Nest Protect 2nd Gen Smoke + Carbon Monoxide Alarm

AndyBoBandy

Does anybody have one of these? (wired or battery)

Nest Protect Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Alarm

How are they?

Graham

We were looking at them but this video put me off while I was researching :eek:

Would be very interested in hearing how other Boardsies have got on with them.

Roen

One installed, two more on the way.

Like it a lot.
The path light functionality is largely extraneous to a heavy Hue user as no doubt you'll have covered anywhere it'll be going.

You'd see the best out of it if you integrated it further with the Nest cam I believe. The Home/Away functionality on my iphone doesn't seem to work that well, same on the missus's android. But that in no way takes away from it's functionality as a smoke/CO alarm.

Quick edit, not seen it in any way buggy. Just works fine and is happily checking itself and generating reports.

Double edit: That was a gen1 which were a bit flaky as far as I recall. One of the guys in work had a few and replaced them out with gen 2 and they haven't skipped a beat.

garbeth

Have two wired. Find them great. They replaced the smoke alarm that came with the house 10 years ago which went off and wouldnt stop if using the toaster. These can be silenced from the phone or at the press of a button and the warning is clear. Get a 2nd gen one not a first gen

paulbok

I have a few of them and find them good. Have both the wired and battery versions.
I have one in the kitchen and it does go off sometimes when cooking (stir frying at high heat esp.)
However it does give you a warning before blowing the ears off you, and I can reach the reset button on it, or it can be done from the app.
Gives email notification when alarms are triggered, and when you have more than one in a house they will all notify you when another goes off, e.g. Nest in living room will say "there is smoke in the kitchen".

Motion sensor and night light are useful but as mentioned by Roen, superseded by Hue setups.
If it was opened up to be more compatible with Hue or Smartthings, it would suffice as the motion sensor, one of the reasons I went for it in the first place was the combined smoke/CO2/heat detection, saving having to cover the ceiling with detectors. I still have a smartthings motion sensor on the ceiling, so would like to get it down to one device.

2011

I have 2 of the wired versions. One of them went nuts when it was nearly 2 years old. Harvey Norman's replaced it free of charge. Perhaps I was just unlucky. Apart from that I find them great.

Stoner

Only issue I have with these is the IFTTT channel.

Unless I'm mistaken you've no access to the. motion detector or the night light as triggers or outputs

Roen

Stoner wrote: »

Only issue I have with these is the IFTTT channel.

Unless I'm mistaken you've no access to the. motion detector or the night light as triggers or outputs

Correct, they expose feck all. I'm getting smoke, CO and Battery status from them but that's it.
That said the Hue motion sensors are covering the same areas for me so I can pull from them instead.

For me the motion detector in the Nest would be of limited use as they point straight down and you have to be nearly under them before the path light triggers, so I reckon they either have limited field of view or they only trigger the light on a narrow portion of the field they do have.

The Hue ones point along the corridors/rooms so they catch everything.
Nothing to stop you mounting the smoke alarm on a wall though, aesthetics
aside.

bk

Stoner wrote: »

Only issue I have with these is the IFTTT channel.

Unless I'm mistaken you've no access to the. motion detector or the night light as triggers or outputs

A tip for you Stoner for IFTTT. IFTTT has a dedicated page for each device and service it supports e.g.:

https://ifttt.com/nest_protect

If you scroll to the bottom of the page, click on "Nest Protect triggers and actions" (or similar for the service you are looking at), you will get a dropdown listing all the triggers and actions that are supported for the device/service under IFTTT. This can give you a good idea of what can and can't be done with the device via IFTTT.

Comes in very handy when I'm thinking about investing in a new HA tech.

Stoner

bk wrote:

Comes in very handy when I'm thinking about investing in a new HA tech.

