Cnet Review Nest Protect Smoke Co Alarm Battery

The research

• Why you lot should trust us
• Who this is for
• How we picked
• How nosotros tested
• Our pick: Google Nest Protect
• Flaws just not dealbreakers
• Smoke alarm monitors
• What to wait forward to
• The contest
• Sources

Why you should trust u.s.a.

To compile this guide, nosotros read multiple research papers and spoke with 3 experts at UL (formerly Underwriters Laboratories), which literally writes the book on testing smoke alarms: John Drengenberg, Consumer Rubber manager; Dwayne Sloan, technical director of Building and Life Rubber Technologies; and David Mills, principal engineer Initiating/Indicating Devices. Nosotros likewise scoured hundreds of customer reviews from sites similar Amazon, Home Depot, and Lowe's. Since nosotros outset started testing smart smoke alarms, in 2016, we've lived with our top picks as part of our long-term testing process.

I've been a journalist for more than two decades and take spent countless hours testing smart-home devices for Wirecutter, including smart thermostats, smart garage-door controllers, smart sensors, and smart sprinkler controllers. I besides cover smart-home technology for Dwell and The Ambience, among others. In addition, I spent half dozen years working as a volunteer firewoman and alive with a professional fire fighter who has over ii decades of experience in the field.

Who this is for

We believe a smart smoke and carbon monoxide (CO) alert is a crucial safety device for your abode, one that even smart-home skeptics should consider. A traditional smoke and CO warning alerts you to potential danger, but a smart warning does this even when you're non home, or when the alarm is at a rental property or maybe a family member'south home.

Crucially, smart alarms address i of the biggest problems with regular alarms—that an alarm can terminate working, either because y'all knocked it off the ceiling with a broom or because you never replaced the batteries. Co-ordinate to a 2021 study, almost three of every five home-fire deaths in the US resulted from fires in homes with no smoke alarms or with nonfunctioning ones. Almost half of the alarms that failed had missing or disconnected batteries, and a quarter had dead batteries. Nearly smart alarms alert yous to their bombardment level in their apps and let you silence "nuisance" alarms on your phone or via a button on the device (rather than pulling the battery out), so you won't end up with a nonworking alert in your domicile.

Because a smart warning can be silenced from your phone, instead of requiring y'all to climb a ladder or wave around a broom, it reduces the gamble you'll disable information technology in a fit of annoyance when you've burnt the popcorn. Plus, most smart smoke alarms wirelessly interconnect with one another—if ane triggers, they all do—which is an excellent prophylactic feature if your home doesn't have an existing hardwired interconnection.

If you need to replace your fume alarms, we think the price premium of around $eighty for going smart is a small-scale one to pay for the added peace of mind and safety features.

If you take a professionally monitored security system installed, you lot may be meliorate off adding a uniform smoke and carbon monoxide detector, which will alert the burn down department on your behalf if you don't turn off the alarm within a designated period. (Considering those alarms are part of a security organisation, we didn't include whatsoever in our testing or coverage.)

Bear in listen that some smoke alarms accomplish their "cease of life" ten years from the appointment of manufacture—and not the appointment of install. That is a UL and NFPA requirement for whatsoever alert with a x-year sealed battery every bit its primary power source. Additionally, sensors in some alarms may expire sooner than that, so earlier buying, always cheque on the device for its expiration date.

An oft-touted feature of smart alarms is that they eliminate the nightmare of the 2 a.thousand. mystery battery chirps. This is true, merely only if you pay attending to the alerts in the app and modify the batteries when directed. If you lot don't, the alert will eventually beep at you (another UL safety requirement).

If you already have a house full of working smoke alarms, or you only don't want to pay more for a smart alarm, a fume alarm monitor may be an option (see Smoke alarm monitors for more than info). These devices or services listen for the audio of a regular smoke/CO detector and so send you an alert on your smartphone. For case, Alexa Guard, a free characteristic for all Amazon Echo–branded devices, sends a notification if it hears an alarm, along with an audio recording, and y'all tin even "drop in" on the device to hear what's going on in existent time. These devices don't permit yous to mute your alert, but at least they notify you apace if something is awry at abode.

