Netatmo debuts new HomeKit-compatible smart CO detector

AppleInsider

Smart home accessory maker Netatmo has announced a new carbon monoxide alarm that's compatible with Apple's HomeKit platform.

Credit: Netatmo

The Netatmo Smart Carbon Monoxide Alarm can monitor carbon monoxide levels in various rooms through a home and alert users when it detects the odorless gas. As with normal carbon monoxide alarms, it's equipped with an alarm, but it will also notify users via smartphone. That should give additional peace of mind if a user isn't at home.

It features a simple and minimal white design with a single button on the front, as well as a grille surrounding the exterior of the device to intake air. Its alarm is capable of produce a siren tone up to 85 decibels.

According to the French device maker, the Smart Carbon Monoxide Alarm sports a battery that will last up to 10 years. When it's nearing the end of its lifespan, it'll send the user a notification to remind them to replace the device. Lacking a replaceable battery is standard for smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

Although equipped with Wi-Fi, the Smart Carbon Monoxide alarm works without any electrical connection. It can simply be screwed to a wall anywhere in a home and paired with the Netatmo app and HomeKit.

The Netatmo Smart Carbon Monoxide Alarm is available to pre-order for GBP 89.99 starting Wednesday, and should begin shipping out to customers on Nov. 16. It's currently available only in the U.K. and Europe, with no word on a U.S. release yet.

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AppleZulu

Can you clarify: does the ten-year internal battery actually power the wifi antenna for ten years? If so, that's remarkable. I would've expected the ten-year battery would only power the detector, and a separate replaceable or rechargeable battery or external power source would be required to power the wifi antenna.

elijahg

£90 is pretty damn steep considering the Nest Protect (yes I know, Google, yuck) is the same price and is a smoke detector, pathlight and occupancy sensor as well. Which means you'd need to fork out another £90 for a smoke detector to sit alongside the CO sensor. You'd need to spend £180 to get two out of the four features on a single Protect. No thanks.

AppleZulu

elijahg said:

£90 is pretty damn steep considering the Nest Protect (yes I know, Google, yuck) is the same price and is a smoke detector, pathlight and occupancy sensor as well. Which means you'd need to fork out another £90 for a smoke detector to sit alongside the CO sensor. You'd need to spend £160 to get two out of the four features on a single Protect. No thanks.

Wouldn't that be £180?

Also, I'd spend extra to not have it be a google device.

elijahg

AppleZulu said:

elijahg said:

£90 is pretty damn steep considering the Nest Protect (yes I know, Google, yuck) is the same price and is a smoke detector, pathlight and occupancy sensor as well. Which means you'd need to fork out another £90 for a smoke detector to sit alongside the CO sensor. You'd need to spend £160 to get two out of the four features on a single Protect. No thanks.

Wouldn't that be £180?

Also, I'd spend extra to not have it be a google device.

Sorry yes, apparently I can't add up. I would too, but not double. Unfortunately the Protects seem to be about the best you can get, even 10 years after their introduction. Also once you're in the ecosystem (I was before Google bought Nest) it's not so easy to exit. I'd have to replace all the alarms at once or the interconnect would fail.

The Protects send very little data, enough so that I know no sound is recorded. It's about 50kB per day. And really, what can Google do with occupancy data? I'd never get anything like the cameras, though.

henryblackman

AppleZulu said:

Can you clarify: does the ten-year internal battery actually power the wifi antenna for ten years? If so, that's remarkable. I would've expected the ten-year battery would only power the detector, and a separate replaceable or rechargeable battery or external power source would be required to power the wifi antenna.

It does power the Wifi connection - but the Wifi connection will not always be powered up.  I have the battery powered Nest Protects (not recommended!) and they have lasted 2 years already with some AA batteries.  That said, their smoke sensor is basically crap - they are constantly alerting there is smoke, when there really is none at all.

beowulfschmidt

AppleInsider said:

Lacking a replaceable battery is standard for smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

Since when?  Both the upper and lower story smoke detectors in my house, and the CO detector upstairs have batteries that I replace about every six months.  Are new devices entirely disposable or something?

tjwolf

beowulfschmidt said:

AppleInsider said:

Lacking a replaceable battery is standard for smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

Since when?  Both the upper and lower story smoke detectors in my house, and the CO detector upstairs have batteries that I replace about every six months.  Are new devices entirely disposable or something?

I was going to post the same thing.  At least here in the US it's definitely not "standard" to have non-replaceable batteries.  My house was just built last year and those ceiling mounted smoke/CO2 detectors all have replaceable 9v batteries (which aren't even the primary power source - they're just backup!  These detectors are wired).

And, as another poster already suggested, it's pretty outrageously priced for something that doesn't even do both smoke and CO2 detection.

Here's a business idea for some enterprising soul: offer a wired smoke/CO2 detector that's also a mesh wifi router!  Throw in a HomePod-like speaker w. Siri support and I'll pay whatever ridiculous price you'll charge.  One of the major smoke alarm companies did part of that (the speaker bit), but it didn't have the mesh networking.

elijahg

henryblackman said:

AppleZulu said:

Can you clarify: does the ten-year internal battery actually power the wifi antenna for ten years? If so, that's remarkable. I would've expected the ten-year battery would only power the detector, and a separate replaceable or rechargeable battery or external power source would be required to power the wifi antenna.

It does power the Wifi connection - but the Wifi connection will not always be powered up.  I have the battery powered Nest Protects (not recommended!) and they have lasted 2 years already with some AA batteries.  That said, their smoke sensor is basically crap - they are constantly alerting there is smoke, when there really is none at all.