Very good thanks it's a good idea,
I do something similar, but I just simulate making my own applet, I select the IF function and search for the device , this will give the list if triggers for that device

So with the nest protect I get

Smoke alarm warning
Smoke alarm emergency
CO2 alarm warning
CO2 alarm emergency
Iow battery warning

So I have 5 triggers, the motion detection function is not available. It would be handy

paulbok

Roen wrote: »

Correct, they expose feck all. I'm getting smoke, CO and Battery status from them but that's it.
That said the Hue motion sensors are covering the same areas for me so I can pull from them instead.

For me the motion detector in the Nest would be of limited use as they point straight down and you have to be nearly under them before the path light triggers, so I reckon they either have limited field of view or they only trigger the light on a narrow portion of the field they do have.

The Hue ones point along the corridors/rooms so they catch everything.
Nothing to stop you mounting the smoke alarm on a wall though, aesthetics
aside.

I find the motion detector fair for its coverage, catches me both sides of a medium sized room.

ted1

Stoner wrote: »

Very good thanks it's a good idea,
I do something similar, but I just simulate making my own applet, I select the IF function and search for the device , this will give the list if triggers for that device

So with the nest protect I get

Smoke alarm warning
Smoke alarm emergency
CO2 alarm warning
CO2 alarm emergency
Iow battery warning

So I have 5 triggers, the motion detection function is not available. It would be handy

Most places suggest that CO2 alarms shouldn't be placed up high.
General reasoning is that if a boiler is heating air , that the heated air is lighter than the CO2 and will provide a buffer between the alarm and the CO2.

Has anyone looked into this further before deciding weather to get a protect ?

OU812

Have one (wired) on the way for a new extension. Will add more as funds allow, probably a battery one & a wired for upstairs.

2011

One important point to note:
They are designed to be replaced every 7 to 10 years.

https://nest.com/support/article/When-do-I-need-to-replace-my-Nest-Protect

OU812

2011 wrote: »

One important point to note:
They are designed to be replaced every 7 to 10 years.

https://nest.com/support/article/When-do-I-need-to-replace-my-Nest-Protect

Non smart ones are supposed to be replaced every five

2011

OU812 wrote: »

Non smart ones are supposed to be replaced every five

It can vary, perhaps in some cases.

My point is that someone who installed a large number of these dectors could have all of them expiring at the same time. They would then face a whopping bill :eek:

Roen

paulbok wrote: »

I find the motion detector fair for its coverage, catches me both sides of a medium sized room.

Odd, mine only trigger when you are almost directly under them. Are yours wall mounted?

paulbok

Roen wrote: »

Odd, mine only trigger when you are almost directly under them. Are yours wall mounted?

No, all on the ceiling.

The one in the kitchen is approx 2ft from the door on the ceiling and will catch me the other side of the door when open approx 3M from where it is situated.

JDxtra

I've three of them - one wired, two battery. No issues at all.

paulbok

2011 wrote: »

It can vary, perhaps in some cases.

My point is that someone who installed a large number of these dectors could have all of them expiring at the same time. They would then face a whopping bill :eek:

Yeah, but going by the zeal that goods were snapped up for black Friday by members on this forum, that may be a good thing.

I would envisage in say 5+ years time anyway that tech will have moved on enough that there will be one ceiling device that does all the Nest protect can do a and lots more, like proper motion/alarm sensor, climate sensors, wi-fi repeater, intercom, doorbell alert, media speaker. So I would wager that they will be willingly replaced before they actually need to be.

Arbie

We have about a dozen wired detectors in the house. Are there disadvantages to replacing just some of them with Nest?

bk

Arbie wrote: »

We have about a dozen wired detectors in the house. Are there disadvantages to replacing just some of them with Nest?

Not really.

The one disadvantage is that all the Nest alarms communicate with one another. So if one detects smoke in the kitchen, the ones in the bedroom also give you a warning and go off too. This can be handy in a large house where you might not her the kitchen smoke alarm while in the bedroom. If there really is a fire then this can be good to give you more time to get out of the house.

But beyond that it wouldn't make a difference. I'm thinking of just getting one to work alongside my half a dozen or so dumb smoke alarms.

Stoner

Arbie wrote:

We have about a dozen wired detectors in the house. Are there disadvantages to replacing just some of them with Nest?

