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Comment by ssharp | Hacker News Reader

Maybe I'm becoming more of a luddite or cranky old-man, approaching my mid-30's, but I don't see any benefit at all to using the Nest smoke alarm. I'm replacing tried and true, simple, technologies, with a new device that seems way more complicated than it needs to be.

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There's a difference between "there's no benefit at all" and "the benefits don't outweigh the downsides." There are many benefits of the Nest smoke detector. Easier to test. Easier to silence a false alarm. Less likely to wake you up in the middle of the night with a battery warning. Built-in night light. Integration with the thermostat home/away features. Notifications of an alarm when you're not home. Easy identification of which room the alarm is from when you have multiple interconnected alarms. Etc., etc., etc. Now, are those benefits enough to justify the cost and to outweigh the problems? I dunno. Do you care about those benefits? It's up to you. But there are clearly benefits.

You're completely right. My original comment wasn't really fair to the Nest alarm device. It clearly does have it's benefits, but not enough for me to overcome the potential issues with the device. I don't think the cost is that terrible, but I don't entirely trust its reliability and durability. A $100 smoke detector is fine if I don't have to worry about buying another smoke detector for a long time, but I don't trust the Nest to provide that longevity.

The difference between real & perceived value is only a price tag away. Be wary when seemingly trivial choices with potentially fatal consequences are made based upon marketing trends and convenience. Perhaps these systems will mature & increase their reliability, but remember that 'latest, greatest' gadget is still just a useful toy...and revenue/data stream for the supplier.

*I work with commercial building automation controls, it's pretty useful tech, but nothing I would ever risk my welfare on.

> Easy identification of which room the alarm is from when you have multiple interconnected alarms.

Now, this is just fantastic. It's what basically every movie portrays when they want to show a security station, but it is almost unheard of.

It's easier to turn off in a false alarm. It can warn you ahead of time when the batteries are getting low. It can alert you over the internet if your house is maybe on fire. Not sure if that's worth the price premium, but there are some benefits.

No, there really isn't a reason to use it. It looks pretty, and I have to admit that's basically why I bought it in the first place.

I like the theory of it integrating with the thermostat's auto away feature, so it can detect you even if you're not in the same room as the tstat for a while. It needs to be connected to mains for it to work in real time though, so that combined with all of the problems it has working as a smoke detector convinced me to not get one.

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