Looking for a different Smoke/CO

Currently I have three First Alert Combo smoke detectors, all are connected to the HE over Zwave. One of these had a corroded battery and after cleaning that up I think maybe I should replace them. Does anyone use a different maker? It appears that these (combos) are not very plentiful. Any suggestions appreciated.

There are surprisingly slim pickin's for these detectors in smart form. I'm still happily using a couple Halos from way back when and hope to get a few more years out of them.

In the meantime, the consensus around here is that it's best to use dumb detectors and put a z-wave Ecolink Firefighter by (at least) one of them.

The Firefighter also comes in a zigbee version, but that one seems to be more problematic than the z-wave version.

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Thanks for the reply

Yeah I have seen the Ecolink FF in the forum. Do you know what kind of status you get from the FF. Is it Alarm, battery ? I am kinda spoiled with getting the test function along with the CO and Smoke alarms. I'll keep the FF in mind

I have been using the Ecolink Firefighter (Z-Wave Plus version). Works very well with HE. Attributes in HE show battery level, smoke (alarmed and clear), CO (alarmed and clear), tamper (alarmed and clear) and temperature. I have notifications set for each attribute in RM. Nice since it will also tell me when the battery gets low (although with Z-Wave Plus the advertised battery life is 5 years…we’ll see, lol).

Did not want to spend mucho dinero on 10 combo smart detectors every ten years or so. Have to manually test detectors but is easy as they are all interconnected (am using the voice announcement version of the Kidde combo detectors). Only need to test one of them and they transmit to all so you can see if they are interconnected and operating (they need to be interlinked by fire code). When testing, you will of course get a notice via your notifications linked to the FF device. In RM, you can set what you feel is a good low battery level as the battery attribute is numerical.

Incidentally, Alexa Guard did not pick up on my Kidde alarms (may be because the voice announcement which announces whether it is fire or CO may interfere with the alarm siren sequence) but the Ecolink picks it up every time.

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I still use those First Alert ones. You can still get them from Costco as a 3 pack which is what I did.

https://www.costco.com/first-alert-z-wave-smoke-and-carbon-monoxide-alarm%2C-3-pack.product.100487243.html

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That seems like a pretty good price on the First Alerts. I guess when I started with all the smart home stuff, the smart alarms were MUCH more expensive, especially for the combo detectors (used to be at least $85-$100 each!). Much more affordable now.

+1 fire the First Alert. I have one in every room of the house. It just said happened that one went off last night, and I love having Alexa tell me exactly which room is having the problem.

I am surprised at no negative comments. When I was on Abode, users had LOTS of false alarms from those First Alert combos. I was one of those, 2 false alarms and one fire dept callout, since I was away. I swore never to buy one again and just bought cheapy, non-smart, detectors. I bought listeners, but now wonder why I bothered.

18 days later... Product not found.

Honestly, just use the ecolink firefighters with the smoke/co detector of your choice. I'm mostly happy with the nest protects (mainly because they're interconnected) and the ecolinks have been solid...

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@lcw731 Here it is on Amazon...

I actually wasn't looking for it. I use the firefighter. I just posted that incase someone was looking for them.

BTW, you'll find the manufacturing date on the back of the smoke alarms...that can tell you if they are at 10 years yet, which is recommended replacement timeframe. You can of course replace them earlier if you want.

I used First Alerts for years, but recently decided that in the case of Smoke/Fire/CO I didn't want to depend on my Z-Wave network, which has had its issues off and on over the past couple of years. Things are generally very stable now, but using them for smoke/fire/CO just doesn't feel comfortable anymore.

I wanted alarms to be wired w/battery backup rather than just battery, and interconnected independently from my network (in case it went down) so anyone in the house would get warned in the event of an issue no matter where they were. Also wanted remote access/notifications. So I went w/wired Nest alarms. Had to have power run to a couple of locations that didn't have it before, but I feel much better about general fire/CO safety than I did w/the battery operated First Alerts.

There is a paid HE integration if you want to bring Nest Protects into HE automations, and you can also connect them to HE via the Homebridge integration.

Just wanted to share where I ended up and why.

Couldn’t you also use the Google SDM API? I’m using that to integrate my Nest thermostat and it works well. I use it to shut down the HVAC when one of my First Alert Zcombo alarms goes off, and turn back on when the alert is cleared.

Protects aren't included unless something changed recently. Google left them out some (unknown frustrating) reason...

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I'm just in the process of converting my standard hard wired with battery back up Co2, heat and smoke alarms to smart with the use of a fibaro smart implant. Just ordered the parts so hopefully in a week or so I can report back on how I've got on

I just paired my first of three FIRST ALERT Z-WAVE SMOKE DETECTOR & CARBON MONOXIDE ALARM, WORKS WITH RING- It Paired as a DEVICE and Still shows up that way in Logs. I changed it from DEVICE to a Generic Z-Wave Plus Smoke/CO Detector. Still shows in Logs As "Device". I found a First Alert ZCombo GENe2 & 3 Using Generic z-Wave Plus Smoke/CO Detector. reference in a 2020 update. I am curious did I skip a step? or will it just stay as a Device in the Logs?

Are you looking in Live Logs? I'm not sure you'll see the new name in Past Logs right away even if you refresh.

Thanks... That was my issue.