2 Messages
Smoke/CO Alarm Interconnectability
The Problem: When a smoke or CO alarm head goes into the alarm state, it will sound its internal alarm, and alert the base station. This sets the base station off, and starts the process with SimpliSafe Monitoring. However, it does not alert any other heads in the home. This creates major problems when you have a multi-story home, and are sleeping with your door closed (yes, you should be doing this). I have had alarm activations previously, and was awoken by the phone call from SimpliSafe Monitoring, because the alarm that was activated and the base station were downstairs.
Proposed Solution: I am asking Simply safe to rewrite some code so that when the Base Station receives a Smoke or CO alarm activation, it forces all other Smoke/CO heads in the home to activate and alert. This will improve life safety/property conservation efforts, as the occupants will be notified faster. This will mean that no matter where you are, or sleep, where your base station is, and most importantly, where the activated head is, you will know immediately if one is going off.
Who Am I/Relevance: I have Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering, and work as a Professional FireFighter / Paramedic. I use SimpliSafe to protect me and my home. The relevance is that this is both a faster alert for nuisance alarms, and for life safety. Modern homes have 2-3 minutes before "Flashover", patients who do not escape a home before this point, usually become victims. The first notification in a home with Smoke/CO alarms located throughout should not be from the monitoring center phone call. The NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) recommends that homes have connected Smoke/CO alarms as I am asking here. "Smoke alarms should be interconnected. When one sounds, they all sound. " -NFPA.org
This ultimately seems like a simple code update, and has a potentially large life saving factor driving this.
Thank you for your time, I hope this can be implemented.
Thank you,
Austin
emily_s
Community Admin
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3.4K Messages
2 years ago
Hi @ajkuchar,
Thank you for this suggestion! I will pass it along to our dev team.
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blakehornsby
1 Message
2 years ago
Yes, just learned this evening after false alarm in our youngest child’s bedroom upstairs. Humidifier set off alarm and we had all just fallen asleep. I heard alarm and jumped out of bed to run upstairs. Fortunately it was a false alarm. The other kids bedrooms were never set off by the one. Very scary to think about that happening and it was a valid alarm and our other 3 kids rooms would never been triggered. Our house is very sound proof. I always assumed when one would go off the others would be set off as standard process to alert all rooms. I’ve been a long time customer and was shocked to learn this isn’t the case. I really hope this can be fixed. It is now very concerning for us after the experience we just had. I would assume most customers have no idea how this works and assume like us they would all go off. I strongly encourage the tech team to figure this out as last poster mentioned.
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jebeje
5 Messages
2 years ago
My town requires wireless smoke detectors to be interconnected (as an alternative to hardwiring for older houses). I thought Simplisafe met this requirement, but this post leads me to believe it does not. I just bought 10 smoke alarms from you and think they will all have to go back.
For me, this would have been a deal-breaker for buying your system if I had realized earlier. Frustrating, because everything else has been really great.
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GaveDrohl
1 Message
2 years ago
I'm really surprised to learn that they aren't interconnected. This is a huge liability and violation of many county codes. This should be top of Simplisafes development priority.
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RHB
7 Messages
2 years ago
I agree these need to be interconnected. This is one of the questions my Insurance company asked for my Homeowners coverage. Should be a simple software code update.
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Aro
1 Message
1 year ago
I just have to return 6 smoke detectors as my county requires interconnected smoke detectors. This is a big miss. Please fix this.
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tdsedney
20 Messages
1 year ago
On SimpliSafe's website, they state their GEN3 smoke detectors are interconnected and one alarm on one detector will cause all alarms to activate on all GEN3 smoke detectors.....
WELL... this is BS... I checked my GEN3 smoke detectors from Simplisafe and there is no interconnnectivity amongst the GEN3 smoke detectors as SimpliSafe claims.
They sell a SIREN for $60 that will activate when the base station emits an alarm. The exact same chips/software in the alarm should be inside their GEN3 smoke detectors.
SIMPLISAFE is going to be liable for lots of dead children for their false and misleading statements about this. When they claim they have interconnectivity amongst GEN3 smoke detectors, but in fact that is not true.... customers have relied upon SimpliSafe's claims..... This leads to dead children.....
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ajkuchar
2 Messages
1 year ago
Still waiting for SimpliSafe to drop an update that would force the other alarms into an "alarm state" when one is triggered...this is a life safety hazard.
Still waiting....
Thanks
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tdsedney
20 Messages
1 year ago
What a bunch of BS !! The "Siren Alarms" that SimpliSafe already sells has the "chip" or circuit board already inside itself and the siren alarms (essentially repeaters) already have this function and do this.... Therefore, SimpliSafe already has the "chip" technology to make all of their smoke and CO alarms to do this already. Just put that chip into your existing smoke and CO alarms now!!! Stop trying to BS all of your SimpliSafe customers!!
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rtichota
1 Message
1 year ago
I just failed my final building inspection because the smoke detectors are not interconnected. Building code clearly states this as a need. Very frustrating! Now I'm off to the big box store to buy Kiddie detectors. Seriously considering dropping SimpliSafe after all of this.
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jebeje
5 Messages
1 year ago
Agree. Frustrating. Major weakness in an otherwise great system
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timothyanderson09
1 Message
1 year ago
Love my SimpliSafe system so far, but this is one glaring oversight. Where I live, my city has adopted the 2018 International Fire Code which requires, among other things, that if one alarm activates, it is interconnected with and activates all other alarms in the residence.
I’m regretfully returning the 8 smoke/CO detectors I purchased and installing code-compliant models from a different manufacturer.
Please look into this, SimpliSafe. You make some really great products. It wouldn’t be too much effort to improve your smoke/CO detectors to bring them up to code.
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jaybermudez
2 Messages
11 months ago
SimpliSafe - I have purchased 15 smoke and CO Detectors, plus 8 cameras, water detectors, motion sensors, entry sensors, etc. I love this system. However, I too just failed my final building inspection to gain our certificate of occupancy because the smoke and CO detectors are not interconnected. I have had to buy other smoke and CO detectors and remove yours in order to pass inspection. This issue caused me to delay moving into our new home, by one week. There should be questions asked by sales or clearly stated when buying your system that includes the Smoke and CO detectors. I don't want to return and buy a new system. I am still within a 60 day window to return. Can you please tell me when you will have this interconnected feature working to alert all detectors or will I need to repurchased these detectors or will simplisafe replace the ones I have bought at no cost?
I also wanted to let you know your customer service professionals have been excellent when I have needed to call in and ask questions.
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jaybermudez
2 Messages
11 months ago
Austin - You clearly laid out the issue. Thank you. I too am experiencing issues with this and it is a major safety issue. Hopefully simply safe will fix this interconnectivity issue. I guess until then I will buy and install the siren.
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JBUSA2024
3 Messages
11 months ago
Any update on this? I am a loyal simplisafe customer of 5 years now and am currently going through a renovation. Code in my state requires interconnection of the alarms and system so they all sound when triggered. I will be having a final inspection in the next few weeks and if this is not resolved then I may have to look into another system that will meet the code requirements.
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