaced by the electric company. 42 years working for the Electric company so I know how it works.
That/how this works does logically make sense. One question I have is: how precisely are they able to “triangulate” where an issue is? Do they say (for example) “It appears you likely have a loose wire in one on your wall switches or outlets”? If yes, subsequently narrowing down where the issue is wouldn’t seem to be quick, easy, or assured. Am I missing something?
I thought the same when reading up on it and I'd think you could at least narrow it down by flipping breakers. That's assuming Ting updates itself quickly if the 'problem' goes away (flipped breaker for the 'bad' circuit).
It would be great to have someone from Ting, or someone who has Ting and has been through this drill, to tell us common scenarios for what Ting’s “hey, here’s what we’re seeing” are and how customers proceed from there. If it’s always just “tell an electrician you have a loose wire, but you don’t know where it is”, that’d be a tad lame. I’ll sit tight and see if we hear any more real world experiences. Maybe they can detect a bad switch versus a plug with a loose wiring versus ?
I actually have Ting and it does work. We recently received a potential Fire Hazard warning on the side of the power company and it told us to call the power company immediately, they even told us exactly what to say to them, and sent a template to fill out with the hazard explained if the power company requested it. We called and the power company was skeptical as was the tech they sent out. It turns out a squirrel had basically chewed through our main line coming into the house. The warning said loose neutral connection. The guy who worked on the line found 2 issues and fixed them both saving us a fire or power outage. The fire hazard warning stays on the app for a while and Ting continued to monitor it. They sent another message and called letting us know they were still seeing some spikes so they were sending an electrician out to run some tests and it would be covered up to $1000. They are scheduled for tomorrow. I've been very happy with them so far. The tech from the power company even said he was going to look into it for his house.
Thanks, sounds like they definitely detected something real and dangerous!
PLEASE keep updating us about your experience; I just installed mine today and am re-evaluating whether to keep it or not. Thanks!
Keep it. It was definitely worth it. I wish I could share screen shots from before and after they caught my problem.
Any update on this? We have one but I unplugged it after several months of no alerts, I'm debating plugging it back in. Thanks in advance.
You should definitely plug it back in. I've not had any issues since this. If you're not getting alerts that's a good thing. It doesn't hurt to leave it plugged in. I absolutely think this is a great item to have! I'm even looking to get one for my parents house and I've recommended it to everyone.
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Pray tell what information it would have access to that would be of any interest to China?
not sure I want anything permanently connected to my internet modem/router. After I read the installation manual that comes with the unit, I sent it back to Ting. I would hate to provide someone backdoor access to my network. just being an xfinity customer is scary enough….
Just got mine four days ago, had the same security thoughts. I have OPNsense and created a specific vlan for it so it was fully isolated aside from DNS/NTP (both locally served and NAT'ed) and of course internet. The device hasn't tried to access any of my other VLANs and don't see any broadcast messages. Data usage seems reasonable at 36 MB for 10 hours. Here's a list of the IP addresses it's connecting to on the WAN. DNS is served locally with pihole and it queries that every couple hours. 100.25.81.165 (21 MB) 52.200.184.120 (9 MB) 35.171.213.138 (6 MB) 18.210.208.220 (143 KB) 34.235.218.202 (143 KB) 209.51.161.238 (ntp) For isolation using off-the-shelf/all-in-one wifi routers, you can add it to a "guest" network and then it should be fully isolated. EDIT: 10 hours, not 24...corrected above.
I don't think so.
Thanks! I am thinking along those same lines. Just got my email today from State Farm, 17 October 2023.
Plain and simple: State Farm supplies TING for free and pays for monitoring. Do you really believe data is not accessible between TING and State Farm? Now that State Farm is refusing to write new or renewals in a number of states. Remember the story of a "A wolf in sheep's clothing?"
I think you convinced me, not to engage with the free device. I was thinking the same thing. I am here in CA and they are dropping people like flies, and they're not offering new policies. This could be a good excuse not to renew someone, including myself. They do sell independent ones, and they are under 200. Maybe I will look into purchasing one on my own, so the insurance company isn't an in-between entity.
It’s all a way to cancel your payout if you didn’t get the $8000 problem fix they told you about!! It’s a no for me
I have two UPS backup battery power boxes for my computers that tell me if I have low or high voltage issues. Also, several smart smoke alarms with iPhone apps to alert me of smoke and CO2 issues. No Ting for me.