Well just a note if it's a newish house the detectors will be linked so you might be losing that connectivity.

JustAThought

my smoke alarms - not this version - were wired to the LX in the house and had valid batteries - one day they started going off and one by one - even with the batteries out and disconnected from the house mains they just kept going off - put them in the booth of the car and put a rug over them and the f***** things were still beeping away. Finally discovered (thank you local fire station) that there is radioactive bit in all fire alarms that degrades and has a best by date - once this runs out even if your batteries work and it is connected to the mains it will malfunction. NEVER knew that. Under the side of the smoke alarm in a place I would never have seen or looked there was a best by date - check this when buying and after its been up there a few years.

2011

Stoner wrote: »

Well just a note if it's a newish house the detectors will be linked so you might be losing that connectivity.

No, there will not be a loss of connectivity.

I agree that conventional smoke / heat detectors should have a hard wired link so that one smoke detector triggers all of the others. However the Nest protect have exactly the same functionality without the hard wired link cable. They wirelessly trigger each other.
This is another advantage of this product, not requiring an interlinking cable.

2011

JustAThought wrote: »

my smoke alarms - not this version - were wired to the LX in the house and had valid batteries - one day they started going off and one by one - even with the batteries out and disconnected from the house mains they just kept going off - put them in the booth of the car and put a rug over them and the f***** things were still beeping away. Finally discovered (thank you local fire station) that there is radioactive bit in all fire alarms that degrades and has a best by date - once this runs out even if your batteries work and it is connected to the mains it will malfunction. NEVER knew that. Under the side of the smoke alarm in a place I would never have seen or looked there was a best by date - check this when buying and after its been up there a few years.

Most smoke detectors are the "ionizing type" (radioactive), the Nest uses a different technology. However the Nest also have an expiry date stamped on the underside.

Stoner

2011 wrote:

Yes, they should have a hard wired link so that one smoke detector triggers all of the others. However the Nest protect have exactly the same functionality without the hard wired link cable. They wirelessly trigger each other. This is another advantage of this product, not requiring an interlinking cable.

Exactly, so if you have five linked wired units and you replace just two or three with Nest you've lost something as you have two Linked networks that don't talk to eachother

Also your kitchen is a heat detector, so you won't be able to offer a fully linked up solution with Nest,

2011

Stoner wrote: »

Exactly, so if you have five linked wired units and you replace just two or three with Nest you've lost something as you have two Linked networks that don't talk to eachother

True a mixture of conventional and Nest would have this issue, but I took the post mean replace all or none.

Also your kitchen is a heat detector, so you won't be able to offer a fully linked up solution with Nest,

Good point.

philboy

What rooms do you all have the Nest Protects in? I read this FAQ - https://nest.com/support/article/Which-rooms-in-my-home-need-a-Nest-Protect

I live in a 3 bed semi so should I buy one for each of the following areas:
- downstairs hall
- top of stairs
- bedroom

Thanks

OU812

philboy wrote: »

What rooms do you all have the Nest Protects in? I read this FAQ - https://nest.com/support/article/Which-rooms-in-my-home-need-a-Nest-Protect

I live in a 3 bed semi so should I buy one for each of the following areas:
- downstairs hall
- top of stairs
- bedroom

Thanks

I think bedroom is overkill. I have regular battery Ines in there & have a protect in the kitchen (high ceiling) & the landing which are wired. They'll shortly be joined by a battery one in the hall (shape of the house needs an extra one for coverage)

paulbok

philboy wrote: »

What rooms do you all have the Nest Protects in? I read this FAQ - https://nest.com/support/article/Which-rooms-in-my-home-need-a-Nest-Protect

I live in a 3 bed semi so should I buy one for each of the following areas:
- downstairs hall
- top of stairs
- bedroom

Thanks

Living room - have a solid fuel fire so co2 detector essential.
Kitchen, gas cooker, etc
Hall way beside the sitting room - open fire there.

Had a power cut the other night due to the lightning and they provided decent night lights all night on their batteries.