Smoke/CO detectors

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1

Look for recommendations of smoke/ CO detectors.

It's time I replace my smoke and CO detectors. All 10+ years old. I'd really like to incorporate the new one's into my HE system.

What I'd really like

  • connects to and be monitored by Hubitat.
  • I can receive alerts when I'm not at home.

And I know this is a long shot, and some may disagree with having this feature,

  • The ability to silence the alarm for a set amount of time. I really hate the false alarms when I'm cooking....BUT if the newer technology really eliminates/ greatly reduces the false alarms, I don't need this feature.

The ECOLINK FIREFIGHTER looks interesting and definitely worth considering, but I'd prefer the detectors integrated into HE if possible

Thanks!!

2

Why?
Do you have an interconnected wired system now?
If so, Zooz sells a product that notifies you, and I have one of them.
I've also got a FirstAlert ZCombo in the garage. I put it in there because it'd be hard, for me, to string cable. An Ecolink chime siren allows me to hear it in the house.
I thought all of them let you put it into silence mode for a while by pushing a button on the detector.
What would be nice about having ZCombos all over the place would be that it could tell you exactly which one went off, although, the blinking lights are more intuitive than they used to be for tracking down a false alarm.
The ZCombo is photelectric.
I had a lot of false alarms with the last photoelectric detectors I had in the house, I attributed to spiders, but who know. I went with ionization this time. So far, so good, but the ZCombo isn't doing any false alarms out there in the garage, so who knows.

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I actually prefer this option.

I buy the (dumb) smoke and CO detectors that I think make the most sense for each location that I need one. The firefighter device then integrates each with Hubitat.

When the smarts are in the smoke detector itself, options for purchase are far more limited, and it may not have the other features you’re looking for.

For example, photoelectric vs. ionization vs. both sensors; integrated CO detector or standalone smoke; 10-year sealed battery, etc.

All of those options might vary depending on where exactly the detector is located in your home, so why limit yourself to only the devices that can connect to Hubitat?

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Also, I just thought of this, as far as I know, all the Z-Combos won't sound at the same time, just the one detecting. So, maybe if you sleep on the second floor with a closed door, and a detector goes off in the basement, maybe you won't hear it. With the hardwired interconnected system, they all go off.

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Abandon any hope that you'll be able to do this. Smoke alarms sold in the U.S. in the last several years no longer allow you to silence nuisance alarms if the level is above a threshold easily reached with burning toast/frying a burger/etc. kind of false alarm.

Even if you are standing right there at the smoke alarm, there is no way to silence it because it knows better than the homeowner apparently. I've had to remove all smoke alarms in or near the kitchen because of this. It's insane.

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Aqara Smoke Detector obviously does not comply with the US regulations, you can mute the buzzer remotely... :slight_smile:

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I didn't know that. I don't do much cooking though. :slight_smile:

My manual for a First Alert 9210B CO/Smoke wired interconnected alarm says this:

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edit: Obviously, I didn't read the manual before I made my first post on the subject. But what else is new? :slight_smile:

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So you see what it says agrees with what I said, right?

Here's the verbiage from the Nest Protect manual:

alarms cannot be silenced if smoke exceeds a 4% obscuration level. This is an industry rule that all alarms follow for your safety.

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There is a threshold (4% obscuration level) beneath which you can silence a nuisance alarm. but it is very easy to exceed that the way I cook.

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When the Aqara smoke alarm was paired directly to the Aqara M3 GW, it also sounded once or twice without having a real smoke. Now when paired directly to HE, I have access to the 'smokeDensity' attribute, which has relative values from 1 to 10. Probably, low smoke density alarms can be automatically muted... Will have to experiment when I have the time.

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12

Yep.
It's for your own good...to protect you from yourself, lol.

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lol

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On my old ones, there was no battery backup. I could just throw the breaker and no alarms.
Can't buy them like that anymore.

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Exactly. 100%.

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This is awesome, Krassimir does it again ! Do you know if HE support the interconnect feature mentioned in the listing?

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I have only one such device, so I can’t test it how it works on the Aqara hubs.

I suppose that it is the Aqara hub that sends ‘Buzz’ command to the rest of the smoke sensors, which have the ‘alarm linkage’ attribute enabled.

This can be achieved easily in a RM5 rule in Hubitat.

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I just replaced all 10 of my detectors with Kidde 30CUA10-V COMBO SMOKE + CO ALARM, HARDWIRED WITH 10 YEAR BACKUP BATTERY AND VOICE ALERTS and a Ecolink Z-Wave Plus FireFighter Smoke/CO Audio Sensor. I have the FireFighter integrated with HE. The system works very well. The new detectors do have a "HUSH" mode that I thought always worked. I checked the manual as you stated..."note: Dense smoke will override Hush and sound a continuous alarm."

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During my tests the previous weekend, I accidentally discovered that the HomePod mini features a free Smoke alarm :

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It was triggered by the Aqara Smoke sensor alarm sound ...

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Had the Kidde P4010ACSCO-WF hard wired with the rest of the house. Three false alarms within 4-6 months without any clue as to why it triggered, scaring the crap out of my wife and I. No help whatsoever from Kidde support to diagnose the cause. It is now in the trash pile!

Switched to dumb smoke/CO with Firefighter listener and working fine.