How nosotros picked

These are some of the models we have tested. Photo: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy

Following our enquiry, we determined that to justify the price premium and provide the all-time functionality, a smart alert should:

• offering both smoke and CO detection
• be easy to install
• send an alert to your smartphone when information technology senses danger
• use vocalization alerts as well equally a siren (proven to be more constructive, especially for children)
• tell you which room the danger is in
• have a silencing feature that doesn't involve waving a dish towel effectually
• provide intelligent low-bombardment alerts and warn you if it is malfunctioning
• notify designated emergency contacts automatically if yous don't reply
• integrate with smart-habitation systems, to do things like turn lights on and unlock doors to help in an emergency
• be interconnectable, so that when ane warning sounds, others do also

This last attribute is worth emphasizing, considering interconnected alarms can save y'all precious seconds if y'all have to evacuate your home. In fact, many states now crave interconnected alarms for new construction and some remodels (this can exist a wired or wireless communication, equally long as information technology's not dependent on a working Internet connection).

We tested every standalone, smart smoke alert currently available that is UL Listed (or an equivalent). All but ane alarm we tested used photoelectric sensors, which are faster at detecting smoldering fires (the more common type in homes). Simply the Kidde alarm uses ionization sensors, which respond slightly more quickly to fast-called-for fires but are prone to nuisance alarms, making them more likely to exist disabled.

Our pick, the Google Nest Protect, uses a variant of the photoelectric sensor that it calls a Split-Spectrum Sensor; the company claims that this detects fast-burning fires more speedily than traditional photoelectric sensors exercise, without as much adventure of false alarms. The new UL standard, 217v8, which goes into effect in 2022, substantially does away with photoelectric and ionization distinctions and instead requires alarms to have multi-criteria sensors, capable of detecting both. An updated compliant version of the Nest Protect will accept a UL 217v8 characterization on the box.

There are a number of fume detectors that work with smart security systems. A major benefit to this is that they can exist professionally monitored. For this guide, we didn't test them, because they aren't intended to be used on their own. For more than on those, read our review of the best domicile security systems. And though we believe in the importance of remote notifications, self-testing, and early alerts for low batteries, if you're simply non interested in those smart features, or the cost of smart alarms is besides much for you, we likewise recommend these standard smoke alarms.

How we tested

To examination these devices, we put them in a two-story, detached dwelling house for a minimum of three months and upwards to four years. Nosotros used real smoke scenarios, including cigar smoke, smoke from extra-long matches, and smoldering newspaper (placed next to a big saucepan of water), to generate rut and smoke to trigger the alarms. Then nosotros monitored smart alerts, wireless interconnectivity capabilities, and whatever smart-home connections. In assessing each device's companion app, nosotros focused on ease of employ and installation guidance, how well and how chop-chop notifications were sent and received, and the speed and ease of silencing alarms.

All of the devices responded appropriately to the presence of smoke, and only one gave any faux alerts while installed in our exam house. Because your safety is at stake, for the states to fifty-fifty consider a smoke alarm for testing, information technology had to meet UL standards for smoke and carbon monoxide (CO) detection. UL tests all smoke alarms, smart or not, by the same standard, simulating both fast-burning and smoldering fires. Every alarm we tested is UL Listed, apart from the First Warning brands, which are tested to UL standards past ETL (also a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory).

Because we tested merely devices that had already been UL lab–certified, we focused our review on ease of installation and utilize, as well as on the "smarts" each device offered. But they had to do their primary job well: detecting potentially life-threatening situations in your home.

Our pick: Google Nest Protect

Photo: Michael Hession

Our pick

The second-generation Google Nest Protect fume and carbon monoxide alert is the all-time smart smoke warning for everyone because information technology reliably and calmly alerts you to potential danger—whether y'all're dwelling or away—using a combination of voice, siren, and smartphone alerts. If you have more than one Protect, they interconnect wirelessly, and the Protect also self-tests and informs you of device malfunctions or low batteries via smartphone alerts—without those annoying chirps. You can silence nuisance alarms through the Protect'south app, so you'll exist less likely to disable information technology in a fit of badgerer (as many people practise when an alert starts chirping). The Protect is also the simplest smart alarm to install and command. Note that Nest is releasing an updated version of this model that will be compliant with newer UL standards (specifically UL217v8). To ostend yous are buying the newest version, await for a UL217v8 label on the box, or consult the production description for the phrase "Helps reduce cooking nuisance alarms."

Nest Protect uses a photoelectric Separate-Spectrum Sensor, which the visitor claims detects fast-called-for fires more than apace than traditional photoelectric sensors—more in line with the performance of ionization sensors. The Protect accomplishes this with a second LED that can pick upward the finer particles of fast-called-for fires only is less likely to endure from nuisance alarms. This was confirmed in our testing—we haven't experienced any nuisance or false alarms in six years.

In testing, the Protect went off simply when at that place was a pregnant smoke event, and not when we were cooking or showering (it's situated far away from the kitchen and bath). And it responded significantly faster than the First Alarm Onelink Prophylactic & Sound and Onelink Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Detector we tested.