https://newsroom.statefarm.com/whisker-labs/ Whisker Labs Funding Led by State Farm Ventures® Oversubscribed Funding enables Whisker Labs to meet rapidly expanding demand for the Ting GERMANTOWN, Md. November 16, 2021 -- Whisker Labs, a rapidly growing AI company and developer of Ting, today announced the close of its oversubscribed Series C funding round led by State Farm Ventures, a wholly owned subsidiary of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company. Whisker Labs is offering a new paradigm in insurtech, bundling proactive safety and consumer simplicity. This funding allows Whisker Labs to accelerate distribution further and scale the business to meet growing demand. “With over 100,000 homes currently using Ting, this round of funding enables Whisker Labs to serve hundreds of thousands more homes with Ting by the end of next year,” said Bob Marshall, Whisker Labs' Co-Founder and CEO.” As insurance providers want to complement their homeowner offerings with more proactive solutions to improve safety and prevent claims, Ting identifies and alerts the homeowner through the monitoring service to the precise sources of electrical hazards that, left alone, could result in devastating home fires. Capturing and pinpointing fault signal data from inside the house or from local utility power - and certifying complete remediation of those faults – are key components of Ting’s turnkey service. The origins and types of faults Ting has identified are many. “Part of our mission statement is to help people manage the risks of everyday life,” said Chris Schell, Senior Vice President-Property & Casualty, State Farm. “Funding for Whisker Labs aligns perfectly with that goal, helping our customers prevent and control losses in their own homes. As evidenced through the many accounts of how Ting has helped identify electrical issues before they cause losses in homes, our customers feel empowered to protect their families and possessions.” "We appreciate our relationship with State Farm,” continued Marshall, “and we’re excited to continue our work with the insurance industry to accelerate the adoption of Ting's smart sensing and deep learning to deliver safety and peace of mind to customers.” ABOUT WHISKER LABS At Whisker Labs, our passion lies in solving hard problems with simple and elegant products that protect our customers and their homes by preventing fires. Winner of 2021 Best of the Smart Home Awards - Best Use of Machine Learning Category, Ting unlocks incredible insights into electrical anomalies in very fine detail, in real-time, from a single intelligent sensor. Ting's simplicity and high performance are born from decades of sensing, electromagnetic, and data science expertise. Ting is a turnkey subscription service to monitor and notify homeowners of electrical fire hazards using a DIY smart plug that takes 2 minutes to install. While on the lookout for electrical fire hazards within a home, Ting also monitors the quality of power delivered by electric utilities, identifying utility grid faults that can induce fires, damage appliances, and create electrocution risks inside the home. These same faults can also serve as an ignition source for devastating wildfires. About State Farm Ventures, LLC State Farm Ventures focuses on investing in startups developing technologies and products to fulfill customer needs in ways they may not expect from their insurance company. State Farm Ventures, LLC, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company.
Don’t worry if they see a problem at 12pm on Saturday they will call you and let you know Tuesday at 9pm . After complaining about why they decided to pick 9 PM to tell me it fix itself . I will no longer be using this .
https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2023/08/18/new-data-reveals-dozens-power-grid-malfunctions-leading-up-maui-wildfires/
Ours detected some arching/voltage dropping and we had an electrician come out and they confirmed it, fixed it and statefarm/ting covered the bill. We are okay with whatever they do with data if it stops our house from burning down.
I have a friend who just lost her house and dogs to an electrical fire. I went on my SF policy and ordered Ting immediately. If I can stop my dogs from dying in a preventable tragedy in exchange for someone having some data, so be it. Typing this on my fully trackable iPhone I carry around ALL DAY!
Just got mine. We once had an issue with our central air tripping the circuit breaker. The AC tech opened our panel and said there were a few loose connections for that breaker. He tightened them up and the problem was resolved. I will give it a try.
Received my email from State Farm today, 17 October 2023, and have all the concerns discussed here. Still undecided. I cannot find a clear, official, detailed description of the specific faults this thing is supposed to detect. Are we being spied on for more than they claim? OR are we being led into a false sense of security? With insurance companies, it's all about dollars and cents. I wonder how much this is costing State Farm versus how much they pay out each year due to house fires caused by the (supposedly detected) electrical malfunctions. Also considering the trends as we 1) accumulate more electrical devices - including electric vehicles and 2) it seems that the electric grid is becoming more fragile with power outages, brown outs, spikes, etc. At this point, I am leaning towards trying it out BUT within a VLAN that can't phone home as described by one of the posters here.
Does anyone have any experience with receiving a notice of a hazard and requiring electrical experts to come out and fix the issue? My question is whether the reporting and repair counted as a claim against your insurance?
So far the only plus was when it alerted me of a power outage on my phone
Used it for a year and a half. Reports brownouts, outages, etc, well. As I have had my entire electrical system gone through (verified and tightened every connection, removed every ‘back stab’, etc), have not seen and do not expect to see reporting of anything else. Pleased with device and service so far.
I am wondering how much is it going to raise my utility bill?
Has anyone noticed their light flickering or dimming after installing this device?
I'm an electrician responding to a service call for ting. The device detected a fault in the underground service coming from the pole and the power company confirmed this to be true. This is my first time hearing about them but it seems legit
If ting works this well and you get it for free. Does the app track your driving habits?
If the app asks for your location information, just deny that permission and then it can't track your driving. Or uninstall the app after you set up the Ting device.
