Nest Stops Selling 'Protect' Smoke Detectors Over Safety Concerns

This is yet another example of technology for technology sake.

What we really need are smoke alarms that sit flush with the ceiling and don't look so hideous.

I preordered a couple of these and haven't realty been enamored with them.
Wanted to return after the google purchase, but was out the the return period, will do it now.

MacRumors said:

Nest urges customers with existing alarms to connect them to a Nest Account (if they are not already connected) so the Nest Wave feature can be automatically disabled.

Click to expand...

I immediately thought of this issue when I heard about the device.

But...if they can just disable the feature, then why don't they do that instead of halting sales?

Sometimes it's just better to have a button.

Don't be afraid of buttons.

AstronomyiPhone said:

I immediately thought of this issue when I heard about the device.

Click to expand...

You and me both, brotha (or sister):

RMo said:

If they have a "wave hand to silence" feature, I hope they test it well so actual fires (or people by accident) won't be in danger of silencing the alarm with any appearance of motion.

Click to expand...

I guess they didn't.

I bought 3 of these and returned them because the Wave never worked. I sear steaks in a cast iron skillet sometimes and while 90% of the smoke gets sucked out the microwave vent, my smoke alarms would always go off. So I bought the nest with hopes that I could hush them with a wave. It never worked so I got my $400 back.

I bought 4 of these and returned them all b/c of false alarms. The Nest Wave also rarely to ever worked.

This product made me realize I should be much more careful about what type of product categories I really wanna beta test. Phone has problems? Ok. Smoke alarms screaming at you and your 7 month old for no reason and the only way to shut them up is a ladder in each room and a screwdriver to take off each base plate to remove the batteries? Different worse case scenario.

I'm going to ROFL if flames waving in front of it disable the alarm

LOL. $3,200,000,000

This is what happens when shareholders have no voting rights. And it is going to get much, much worse

I would love a smoke alarm you could turn off, with your cell phone, five or six blocks away. My only other choice is to rush in as fast as I can and bash the stupid thing with a baseball bat and that is so painful, I am tempted to just move out for a few days and let the batteries run down. Can't they just let you set the volume on the stupid things and be done with it? For some of us, even the chirp the things make to tell you, the battery is running low is painful.

Not everyone is deaf.

Ode

blizaine said:

I bought 3 of these and returned them because the Wave never worked. I sear steaks in a cast iron skillet sometimes and while 90% of the smoke gets sucked out the microwave vent, my smoke alarms would always go off. So I bought the nest with hopes that I could hush them with a wave. It never worked so I got my $400 back.

Click to expand...

You sear steaks
in a cast iron skillet
3 Nests, you bought with hopes to hush
with a wave that stubborn smoke that avoids your vent
but you waved and you waved
oh how you did wave
but the Nests never worked
oh, the Nests never worked.
...
...
[ this part has been removed for inciting religious hatred ]
...
...
and with glee you cheered to see
the 400 dollars nestled back safely
in your bank-account.

THEEND

I dont want to deal with my fire alarm, I dont to look at it, I dont want to have an app on my phone for it, I just want it to work.

Great purchase deal for google btw. 2 bilion for a company that has one product on the market and its alrdy pulled off. An alarm dosent need to be smart, just 100% effective. Thats all. Stupid google.

Settle down, everybody. That big round circle in the center of the device is the "off" button. This is just the feature that everyone appears to do every time there's smoke - wave the smoke away. It's an optional "on-by-default" feature.

Also, a internet-connected smoke alarm is a very good thing. One that knows when it's battery has failed and can tell you without chirping is a very good thing. A detector that glows green when you turn out the light, to reassure you that it is has passed it's internal self-test and it's power is nominal is a good thing.

This is not "technology for technology sake". An absurd accusation on this particular forum. Tech for Tech's sake is the "Egg Minder".

nikaru said:

I dont want to deal with my fire alarm, I dont to look at it, I dont want to have an app on my phone for it, I just want it to work.

Great purchase deal for google btw. 2 bilion for a company that has one product on the market and its alrdy pulled off. An alarm dosent need to be smart, just 100% effective. Thats all. Stupid google.

Click to expand...

They also have a thermostat, but yes not a good look when you just have two products and your saftey product is pulled........for a saftey flaw....

mainstreetmark said:

Settle down, everybody. That big round circle in the center of the device is the "off" button. This is just the feature that everyone appears to do every time there's smoke - wave the smoke away. It's an optional "on-by-default" feature.