One of our favorite Protect features, from a livability perspective, is the Heads-Upward alarm, which gives y'all a run a risk to address a situation earlier a loud siren sends every person and animal in the house into a panic: When it's triggered, the Protect'southward gentle chime is followed by an announcement: "Smoke is detected in the hallway, an warning volition sound before long, the alarm is loud." We call up this is platonic, since it alerts without causing panic. And any nuisance alarms were simple to silence with a gentle printing on the Protect'southward large, hands accessible button or through the app.

The Nest app is also the easiest to use for silencing alarms from the telephone. Alerts popped upwardly instantly and gave clear indications as to why we couldn't silence the alarm, if the smoke levels were as well loftier; this was not the case with the other models we tested that offered this feature.

When the Protect is triggered, the alert takes yous to the app, where you tin silence the alert. If smoke or CO levels are too high, the app will tell you that it can't silence the alarm. It and so gives guidance on what to practise next.

The Protect is packed with sensors, including ones for humidity, room occupancy, and ambient lite, on tiptop of carbon monoxide, fume, and heat. And and then its abode-automation capabilities are impressive—merely, notably, only if you use Google Nest smart-home devices. For instance, if you take a Nest Cam, it will offset recording video if an alarm sounds (even without a Nest Enlightened subscription). A Nest Thermostat volition shut downward the HVAC system in an attempt to cease a fire from spreading (one of the first things firefighters do when they arrive at a business firm burn is shut downwardly the heating and ventilation system). Protect'due south occupancy detectors likewise feed data about whether yous're home to a Nest thermostat, and it can conform the temp accordingly. We particularly liked the Pathlight characteristic—a smart night-lite that activates when a room is dark and motion is sensed. During an emergency, information technology will turn reddish to help you find a way to safety.

This is a screenshot of a Google Nest Cam's automated video of a smoke effect in our examination dwelling house. This works fifty-fifty if you don't pay for a Nest Enlightened subscription.

You lot can also use those sensors to make your home a chip smarter. Hardwired Protect alarms tin can exist added to the Presence Sensing feature in the updated Google Habitation app (to access information technology you'll accept to connect your Nest app to the Google Abode app, if y'all haven't already). Presence Sensing uses the Protect's motion sensor, every bit well as other compatible devices yous may enable (including your smartphone, any other Nest thermostats, Nest smart locks, or Nest Secure sensors), to tell if anyone is home, and so it decides whether to enable the Home or Abroad Routines. These Routines can be customized in the Google Dwelling house app to, perhaps, tell lights to plow on or off, gear up cameras to record or shut off, or accommodate the your thermostat. Disappointingly, in that location are no options to use the Protect every bit a trigger, and then you tin't ready your smart dwelling to react to fire, fume, or CO by turning lights on and unlocking doors (as you lot used to exist able to before Google close down the Works with Nest program).

The Protect is the only alarm nosotros tested that self-tests its sensors (information technology does this every 200 seconds). Information technology too tests its speaker and alert in one case a month during a window of fourth dimension that you select (and that y'all can override if information technology happens to coincide with nap time). A colour-changing status light on the Protect lets you know the device is working properly: If information technology's glowing yellow, press it, and the Protect will say aloud what's incorrect (or you can wait at the app). This kind of peace of mind is worth a lot, in our opinion.

The Nest app sends multiple status notifications, which y'all tin can view in the Message section, to keep yous informed during an emergency. The Protect can also tell your Nest Thermostat to shut off your HVAC system when smoke is detected.

Installing the Nest Protect is very straightforward. We tested ii units, one battery-powered, one hardwired. Nosotros used the app (iOS and Android) to scan each device, pair each one with our Nest account, and then assign each Protect to a room. The app and the Protect alarms then performed a mutual test, and the alarms were gear up to go on the ceiling (or wall—your preference). For the hardwired alarm, using your existing interconnect wire isn't necessary since Nest uses its own wireless mesh network to connect all your Protect alarms together.

In improver to the standard username and countersign system for logging in, the Nest app also offers the far more secure two-cistron authentication (2FA), which requires you to input a special one-time-use code, received via email or text, to access your camera and recordings. (For more tips on securing your devices, see our post How to Protect Your Smart Home From Hackers.)

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The Nest Protect is considerably more than expensive than a standard smoke and CO alarm: To properly outfit a two- or three-sleeping accommodation abode, yous're looking at around $600 for a collection of devices that, like all smoke alarms, y'all'll have to replace in a decade. (Nest does offer a discount on multiple devices through its website.)

