The typical smoke alarm is a low-tech device designed to be as unbearably irritating as possible. Humidity can trigger them. Few things are more annoying than their low-battery chirp. If a smoke alarm malfunctions, it always will be in the middle of the night. One night last week, around 3 a.m., the smoke alarm on my bedroom ceiling let out one loud chirp, then stopped. The window was open, and there had been rain for three days. No doubt the humidity had caused it. I was not able to go back to sleep that night for fear that it would chirp again. And you can imagine what the cat thought of it.
As I lay awake, plain reasoning convinced me that better smoke alarms ought to be available now. Fifteen years ago, when the original smoke alarms were installed in my house (there are six of them), dumb smoke alarms were the only available type. The next morning, I started Googling for information about smart smoke alarms. It soon became clear that the Google Nest smoke alarms get the best reviews. They cost three or four times as much as ordinary smoke alarms — $119 each at Amazon. The cost of replacing all my smoke alarms would be $714. I was not eager to spend the money, having recently spent a big chunk of money to have the water heater replaced, and another big chunk of money for some roof maintenance.
To spread out the expense, I decided to buy two new Google Nest smoke alarms for now. And then I’ll replace one a month.
Current building code in the U.S. requires smoke alarms in certain rooms (especially bedrooms), and all the smoke alarms in the house must be interlinked so that if one alarm is triggered, all the alarms sound. Each alarm has three wires — the black and white wires for 120-volt power, and a red wire with which the alarms signal each other. The Google Nest alarms come in two types. One type runs on batteries and will work in older houses before hard-wired smoke alarms were required. The other type (which is what I needed) requires 120-volt connections of the type now required by building codes. (These also have three 1.5-volt batteries for backup during power failures.) The Google Nest alarms detect carbon monoxide as well as smoke.
Whether your house is old or new, you can have inter-linked smoke detectors. The Google Nest smoke detectors do not use the red wire. Instead, the smoke detectors communicate with each other by creating their own WIFI network. You use an app (iPhone or Android) to set them up and give them the name of the room they’re in.
So, what about their manners? What I want, of course, is for a smoke alarm to remain silent unless it actually detects smoke. Rather than chirping when the backup batteries are low, the Nest smoke detectors will send you an email. Before an alarm sounds, if a small amount of smoke is detected below the level for a full alarm, a synthesized voice will tell you about it and let you know what room is involved. You can use the app if you have questions about the condition of the smoke alarms. The alarms also have a colored-light scheme that is much more informative than the tiny winking lights on older smoke alarms. A circular light in the center of the smoke alarm will be blue during setup, green when all is well, yellow for an early warning, and red in an emergency. There’s a night-light feature. If you walk underneath the smoke detector in the dark, the light will turn white to light your way to the bathroom.
One of the biggest aggravations of the old smoke alarms is figuring out what’s wrong when something goes wrong. Who chirped? Why? Which room caused a full-scale false alarm? The Google Nest app stores ten days of history, so that not only can you figure what’s wrong right now, you can also see what happened yesterday when you were out of town.
I’m an Apple guy, and these smoke alarms are not compatible with Apple HomeKit. I understand, though, that there is a bridge application that will allow Apple Home devices and Google Nest devices to communicate with each other. I’ll be looking into that.
My job for today is to install one of the smoke alarms in the basement (where most of my false alarms originate) and one in my bedroom. My bedroom ceiling is twelve feet high, so, for safety, I’ve enlisted a neighbor to help me.
As for the old smoke alarms, I have a sledge hammer, and I plan to use it.
2 Comments
Thanks for this info. We are getting ready to change out our “chirp which one is it smoke alarms” I have a question, in the basement is there anything that would set it off like humidity or a water heater device?
Thanks,Henry
Hi Henry: For reasons that I never was able to figure out, the old alarms, made by Kidde, kept failing in my basement. The device would start to chirp, but replacing the battery did not solve the problem. I must have replaced the basement alarm at least six times in 15 years. I always kept two or three spares on hand. Certainly my basement has higher humidity than the rest of the house, but it’s a dry basement, as basements go. So, over the next year or two or three, I suppose I will find out if the Google Nest alarms are similarly vulnerable. I can say, though, that the Nest alarms are said to be far more resistant to false alarms caused by humidity or hot steam coming from bathroom showers. The Nest alarms have two-year warranties, so, if it does fail I hope it fails during warranty. Also, don’t quote me on this because I’m not certain, but I think the Kidde alarms use ionization detectors, and the Nest alarms uses dual optical detectors (different light wavelengths). If that’s true, I would expect optical detectors to be more stable. The Nest promotional materials says that ionization detectors are more prone to nuisance alarms.
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