Also, a internet-connected smoke alarm is a very good thing. One that knows when it's battery has failed and can tell you without chirping is a very good thing. A detector that glows green when you turn out the light, to reassure you that it is has passed it's internal self-test and it's power is nominal is a good thing.

This is not "technology for technology sake". An absurd accusation on this particular forum. Tech for Tech's sake is the "Egg Minder".

Click to expand...

Hey, my egg minder is very cool, thank you very much. When it works...

----------

nikaru said:

I dont want to deal with my fire alarm, I dont to look at it, I dont want to have an app on my phone for it, I just want it to work.

Great purchase deal for google btw. 2 bilion for a company that has one product on the market and its alrdy pulled off. An alarm dosent need to be smart, just 100% effective. Thats all. Stupid google.

Click to expand...

An alarm doesn't have to be smart? Wow, you just invalidated the existence of every monitored fire and safety system in the world.

Glad you get to determine what an alarm is supposed to be, and what it's not supposed to be. How about if you just buy the alarms you want, and let the rest of us buy the ones we want?

"We identified this problem ourselves and are not aware of any customers who have experienced this..."


dead men tell no tales.

Sorry Google

This company was really worth $3.2B to Google? What were they thinking? Streamlined design does not make a fire alarm good for the average household. I'd put my hand up on my mouth to say "OOPS!" but I'm afraid I'll set my Nest Alarm off!

pancakedrawer said:

This is yet another example of technology for technology sake.

What we really need are smoke alarms that sit flush with the ceiling and don't look so hideous.

Click to expand...

My guess is that if it was recessed in the ceiling it might not work properly since the smoke could roll below it.

For those saying that the wave to turn off was a dumb idea. Think about why they did it. I wonder how many smoke alarms are diabled because of false alarms. They may have disabled them because it was to much of a hassle/hard to turn off.

I think there is still huge potential for this device. I do however wish I had more features and was more powerful while also walking the line of "install and forget".

I think the idea of a remote shut off is perfect. Fire marshal installed a bunch (of conventional ones) in our house as part of a community effort to bring all homes to code... And installed one RIGHT at the top of a stair case. Sure it makes sense to get an early warning if you're down stairs, BUT having to jump on a step ladder or something real fast to reach up and silence it while being only an inch or two away from the edge of the stairs doesn't seem the safest... And even though it's down a hall a little ways from the stove, high heat (controlled) cooking still has set it off a couple times, I'm impressed how sensitive they are, but it drives me insane and might be the death of me (falling down the stairs).

I can't picture what my 78 year old grandma would do in such a situation... And she is able to move around fairly decent...

I love the idea of them being connected to each other and to a wireless device. I like the idea of looking at the status on the device and looking at air quality, not just carbon monoxide build up, but it would be nice if it rated the air quality and maybe suggested when to open a window in a room or something.

The biggest would be full integration with the thermostat. I would love to SEE each tempature in each room and have it observe motion and increase the awareness of the "auto away" feature. Just because I'm down stairs for a couple hours doesn't mean I've left the house...

Forward facing, Nest could completely take over the home if they built in motion sensors that had a wide field of view and could be integrated into a future home security system.

I feel like they made each room more intelligent, but not down right "smart". Which I think they could have with the current technology.

Most hardwire alarms have a green light on them to let you know they're getting power and a red light that usually indicates which one caused the alarm state.

Thing is the price of one nest unit is enough to cover a house with normal units!!

That's another big issue. Make the first Nest $150 or $199 and each extra one $49 or something, even if it's the same hardware.

Go to the blackboard and write this 200 times:

ryansimmons323 said:

Don't be afraid of buttons.

Click to expand...

People have a hard enough time understanding each other by body language, I'm not sure how we can expect machines to. Change channels on the TV? Why not, when it doesn't work there's no harm done. To disable a crucial safety system though? Uh....

nikaru said:

I dont want to deal with my fire alarm, I dont to look at it, I dont want to have an app on my phone for it, I just want it to work.

Great purchase deal for google btw. 2 bilion for a company that has one product on the market and its alrdy pulled off. An alarm dosent need to be smart, just 100% effective. Thats all. Stupid google.

Click to expand...

They have two products and the nest thermosdat is awesome. I completely agree though that I don't want to ever have to look at or think about my smoke detector. I just want it to work when it's supposed to.