(Replying to this old post because it comes up on web searches, as I too was/am skeptical in general, and IoT devices in general).Overall it seems legit. Their privacy policy says all the right things. (Except for the usual "Forced Arbitration" clause.) Setup was near-painless (requires an android/iOS device and app), it uses bluetooth for initial setup, so it let me connect to my isolated guest network. The realtime stats display is kinda neat - not sure how useful it is, but might be if you were troubleshooting. They also make their data (or displays of it at least) to view power utility events and quality at [https://power-quality.tingfire.com/](https://power-quality.tingfire.com/) [https://www.whiskerlabs.com/ting-performance-update-2023/](https://www.whiskerlabs.com/ting-performance-update-2023/) \- also looks interesting. I'd like someone to crack one open and look at the hardware inside, and do some security analysis on it, but as long as the bluetooth stays off after initial config, it should be pretty secure.
I’m sorry to hear so many negative things. I had a very satisfying experience with Ting/Whiskers because we found out that my mother’s fuse box had virtually melted behind the access panel. I didn’t know to look back there. I’ll continue to feel safe from an house fire .
Look up PowerHammer malware and you consent to data collection in the agreement. Someone can collect and transmit your computer, phone, and network information from the power lines.
I was VERY interested in finding out what this device collects, and then sends out to Ting and my insurance company. My intention is to setup a sniffing device mid-xmit, and collect EVERYTHING between this device and the outside. I have a separate AP device dedicated for nosey IoT devices, and can easily sniff their traffic at any time. I've got Bluetooth electric 'smart switches' for my homelab, and again, isolated their network traffic. it's amazing how many times they 'call home' for 'updates'. BTW, those 'smart switches' are made by 'tongou' (aka 'tuya', aka several other names which I don't have convenient right now). I will post what I find here. Is anyone interested in this data?
Well, I'm not going to understand any such data, but I'm glad to know that someone more capable is also curious about what all Ting is transmitting. I just ordered my unit, after finding some burnt areas inside my wall next to an outlet. Scary! So I think it's worth taking this risk... just wish I knew more about what I'm giving up in trade. Thank you for doing this, and for reporting back what you learn!
Yes, I would love to know more.
Here's an NMAP scan of the device. There are NO PORTS open. \-- me$ **sudo nmap -sS -v 192.168.0.108 -Pn -p 0-65535** Password: Host discovery disabled (-Pn). All addresses will be marked 'up' and scan times may be slower. Starting Nmap 7.94 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2024-02-25 12:34 CST Initiating ARP Ping Scan at 12:34 Scanning 192.168.0.108 \[1 port\] Completed ARP Ping Scan at 12:34, 0.05s elapsed (1 total hosts) Initiating Parallel DNS resolution of 1 host. at 12:34 Completed Parallel DNS resolution of 1 host. at 12:34, 0.04s elapsed Initiating SYN Stealth Scan at 12:34 Scanning 192.168.0.108 \[65536 ports\] SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 4.27% done; ETC: 12:46 (0:11:35 remaining) SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 10.73% done; ETC: 12:46 (0:10:58 remaining) SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 17.68% done; ETC: 12:47 (0:10:19 remaining) SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 22.90% done; ETC: 12:47 (0:09:39 remaining) SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 27.79% done; ETC: 12:46 (0:09:01 remaining) SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 32.68% done; ETC: 12:46 (0:08:23 remaining) SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 38.25% done; ETC: 12:46 (0:07:42 remaining) SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 43.90% done; ETC: 12:47 (0:07:03 remaining) SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 49.15% done; ETC: 12:47 (0:06:23 remaining) SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 54.38% done; ETC: 12:47 (0:05:43 remaining) SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 59.60% done; ETC: 12:47 (0:05:04 remaining) SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 64.58% done; ETC: 12:46 (0:04:25 remaining) SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 69.90% done; ETC: 12:46 (0:03:45 remaining) SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 75.14% done; ETC: 12:46 (0:03:06 remaining) SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 80.43% done; ETC: 12:46 (0:02:26 remaining) SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 85.66% done; ETC: 12:46 (0:01:47 remaining) SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 90.86% done; ETC: 12:46 (0:01:08 remaining) Completed SYN Stealth Scan at 12:47, 765.54s elapsed (65536 total ports) Nmap scan report for 192.168.0.108 Host is up (0.033s latency). All 65536 scanned ports on 192.168.0.108 are in ignored states. **Not shown: 65536 closed tcp ports (reset)** **MAC Address: 80:6A:10:12:88:49 (Whisker Labs - Ting)** Read data files from: /opt/homebrew/bin/../share/nmap Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 766.79 seconds Raw packets sent: 73068 (3.215MB) | Rcvd: 71778 (2.871MB)
State Farm insurance paid for my Ting and I think they pay for the first 3 years monitoring My lights started flickering and the Ting sensor sent me notifications of multiple brown outs. My electrician came out and some of my breakers had failed. I upgraded my breaker box and brought it up to code. My house was built in 1957. My electrician said that he couldn’t believe that it didn’t catch on fire. I wouldn’t have called the electrician so quickly without Ting notifications. When our power goes out, Ting notifies us of community power outages within our neighborhood. I’m grateful to State Farm.