Best smoke detectors (NZ)?

Pretty simple question, looking for battery operated that i can link to Hubitat and then thru to HomeKit via homebridge. I did some searching in the forums, but many of the answers are years old so wondering if anyone has more recent product experiences please?

Nest? There are other smoke detectors but none that I'm aware of are approved for use in Aus (you'll need to check for NZ)

I don't believe you can integrate Nest with HE? If you can I'd be interested.

I use mine with Ecolink firefighters. Pretty reliable.

Something like This ??

There is that paid integration. However I use homebridge which has a nest plug in and that brings the nest into HE.

1 Like

Doesn't look like it's available in Australia or NZ, therefore unlikely to be compliant here.

Wonder if it is compliant? I understand their switches are but nothing on the site says that this is.

It's zigbee and uses the standard sounds from a smoke/co detector. It is not a smoke detector itself. It's not a compliance issue as it works with any compliant smoke detector. You could send an email to their support to see where you could buy it in your country

My bad - thought it was a smoke detector, I didn't look closely at the search results at the "audio" part !

1 Like

Yeah they work really well (I test mine once a month) and work with any smoke/co detector. That said, I say all of this based on the assumption that the the tones in the UK are the same as in the US. My assumption could be very wrong.

Do you have to have the nest protect linked to a google account for it to work? E.g. can you do it all offline?

No you do need the token from your google account to set it up. I can't recall if it works offline after that.

Thanks for that.

Does it have to be battery powered as that to me seems like one the last devices that you want to run off just a battery.

Modern smoke detectors run off lithium batteries rather than the old school 9V alkalines and can last up to 5 -10 years (up to the life of the detector itself). Also battery powered smoke detectors will beep at you incessantly when the batteries get low. So running off a battery isn't necessarily a big issue.

IMO it is more important that people realise that smoke detectors don't have indefinite life spans and should be replaced in accordance with manufacturers instructions. I also test my alarms every couple of years with testing aerosols.

Nonetheless there are jurisdictions that may require the use of mains detectors so you should always check your local laws before installing.

Scottland just mandated every floor must have mains powered and interconnected smoke/co detectors. I'm wondering if people can get away with the nests like you can here for the interconnected portion.... The bummer for scottland is that every home/apartment must be retrofitted and the owner's expense