Nest Protect - Anyone Use Them?

[dmw16]

I know they are expensive, but I love my Nest Thermostat and I'm thinking of getting a few Nest Protects. I was wondering if anyone here has them and can comment on this?

Our house is a 2 story condo with a smaller downstairs and 3 bedrooms up stairs. Currently there is 1 smoke detector downstairs, 1 upstairs at the top of the stairs, and one in each bedroom.

I am mostly interested in preventing false alarms during cooking (our hood fan doesn't vent to outside, it only filters) and also putting one in a baby/child's room.

Is it ok (from a safety standpoint) to buy 3 now (downstairs, top of stairs, and child's room) and then replace the other 2 down the line?

Thanks.

 

[shabby]

Is it ok (from a safety standpoint) to buy 3 now (downstairs, top of stairs, and child's room) and then replace the other 2 down the line?

No because you can't link the nest smoke detectors with regular ones, they don't have the interconnect wire for whatever stupid reason. Either you get all 5 at the same time or none at all.
Also from some reading that i've done the internal filters can't be replaced so you have to replace the whole unit every 5-7 years... those guys at nest sure are geniuses.

 

[PUN]

No because you can't link the nest smoke detectors with regular ones, they don't have the interconnect wire for whatever stupid reason. Either you get all 5 at the same time or none at all.
Also from some reading that i've done the internal filters can't be replaced so you have to replace the whole unit every 5-7 years... those guys at nest sure are geniuses.

He is not asking if they can be linked. So the answer is YES, you can buy 3 now and replace the other 2 later. 3 Nest Smoke will link and work with your Nest Themostats. 2 reg smoke alarm will continue to work the way it did before.

 

[shabby]

2 reg smoke alarm will continue to work the way it did before.

No they will not work like they did before because if the nest smoke detector goes off it has no way of sending a signal to the regular smoke detector and vice versa. All smoke detectors have to be linked period.
And whether the wifi link in the nest smoke detector is actually a viable interconnect is upto the fire marshall, normally it should be a wire connecting them.

 

[dmw16]

No they will not work like they did before because if the nest smoke detector goes off it has no way of sending a signal to the regular smoke detector and vice versa. All smoke detectors have to be linked period.
And whether the wifi link in the nest smoke detector is actually a viable interconnect is upto the fire marshall, normally it should be a wire connecting them.

Well so long as the 3 talk to each other I might be able to be ok with that. As it is we end up disconnecting them when we do major cooking because of the airflow in our condo it seems like cooking "smoke" pools in such a way to make the detector go off and just not stop for a very long time. I know, bad habit, but that's kinda the point of how the Nest detector works.

I think the Nest has been approved at least by California which I imagine has pretty PITA restrictions on code.

And does the interconnect work over the wifi or is there a radio connection between the detectors? They are designed to work when the power is out, so I'm thinking the interconnect may be via something other than wifi (or at least doesn't need the wifi router)....

Just went to the Nest FAQ. The interconnect doesn't rely on the wifi router.
"While Wi-Fi and a Nest account are required to interconnect multiple Nest Protects, if your Wi-Fi connection is lost at any time, all your Nest Protects will remain interconnected. And once they are interconnected, they do not rely on Wi-Fi for this feature. However, if your Wi-Fi goes down, you will not receive mobile notifications."

Thanks for the input thus far.

 

[shabby]

Well so long as the 3 talk to each other I might be able to be ok with that.

From a safety standpoint like you mentioned that's not ok since all smoke detectors should be interconnected, but its your house and not mine.
When power goes out they have their own wifi link, that's how they communicate with each other.