This is the killer smart home product that I have been hoping for Nest to release for the past couple years. I love Nest products, I have a couple of their thermostats and have been lusting after their smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. For $119 though they are just too pricey for just a smoke and carbon monoxide detector. I have almost 20 smoke and/or carbon monoxide detectors in my home so replacing them all would not make economic sense. I would have considered replacing a couple if they packed a couple for features into the product.
Now First Alert is releasing a smoke and carbon monoxide detector with a high quality speaker and Alexa built in. The product is set to be released May 1, 2018, I can't wait to read the reviews and hear about the quality of the speaker. Unfortunately it is pricey at $250. To me, if the speaker has high quality sound it is worth it. You are getting an Alexa device, a wireless speaker, a night light, a smoke detector and a carbon monoxide detector.
As good as it sounds I still have some questions and see some potential issues:
- If you have already bought into the Google or Apple smart speaker eco-system having an Alexa device may not work. No word on whether they will release Apple home kit or Google versions of the product. I am guessing Nest is probably working on something similar for their next version of Nest Protect.
- My assumption is the product needs to be hard wired. Which means you can't just swap out your battery powered smoke detectors without some major electrical work.
- Will it interconnect with other smoke detectors n the home. The fire code in my town requires smoke detectors to be interconnected, so if one goes off they al go off. Does it support the interconnect wire or does it interconnect wirelessly like Nest Protect.
- It has a battery backup but I assume that only powers the smoke and carbon monoxide detector in a power outage
- Most smoke detectors have a 10 year expiration date. Do I need to throw away my $250 smart speaker when the smoke detector expires.
- The App. Sometimes non tech companies do not produce quality phone apps. This is a wait and see, hopefully they put some resourced into developing a quality app.
I think this is a really cool product that I would consider purchasing. Yes it is pricey, but could be worth it considering all of the functionality they are packing into the device.
