Nest Smoke Detector

ylexot

Super Genius
Nest's Protect smoke detector warns you before it's about to go off; coming soon for $129
Nest is indeed coming out with a smoke / carbon monoxide detector and yes, the product is called "Protect." As you can see in the photo above, Nest is trying to do for smoke detectors what it's already done for thermostats. Which is to say, it's trying to take a mundane household object and make it sexy. Well, sexy and smart. It wouldn't be a Nest device if it didn't have WiFi built in, allowing you to control the settings and check the battery life using a mobile app (it's available for iOS, with Android versions in both Google Play and the Kindle App Store). Also, the WiFi connection allows one Protect to talk to another. In the event of an emergency, all of the Protects in the house will go off, using a female speaking voice to let you know there's a fire or CO.

But wait a second, what if there's no emergency? What if you just slightly burned your artisinal grilled cheese? In low-threat situations like this, Protect will warn you that it senses smoke, and then give you a chance to wave away the alert with your hand -- yep, the same way you'd wave away smoke itself. As you'd expect, the grace period depends on the urgency of the situation: if you've just been cooking dinner, you might be able to wave away the alert before the alarm goes off, but if there really is fire, you understandably won't get the luxury of a warning. Meanwhile, on the back end, the Protect can work in tandem with a Nest thermostat, so that if the Protect detects carbon monoxide, Nest will shut your heat off (many CO leaks are related to heating).
Very interested to see this product. I loathe the current lineup of smoke detectors. I also really hope that the wired version includes a capacitor backup. Seriously, why are we still stuck with replacing batteries for a backup? It only needs to operate for a few minutes of beeping and a capacitor can do that easily.
 
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czygvtwkr

Guest
Nest's Protect smoke detector warns you before it's about to go off; coming soon for $129

Very interested to see this product. I loathe the current lineup of smoke detectors. I also really hope that the wired version includes a capacitor backup. Seriously, why are we still stuck with replacing batteries for a backup? It only needs to operate for a few minutes of beeping and a capacitor can do that easily.

Capacitors also wear out, the electrolyte inside them dries up, ever see a nice big electrolytic cap blow?
 

ylexot

Super Genius
Capacitors also wear out, the electrolyte inside them dries up, ever see a nice big electrolytic cap blow?

Very very very rarely. They don't fail during discharge, they fail while charged. And it would be easy to have an alarm saying that the capacitor failed.
 

sm8

Active Member
Nest's Protect smoke detector warns you before it's about to go off; coming soon for $129

Very interested to see this product. I loathe the current lineup of smoke detectors. I also really hope that the wired version includes a capacitor backup. Seriously, why are we still stuck with replacing batteries for a backup? It only needs to operate for a few minutes of beeping and a capacitor can do that easily.

At least in MD you no longer replace the battery. It is a sealed unit and you replace the whole thing.

MD Smoke Detector Law Takes Effect | NBC4 Washington

Md. law requires smoke alarm upgrades | WJLA.com
 
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czygvtwkr

Guest
That's even worse than replacing the battery. Stupid MD.

Not exactly, whatever detects the smoke is radioactive and radioactive materaial decays with time. I have read that smke detectors are less effective the older they get and may even fail to detect smoke.

An alarm for a failed capacitor, how expensive do you want these things to be? That and most people don't know what a capacitor even is.
 

ylexot

Super Genius
Not exactly, whatever detects the smoke is radioactive and radioactive materaial decays with time. I have read that smke detectors are less effective the older they get and may even fail to detect smoke.
I know they need to be replaced periodically. Says so in the manual. Why not just have a replaceable part instead of requiring that the ENTIRE FRIGGIN THING has to be replaced?

An alarm for a failed capacitor, how expensive do you want these things to be? That and most people don't know what a capacitor even is.
Well, that alarm would cost a few cents and would just be a "alarm needs to be replaced" alarm for the insanely rare occurrence of a failed capacitor. So, a few cents more than what they currently cost? Of course, that would save me several dollars a year from not having to replace a 9V battery.
 

sm8

Active Member
The new ones are good for 10 years. I believe it is a lithium battery. The info says in the long run you will save about 40 dollars over the life of the detector that would have been spent on batteries.
 
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czygvtwkr

Guest
I know they need to be replaced periodically. Says so in the manual. Why not just have a replaceable part instead of requiring that the ENTIRE FRIGGIN THING has to be replaced?


Well, that alarm would cost a few cents and would just be a "alarm needs to be replaced" alarm for the insanely rare occurrence of a failed capacitor. So, a few cents more than what they currently cost? Of course, that would save me several dollars a year from not having to replace a 9V battery.

I don't know of a single piece of electronics that has a "failed capacitor" alarm, just what are you basing your estimate of a few cents on?
 
I know they need to be replaced periodically. Says so in the manual. Why not just have a replaceable part instead of requiring that the ENTIRE FRIGGIN THING has to be replaced?


Well, that alarm would cost a few cents and would just be a "alarm needs to be replaced" alarm for the insanely rare occurrence of a failed capacitor. So, a few cents more than what they currently cost? Of course, that would save me several dollars a year from not having to replace a 9V battery.

The ones I have do that. In fact, it just flagged last month. Unfortunately, the "alarm is past due for replacement" is the same stupid 30 second beep as "batteries are low". So after swapping batteries 3 times i finally read the manual which says the alarm will beep when it reaches 5 years old and needs to be replaced.

I do like the Nest being able to communicate with the other alarms and trigger them all if there is a fire.
 

ylexot

Super Genius
I don't know of a single piece of electronics that has a "failed capacitor" alarm, just what are you basing your estimate of a few cents on?

A capacitor failure is either a short or an open circuit (and not getting up to the capacitor voltage). Really easy to detect. Voltage potential across the capacitor is less than X, then the capacitor isn't working right.
 

ylexot

Super Genius
I do like the Nest being able to communicate with the other alarms and trigger them all if there is a fire.

There are others that already do that both wired and wireless. Mine are wired and the really annoying thing is when you get any kind of alarm, they all go off so you can't localize the problem.
 
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czygvtwkr

Guest
A capacitor failure is either a short or an open circuit (and not getting up to the capacitor voltage). Really easy to detect. Voltage potential across the capacitor is less than X, then the capacitor isn't working right.

Ok a capacitor is a DC device, but we are going to assume that the rectifier, power supply whatever is in there because the alarm is DC, so what if the rectifier fails? Are we going to use the same rectifier on the capacitor that was used between the AC power and the alarm? I don't think this is as easy as you think it is.
 

ylexot

Super Genius
Ok a capacitor is a DC device, but we are going to assume that the rectifier, power supply whatever is in there because the alarm is DC, so what if the rectifier fails? Are we going to use the same rectifier on the capacitor that was used between the AC power and the alarm? I don't think this is as easy as you think it is.

Now you're just arguing for argument's sake.
 
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czygvtwkr

Guest
Now you're just arguing for argument's sake.

No, I just pointed out your design has issues with it. Most glaring is that it doesn't actually solve the problem that you intend it to.
 
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czygvtwkr

Guest
No, your point is that a smoke detector cannot fail. You're being an idiot.

Im not the one pretending I know how to do something exactly to my liking and then when called on it resorting on personal attacks.

You are the one that wanted a maintenance free smoke detector that also worked when the power went out......

Me, I am perfectly happy with my $9.99 AC power only smoke detector and my $9.99 battery powered smoke detector.
 
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