Ok, thanks. Have you been happy with your z-wave smoke alarms? Our townhouse has very sensitive old school smoke alarms that go off frequently while cooking. We need to switch to photoelectric asap, but I’d like to do something that’s compatible with ST. Any recommendations?
There will be more models and competition soon, I hope. This First Alert and a similar Monoprice bargain are probably fine – and the low cost means you can have lots for maximum safety.
But key features (besides SmartThings compatibility) should be:
- Minimum false alarms.
- Accurate battery status
- Reset remotely (not yet).
- Interconnected alarms & Room vocal announcement (not in First Alert’s Z-Wave models yet!)
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I’ve been thinking about this lately, if there’s a decent alternative to the Nest Protect than I’m really done with Nest.
Lately have you noticed how new conversations about what smart thermostat to get, most of the responses are NOT Nest and personally, with my recent switch to ST which doesn’t officially support Nest (and I don’t blame them given their reasons) the only thing making me keep my Nest Thermostat was a desire to get a smart smoke detector and that the Protect seems to be the best, thus I could keep them all integrated in one app…
Any compatible hard wired detectors yet? I need 5, so the protect is just too expensive and not integrated. Did that new first alert one get released?
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I am looking for options for a “smart” thermostat as well to setup with my new smart things hub. I was hoping the new first alert one link units would be compatible but it does not look like they are or will be any time soon.
@Ajgale1975 I am going with the Ecobee3 thermostat. If you search for it in the forum you will find a great set up for device integration.
I still don’t see the benefit to zwave/connected smoke detectors? So I can remotely turn it off or see if my house is on fire? Are these the only two benefits?
Some of them also do CO2 so you can determine if you need to be running your fan to circulate air.
The usual advantage besides remote notification would be to do other things in the house, like turn on lights or unlock doors or open a pet door, things like that.
Some people will tie it into ventilation systems, but that can be tricky because you might actually be making the problem worse.
Sprinkler systems may be useful or, again might reduce the water pressure that would be needed for a fire. So it’s one of those things that might be better on manual.
Personally, I actually think one of the most useful things is turning on a lot of lights, including yard lights. That helps with anyone trying to exit and can also help wake people up.
So just depends on your specific needs and what you already have available.
I have Nest Protects, and use IFTTT to turn on all my lights when they go off. It is Nest to cloud, to cloud, to SmartThings, but as long as there is power to router, system should work.
I also have OnHub, and am hoping for some kind of smart integration with it, eventually, if Google ever gets its act together.
But what we like about the Nest Protects is they communicate directly, so a fire in the basement causes all of the Nest Protects to make this note, and turn on their LED lights. So even if the basement fire hits the electrical panel, we have intelligent notification, and some light.
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CO2? I thought they were carbon monoxide, only. CO2 is generally not considered an emergency.
My Netatmo does measure CO2, and it communicates with my Nest thermostat (via IFTTT) to turn on fans if the PPM reaches 2000
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I mean I get the benefits of like zwave outlets, switches, and sensors. I just got my outlet and hub and I’ll be getting more stuff. I just was wondering why smoke detectors were zwaved. I’d rather have a zwave controlled coffee pot than a smoke detector.
The point is that you can then set a rule in your home automation system so that when the smoke detector goes off, the home automation system turns on other things that it controls like lights. But it just depends on your own needs and preferences.
Whoops. My mistake. You are right. They are monoxide
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I looked everywhere for smart things compatible fire/smoke/CO detector that also had mains connection and set off all detectors when one smelled fire. In the end I had to go with nest. A premium price but a really well integrated piece of tech. No other vendor can tick all these boxes. Has to be said I haven’t actually simulated CO or the different “types” of fire although it freaked the pants off me when it caught me out sneaking a crafty vape in the client installation I was working on. I had to laugh when I got a call from her to ask if it was a real fire.
Now, I just added a mydlink siren to the parallel smartthings network when ideally I would have loved to bring in the nest integrated siren capability such that in the event of intrusion detection by smartthings, I could employ the power of the nest siren. A missed opportunity somewhere I think.
To me, being notified of a smoke alarm going off when I’m not home is a huge plus. That’s always been a glaring weakness is conventional, non-connected smoke alarms-- what good is a blaring smoke alarm in an empty house?
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Today there’s a BB 25$ off $100 that includes Nest Protect.
Do you guys think at $75 it’s a good price vs a ~38 ZCOMBO for use with ST? Or should I just invest in a ZCOMBO?