That's weird. None of mine have ever done that. Are you sure it's not steam? Opening the dishwasher when it's cold indoors can trigger the kitchen Protect.

elijahg

tjwolf said:

beowulfschmidt said:

AppleInsider said:

Lacking a replaceable battery is standard for smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

Since when?  Both the upper and lower story smoke detectors in my house, and the CO detector upstairs have batteries that I replace about every six months.  Are new devices entirely disposable or something?

I was going to post the same thing.  At least here in the US it's definitely not "standard" to have non-replaceable batteries.  My house was just built last year and those ceiling mounted smoke/CO2 detectors all have replaceable 9v batteries (which aren't even the primary power source - they're just backup!  These detectors are wired).

And, as another poster already suggested, it's pretty outrageously priced for something that doesn't even do both smoke and CO2 detection.

Here's a business idea for some enterprising soul: offer a wired smoke/CO2 detector that's also a mesh wifi router!  Throw in a HomePod-like speaker w. Siri support and I'll pay whatever ridiculous price you'll charge.  One of the major smoke alarm companies did part of that (the speaker bit), but it didn't have the mesh networking.

I imagine that might get very expensive to certify. More to go wrong in something you really don't want to break. Though it's a good idea!

Naiyas

beowulfschmidt said:

AppleInsider said:

Lacking a replaceable battery is standard for smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

Since when?  Both the upper and lower story smoke detectors in my house, and the CO detector upstairs have batteries that I replace about every six months.  Are new devices entirely disposable or something?

I believe the author of the article is writing from a UK/EU perspective. For many years now it has been a legal requirement that fire safety devices that contain a battery battery (smoke/CO alarms etc) are required to be sealed and have a warranted 10 year lifespan. This means that they cannot have replaceable batteries and therefore become disposable.

I don’t recall the exact details, but I believe it comes down to real world events that showed that such fire safety devices have been to blame for fire deaths as they have either not had their batteries replaced and/or their sensor become ineffective after 10 years. So to force fire safety improvements the batteries limit the life of the device naturally at the point it should be replaced anyway.

Not great for electrical waste (and kind of hypocritical of the EU that originally brought in the regulations) considering it’s views in other areas on the same subject.

The major downside (for me) is that it is almost impossible to find a smart smoke detector that is legally compliant for a 3-storey town house as the smoke detectors are legally required to be mains powered as the primary source with a battery backup and I’ve yet to find a single smart alarm that meets this requirement that is HomeKit compatible.

12Strangers

Smoke, fire, VOC and CO detectors need to be replaced at least every ten years due to the actual detecting part of the devices wearing out.

StrangeDays

Naiyas said:

beowulfschmidt said:

AppleInsider said:

Lacking a replaceable battery is standard for smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

Since when?  Both the upper and lower story smoke detectors in my house, and the CO detector upstairs have batteries that I replace about every six months.  Are new devices entirely disposable or something?

I believe the author of the article is writing from a UK/EU perspective. For many years now it has been a legal requirement that fire safety devices that contain a battery battery (smoke/CO alarms etc) are required to be sealed and have a warranted 10 year lifespan. This means that they cannot have replaceable batteries and therefore become disposable.

I don’t recall the exact details, but I believe it comes down to real world events that showed that such fire safety devices have been to blame for fire deaths as they have either not had their batteries replaced and/or their sensor become ineffective after 10 years. So to force fire safety improvements the batteries limit the life of the device naturally at the point it should be replaced anyway.

Not great for electrical waste (and kind of hypocritical of the EU that originally brought in the regulations) considering it’s views in other areas on the same subject.

The major downside (for me) is that it is almost impossible to find a smart smoke detector that is legally compliant for a 3-storey town house as the smoke detectors are legally required to be mains powered as the primary source with a battery backup and I’ve yet to find a single smart alarm that meets this requirement that is HomeKit compatible.

Yes, it’s this. The sensor is most smoke detectors is often only rated for about 10 years. Some may last longer, some may not. So having you replace the entire thing is one way to ensure it’s working. 

elijahg

Naiyas said:

beowulfschmidt said:

AppleInsider said:

Lacking a replaceable battery is standard for smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

Since when?  Both the upper and lower story smoke detectors in my house, and the CO detector upstairs have batteries that I replace about every six months.  Are new devices entirely disposable or something?

I believe the author of the article is writing from a UK/EU perspective. For many years now it has been a legal requirement that fire safety devices that contain a battery battery (smoke/CO alarms etc) are required to be sealed and have a warranted 10 year lifespan. This means that they cannot have replaceable batteries and therefore become disposable.

I don’t recall the exact details, but I believe it comes down to real world events that showed that such fire safety devices have been to blame for fire deaths as they have either not had their batteries replaced and/or their sensor become ineffective after 10 years. So to force fire safety improvements the batteries limit the life of the device naturally at the point it should be replaced anyway.

Not great for electrical waste (and kind of hypocritical of the EU that originally brought in the regulations) considering it’s views in other areas on the same subject.

The major downside (for me) is that it is almost impossible to find a smart smoke detector that is legally compliant for a 3-storey town house as the smoke detectors are legally required to be mains powered as the primary source with a battery backup and I’ve yet to find a single smart alarm that meets this requirement that is HomeKit compatible.

Nest Protects are mains+battery, and if you use Homebridge they're HomeKit compatible too.

DangDave

Here is a link that provides some battery and other USA legislative information by State for Smoke detectors and CO detectors:

https://www.universalsecurity.com/legislation/#general

Many States are moving towards 10 year sealed batteries for non hard-wired detectors and the rules also vary by whether they are replaced, or whether they can be bought in a retail store, by an owner, or as part of a home renovation where permits are required. Even Amazon restricts many purchases in many States.