Unlike other Nest devices, the Protect isn't especially integrated into the Google Dwelling house ecosystem. That means you have to use the Nest app to set up and control it—not the Google Home app as with other Nest devices. This may be confusing for anyone looking to set up a smart home centered on Google Nest products.

Complaints about battery-powered Protect alarms chewing through batteries in a matter of weeks are somewhat common, probably from people who put standard alkaline AA batteries in them, rather than the more expensive lithium ones that Google Nest recommends. The battery-powered Protect uses its batteries for the Pathlight feature, so if you accept the Protect in a hallway, frequent activation will drain the batteries more than quickly. Y'all tin can disable Pathlight or set information technology to the everyman brightness level to conserve battery life. In our exam dwelling, we've replaced the batteries just once in iii years, and that device is installed in a main hallway.

Nest offers only a ii-year limited warranty for the Protect, compared with the Onelink Safe & Sound'due south three-year warranty and the Onelink Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Detector'due south v-year warranty.

Fume alarm monitors

If yous already have a house full of fume alarms that you don't want to supplant, or you lot're in a rental and not allowed to swap out your smoke alarms, y'all have another option for getting notifications when your alarms go off: smoke alarm monitors.

These are plug-in devices with microphones that mind for the standard fume and CO alarms y'all already have. When they hear one, they send a notification to your smartphone. As a bonus, you may already have a device in your abode that can do this.

Amazon Alexa Baby-sit
All Amazon Echo–branded speakers accept a built-in characteristic called Alexa Baby-sit. When enabled through the Alexa app then armed, your Echo listens for your smoke alarms and sends an warning if they activate. Yous receive a push notification from the device that heard the noise (if you take multiple speakers, you may go multiple alerts), maxim, "Possible smoke or CO detected in [room your Alexa is in]." You can then tap the notification on your phone to listen to the audio or Drib In on the device to meet or hear what'due south going on. You will so get an alarm when the alarm stops.

In our testing this worked reliably, hearing all the diverse alarms in our test house. However, yous have to remember to enable the Guard feature when you leave—you can exercise that in the app or by saying "Alexa, I'grand leaving." You lot also need one Repeat device in each room for it to piece of work reliably. As a bonus, Alexa will also listen for sounds of glass breaking, every bit well as integrate with your Ring or ADT warning system, and there are no monthly fees associated with Guard.

If yous already have a Ring Security System, the $35 Ring Warning Fume & CO Listener is an inexpensive way to plow your existing fume alarms smart. The Listener triggers when it hears another smoke or CO alarm. In testing it worked very well, and nosotros liked that it not only sends an alarm to your telephone but it also triggers the Band Alarm Base station siren, which is a loud 104dB—louder than nearly smoke alarms and much louder than any other monitor we tested. Only in order for information technology to piece of work, you demand to mount a Listener past each of your smoke detectors, which tin can add up quickly in a large home. Also, if you have professional monitoring the fire department will be automatically dispatched when the Listener detects a smoke or CO alarm—and you tin can't cancel the alarm. Pro tip: Exist very careful about burning the toast.

Kidde RemoteLync Monitor
This bulky white device plugs straight into a wall outlet. Yous ready information technology upward in the RemoteLync app, and when it hears a fume alarm, it sends a notification through the app. It tin can encompass an unabridged average-size habitation, so you need to buy only one. If the device loses Wi-Fi connexion, it alerts you with a voice prompt on the device itself. However, information technology listens only for UL-approved smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, which ways it didn't hear the ETL-rated First Alert Onelink alarms in our test house when they went off. So check that your smoke alarms are UL-listed before buying.

What to look forward to

Kidde has a range of fume and CO alarms that interconnect wirelessly, starting at $40. At that place are no smart features yet, but when continued to Kidde'south RemoteLync Bridge they will be able to ship notifications and connect with HomeKit. The release of the Bridge has been delayed, merely Kidde promised us an update later this year.

Kidde also launched the new $xc Kidde Smoke + Carbon Monoxide Alarm at CES 2022. Its warnings come as voice alerts—saying "Burn down!" when fume is detected, or "Replace Alarm" when the battery is virtually the cease of its life—and a Smart Hush feature in the app lets you lot temporarily silence simulated alarms. It likewise has an option to notify friends or family when smoke or carbon monoxide is detected, and is compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Banana.

The $xl X-Sense Wi-Fi Smoke Detector is a connected smoke detector (it doesn't detect CO) that is set up and managed using the Tuya smart app, and it tin can send alerts when an alarm is triggered. It tin can perform automated self-testing of its bombardment and power connections, and it can exist silenced through the app. The X-Sense doesn't integrate with any other smart-home platforms, but the visitor says a second-gen model volition. The X-Sense Wi-Fi Smoke Detector conforms to UL standards, thought it'southward non notwithstanding UL-listed. When it is, we will update this guide with our exam results.

