NEST Smoke and CO Detector

[Neal]

About two years ago after an electrical short situation and discussion on inverter fires or other potential basement fires I decided to add smoke detectors to my basement. At the same time I replaced the two in the house part of my RV so in all I now have four smoke detectors. You can go cheap from Lowes and hope you hear it or you can go modern with NEST so you get notifications on your smartphone, etc. which can help when you're not at your RV and keep in the know. Yesterday I had an incident where NEST gave me great warning as to a smoke in the basement situation due to an electrical short in my hydronic water heating system. NEST proved their value and purpose. Highly recommend! Be sure to get the battery version vs. wired version.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XV1RCRY/?tag=rvf01-20

 

[Rich W.]

Do these rely on wifi and internet to communicate with your phone? Also do they work on blue tooth to communicate with each other, so that even with no wifi or internet you can still get an alert from a remote detector? I’m guessing its time for a router in the coach.

 

[Neal]

I don't know all of those answers but I have them setup to Wi-Fi which is how they talk to the cloud which monitors them and runs tests at certain intervals and how the phone connects. I don't know if it has a bluetooth option. You'd have to check the specs.

https://store.google.com/us/product/nest_protect_2nd_gen

 

[Richpatty]

Bringing this thread back up as I had a smoke alarm go off in the basement last evening, but it was a false alarm. The alarm is dated from 2016, so it is getting old. The other thing is, I had three of them down there and didn’t know which one was beeping…which was a pain. It was also not loud enough as we could just hear it over the TV.

Anyway, I wanted to know if there was anything new in this area and what experiences have been had since this thread was started. I am thinking of getting a few Nest alarms for the basement and in the main cabin of the RV. I know they have to have internet to work together and with the app, but I do have an old Wi-Fi Ranger that would act as my router.

Anyone have any thoughts? Is there a better product? Or method?
Thanks
Rich

 

[MemoriesByTheMile]

I like the Honeywell residential smoke alarms in conjunction with a base unit (no monitoring required). The base unit reports on each “sensor”, so you can see battery levels and also know which sensor is open or causing an issue.
Our coach came with a Paradox residential alarm system installed, which is a nice system which includes smoke alarms tied in too.
Might be overkill for what you want to do, but having smoke alarms tied into an alarm system can also give you the ability to keep tabs on things when it isn’t near you.

 

[Kevin D Pem]

I try to reduce as much RF radiation as I can, I know that a microwave works on the same frequency as your Common wifi or Bluetooth device, unless your device uses 5k frequency,then it is worse!!!

Now if you're warned to not stand next to your running micro???

That said this daisy chained detector is likely worth the effort of installing. But then some people like living in a microwave!!!

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Kidde-Code-One-Hardwired-Smoke-Detector-with-Ionization-Sensor-and-9-Volt-Battery-Backup-21006378/100128246

 

[Richpatty]

I really don’t think that adding a few linked smoke detectors will change the amount of RF floating around my RV…. They are pretty much everywhere…especially if you already have a router and the various computers, phones and tablets.

 

[Crazydog]

 

[Kevin D Pem]

I really don’t think that adding a few linked smoke detectors will change the amount of RF floating around my RV…. They are pretty much everywhere…especially if you already have a router and the various computers, phones and tablets.

Ah ha!!!
Back when I got a ham license they talked about placement of anntanas!!! Warning about the dangers of RF. heck the FCC used to require proper testing of harmful radio radiation,of computer equipment. They backed off, but not because RF quit being a problem!

No! But they have done tests for 4 and 5G and how it reacts with graphine oxide, how microwave equipment reacts with pace makers! The list of effects is quite large. Have you purchased an RF instrument and tested you house radiation???

Bottom line! Hard wired equipment is not convenient, but much safer. That very outdated information (1981), is more relevant today than it was then!

I think, is hardly a qualified response! And, if you have a tin foil hat that is more reliable than the one I wear now, I would be interested , after all I live away from the high powered anntanas! Maybe I have a reason???