Nest CEO Tony Fadell has taken to the company’s website to announce they are stopping sales of their Nest Protect smoke detector over safety concerns. The so called Nest Wave feature which turns off your alarm (via a wave of your hand) can be possibly activated by accident:
During recent laboratory testing of the Nest Protect smoke alarm, we observed a unique combination of circumstances that caused us to question whether the Nest Wave (a feature that enables you to turn off your alarm with a wave of the hand) could be unintentionally activated. This could delay an alarm going off if there was a real fire. We identified this problem ourselves and are not aware of any customers who have experienced this, but the fact that it could even potentially happen is extremely important to me and I want to address it immediately.
To solve this issue, the company is stopping all new sales and offering refunds for those who wish not to keep their Protect smoke detector. Once the company has a solution to ensure the feature works properly, sales will resume in 2-3 months after safety agencies in Canada, the U.S. and UK approve.
Sometimes a simple battery operated old school smoke alarm beats high tech systems such as the Nest Protect. You can read our Protect review here.
Anyone going to return their Nest Protect over this issue?
