Nest Protect - Finally, a Connected Smoke and CO Alarm

AAAD readers may remember all of the troubles we were having with our First Alert smoke & carbon monoxide alarms last spring. 

A visit from the fire department confirmed that we weren't actually having a CO leak - it was just a (constant) false alarm, due to the detector going bad. 

Ultimately, I was able to replace the faulty smoke detector with the exact same model, and life went on. But MAN, I'd like to be able to control these sensors with an iOS device. 

Enter the Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide detector. 

It's literally everything that I've wanted from a smoke detector system, and many things that I didn't know I needed until now. 

That said, you pay for the privilege - $129 per unit. Considering that I need about six of these, it's not a minor purchase. 

But just look at what it can do. 

First off, no more deciphering chirps. It tells you, in plain English (or Spanish), what the alarm is - "Heads up - smoke detected in the bedroom."

Each of the Protect devices is wirelessly connected to the others, and you assign a name to each - Kitchen, Basement, Master Bedroom, and so on. 

Then, when there's an issue, all of the Protects tell you which sensor is reporting the problem, and what the problem is. "Heads up - Batteries need to be replaced in the kitchen."

If you want to turn off an alarm - for instance, if you're cooking and the smoke alarm goes off - just wave your hands in front of it. Alarm cancelled. 

There's a wired and a battery-only version... and guess what? It uses AA batteries! No more 9-volt batteries! That's a good thing, because 9-volt batteries are weird and square, they're only used in smoke alarms, and cost like $22 each for some reason. 

Just getting rid of 9-volt batteries for the rest of my life is reason enough to make this change. 

Of course, there's an iOS app, so you'll get an alert on your phone if an alarm goes off. 

And if you already have a Nest Thermostat, your Nest Protects will detect motion throughout the house, providing better information as to when the Thermostat can move to its "away" setting. 

Nest is doing some pretty exciting things these days - they just released an API and are looking for developers to create home-automation products that will integrate into their ecosystem. I know I'll be watching.