Owl Wired is an all-in-one wired fume, CO, motion, noise, temp, and humidity detector for $169 from Canada-based startup Owl Domicile. Information technology can interconnect with traditional wired alarms and the company promises HomeKit, Google, Alexa, and IFTTT support. Pre-orders are open at present, and the device should ship in October, merely it doesn't even so have UL certification. We volition update this guide when we take tested it.

Roost, a previous upkeep pick, has been discontinued, but the company tells us a new model volition be out later this year.

The competition

Although we strongly recommend our picks for most people, if you're looking for a HomeKit-compatible alarm, or yous really don't want to buy into the Google Nest ecosystem, First Alert's Onelink brand is currently your best option. There are 2 models. First Alert's Onelink Fume & Carbon Monoxide Detector (second-gen) and First Alert'south Onelink Safety & Sound. Both work with HomeKit and can trigger automations (Onelink advertises Alexa compatibility simply the alarms tin can't trigger Routines in Alexa). Neither Onelink alert has an early warning—just a siren followed by a voice and location alarm after about 30 seconds. You lot can silence sure alarms from the app or a button on top of the device. There'due south no cocky-testing feature, merely you can test it through the app, rather than having to climb on a ladder. When we first started testing Onelink alarms, the app was frustrating to use and constantly logged us out (therefore not sending alerts when the alarms went off). Merely in our long-term testing, we've seen a meaning comeback in reliability in the app.

Outset Alert's Onelink Safety & Sound is our favorite model of the 2 because it triggers automations more speedily than the other one (waiting just 8 to 12 seconds to ship an alert or actuate smart-abode integrations instead of ninety). Additionally, in our long-term testing, it has never triggered a imitation warning (unlike its sibling). And even though, at $250, it's a very expensive smoke and CO detector, the fact that it has a built-in Alexa vocalism-controllable speaker that doubles every bit an AirPlay 2 speaker helps cushion the sticker shock. The speaker produces respectable sound and, when grouped with other AirPlay speakers, is a prissy addition to a multi-room audio setup (it can't be used in Alexa multi-room music groups). This alert has room-specific voice alerts and a color-changing LED ring that flashes during an emergency. It works as a customizable nightlight, and it can wirelessly interconnect with other Onelink alarms, plus some existing wired interconnect systems. But information technology'southward difficult-wired only, so you accept to accept an electrician install it if you don't have existing wiring.

Start Warning's Onelink Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Detector (second-gen) is a less expensive, more traditional alarm that comes in hardwired and battery versions. It offers room-specific voice alerts, a color-changing LED ring that flashes during an emergency, and wireless interconnection with other Onelink alarms (the wired version can connect to a variety of other alarms, likewise). Information technology works with HomeKit automations, but it takes 90 seconds afterward the alarm starts for the other smart-home devices to trigger (this is a setting determined by the manufacturer). Oddly, vox alerts come after the siren—unlike the gentle warning you get with Nest. In our long-term testing of this unit, we have had ane simulated alarm effect that triggered all the units to sound.

If you have a Z-Wave abode-automation set-upward, the Offset Alert Z-Wave Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Alarm (ZCOMBO) works with many Z-Wave hubs (including SmartThings and Amazon's Band Alarm, just not Wink). It's battery-powered only (there's no hardwired mode), it doesn't offer phonation alerts or cocky-testing, and, unlike Protect, it has no wireless interconnectivity with other alarms.

Sources

1. Dwayne Sloan and David Mills, Technical Director Building and Life Safety Technologies, UL and Principal Engineer Initiating/Indicating Devices, UL , interview , Baronial 1, 2021

2. John Drengenberg, Consumer Safety managing director, UL , interview , September 1, 2016

3. Dan Kaiser, Smoke Alarms and Smoke Detectors – New and Revised Requirements, UL , Dec 14, 2020

4. Joan Engebretson, What You Need to Know About the New Smoke Detector Standards, SDM Mag , October 22, 2020

5. David Ludlow, The all-time smart fume detector and alarms, The Ambient , May thirteen, 2021

6. Marty Ahrens, Smoke Alarms in US Home Fires, National Burn Protection Association (NFPA) , February 1, 2021

7. Smart Enforcement Workshop (PDF), NFPA , November xix, 2015

8. Planning and Implementing a Successful Smoke Alarm Installation Programme (PDF), NFPA

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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-smart-smoke-alarm/

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