Now that my house is automated i want to swap out my smoke detectors for devices that work woth ST.
Suggestions?
There’s only one on the official “works with SmartThings” list, a zwave device from First Alert. It’s a very basic device, in particular, it doesn’t trigger the other smoke detectors that you have and it doesn’t announce which room the alert is in. ( that’s what “doesn’t work with onelink“ means.) If I recall correctly, you also cannot turn off the smoke detector from the app. You Have to physically press the button on it
https://www.smartthings.com/products/first-alert-smoke-detector-and-carbon-monoxide-alarm
Some community members use the nest protects which have many more advanced features and there is a community created integration for those.
Like many, I use Nest Protect devices and the excellent NST Manager from @tonesto7
As ever, humbled by a far more comprehensive response from @JDRoberts whilst I was typing!
Talking is always faster than typing.
Now you’ve gone and humbled me again! This time I talked
Yup, I had these and replaced them with the now defunct Halo devices (which are good, and are interconnected, and AC powered). Oh well…
Anyway, if I remember right, the First Alert devices are just battery powered and won’t be interconnected with existing detectors (if you have interconnected detectors already in your house).
Also, the First Alert devices go through batteries pretty quick (less than a year). They start beeping at about 78% reminding you they need replaced.
I have 2 of them and have had no issue. The batteries have not been replaced since we got them ( a little.of 2 years I think). Also not sure but maybe you can set each one to each speaks & have it make an announcement if one of them goes off so you know what room.
I recommend you also read this thread. It is about how to make your existing hard wired smoke alarms smart by connecting them to a z-wave sensor. It’s fairly inexpensive but leaves you with the safety of your hard wired alarms in case your network fails
I almost forgot: there is one other option, which is to get an acoustic monitor which can notify you when it hears a dumb smoke alarm or carbon monoxide alarm. Some of them also have an IFTTT service which would let you integrate it with SmartThings. there is also a new one, zwave, which is on the official “works with SmartThings list“.
See the following thread for that discussion:
hi
2 of what exactly ? which device and model # do you have thats working so well ?
The zwave first alert.
I got mine in lowes but I just checked amazon & they have it. Just a suggestion, why dont you check some of the postings about the nest integration people are using & see if you want to go that route.
That feature, which is called onelink, is not available on the Z wave model that works with SmartThings.
First alert makes many different models, but only one works with smart things, and it’s very basic.
That’s the one I have @JDRoberts. Yes it’s very basic but it does the job. I know near is better and even though I dislike google VERY much I did recommend that he read up on the neat and how people are integrating it with smartthings.
Great idea.
Ecolink makes a similar sound detector that is integrated into smarthings directly. No iftt required.
Ecolink Zwave Plus Wireless Audio Detector Wireless Audio Detector for existing Smoke/CO sensors, White (FF-ZWAVE5-ECO) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071Z8NM8N/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_UqSpCbM98S5QF
I need to replace some of my smoke detectors, I’d love to go to the Nest but no way am I replacing all 9 at once. Has anyone gone the route of a mixed system, ie, some Nest’s and some dumb detectors? This means having two independent systems. I was thinking I’d get three Nests, one for the common area of each level of the house. I’d leave the bedroom units in place; these are connected together so if one alarms the rest will alarm. Is this reasonable or a really horrible idea?
Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. It’s exactly what I did, gradually adding Nests to my system.
Excellent suggestion just arrived today.
Todd
Thank you very much… I will give it a try.
I know you can buy a lot of items on Amazon but is there another on line seller who is worth checking out? … Steve