I just realized that my hard wired smoke detectors are around 15 years old and need to be replaced. I am trying to figure out which ones to pick up. I need 6. I'm currently looking at the:
Nest Protect detectors (even though I have Ecobee thermostats),
Looks like Halo may be going out of business, so I should skip that option.
So far I am leaning towards the Nest Protects since we have a Hubitat nest integration, but I have a couple questions that hopefully someone who has them could answer for me.
Questions
The Protects are WiFi, not zwave or Zigbee. Do they still communicate with Hubitat locally or are they cloud dependent?
Do they report Carbon Monoxide levels? It would be cool to be able to add the current Carbon Monoxide level to a room specific dashboard tile.
Halo is definitely out of business, so stay away (if you can even find them for sale). Technically the smoke and CO detector functions can work with a zigbee hub even though the Halo cloud will be defunct soon. But hubitat doesn’t support it, and as mike pointed out in another thread, that may be tough for them to do unless someone sends them a device to use for testing.
I just installed the Nest Protects last weekend. So far so good.
I had the First Alert ZWave and those things were more trouble than they were worth. Always beeping even with new batteries.
Thank you! Do you know if they communicate locally with Hubitat, or do they rely on the cloud? I am tagging @patrick because I am sure he knows the answer. Also do they report CM level for use in a tile? Thanks in advance
Nest Protect are fantastic smoke/CO detectors. The steam check option if particularly nice if you have teenagers that take ridiculously long showers that produce a cloud when the door finally opens. I've never had a false alarm from steam since buying the Nest Protect.
Downside is the 100% cloud, but if that doesn't bother you, they can turn off an Ecobee in the event of a fire or CO emergency, but WiFI and cloud for Nest, Hubitat and Ecobee have to all be working at the time of the event. If you have a Nest thermostat, then it doesn't. They communicate with the thermostat and each other via Thread over LR-WPAN.
I use a mix of Nest and dumb smoke detectors. I have a iSmartAlarm Spot Camera (basically the same as first gen Wyze cam) that detects Smoke and CO alarms to send out notifications. Wyze cam also has that feature active in their firmware.
If you have wired smoke alarms, I think you can use the AC powered Nest Protect and standard AC smoke alarms together and still get simultaneous alarms (not 100% sure about that though). If you don't have AC smoke alarms currently, then 6 battery powered Nest Protects is a good chunk of change to drop at once, but they will interconnect and sound simultaneously.
I would not buy Halo unless you find them dirt cheap
Wow, I didn't even know detection of alarms through audio was a thing! I checked out their website. Interesting device! Thanks for the great info.
I think I will most likely bite the bullet and order 6 wired Nest Protects to replace the non working detectors I have now. I see they have discount pricing for a six pack. There is currently no smoke detector in my home office, and with all the electronics in here, I think I will add a battery Nest Protect to it later.
Good call. You won’t be disappointed. They’re really good, full featured detectors that test themselves and send you a monthly report. Also nice to be able to manually test yourself from the app for those out of reach places. Pathlight is a really nice additional feature too and with AC powered units, you can leave it set to high with no concern over shortening battery life.
Unless there’s another viable competitor that isn’t likely to go belly up like Halo, I’ll just buy Nest again when it’s time to replace. Same reason I only buy Kidde for dumb detectors now. They just work and don’t flood the house with nuisance alarms. I made the mistake of trying First Alert once. What a piece of garbage! No matter how many replacements they sent me, they always went off by themselves. Kidde in the exact same locations have never done that, but always react properly when there’s actual smoke.
Leeo pioneered this. I’m amazed they are still in business now that so many other devices (cameras usually) can do the same thing. By the way, Leeo is great for a generation that won’t use apps or doesn’t have cellular data plans ( or cell phones for that matter). They support alerts via phone call.
Heard the co-founder talking about his Lifedoor product on HomeTech.fm
Really interested in this and hope they make it through the "valley of death". There's a Z-Wave version that will sell for $109 and a non Z-Wave for $85.
A neighbor who's a firefighter was just talking to me about closing bedroom doors at night, which isn't something I practiced regularly until recently, and it's prompted me to pickup another Nest Protect, change their locations, and add a few more photoelectric dumb smoke alarms.
I like my leeo a lot. I tied it into SmartThings by creating a virtual switch and assigning it to @mike.maxwell’s universal DTH. With IFTTT, I can have a leeo alert turn on the virtual switch in ST, which outputs as a smoke alarm so it can be used with smart home monitor.
I also like that it calls your phone. I have found quite a few times that I get logged out of the app, which prevents the push notifications from being sent. But the phone call from Leeo will still come through.
Am I going nuts or did somebody release a Virtual Smoke Detector with switch for use with IFTTT Smoke Detectors?
Maybe they deleted the topic, I remember they said they weren't interested in supporting the driver, maybe they got fed up with requests for assistance with it.
I should have grabbed it when I saw it, but I try to limit clutter as much as possible. Now I want the clutter!
I guess his like means I was right and I shall nobly not ask for it.
I'll discect my virtual presence device and look at the SmartThings virtual smoke detector.
I guess his like means I was right and I shall nobly not ask for it.
