If you have Nest Protect smoke alarms and want to connect them to an alarm system for monitoring, you’ve likely found that there are no direct integrations available since Google took over the Nest logins sometime in 2020. Something something avoiding liability for burning a house down…
That leaves a smoke alarm sensor like this from Abode, which is not a smoke alarm itself, but listens for other smoke alarms – specifically a UL 217 / T3 beep pattern. Does the Nest Protect do that?
Chat with Abode Support: “The Smoke Alarm Monitor detects the (T-3 tone/beeps) sounds produced by your existing smoke detector & when triggered, it transmits an encrypted wireless alarm signal to the abode Gateway and activates the gateways siren (pulsing sound). If the Nest sensor emits T-3 beep it will work.” (Screenshot)
Abode Support message: “I just verified that our system doesn’t work with nest products.” (Screenshot)
Reddit post 2/21/2020: “Yes, it will be picked up by the abode smoke alarm monitor (assuming it’s placed nearby). The alarm is standardized so all fire alarms sound about the same and I can also personally attest after burning something in my oven and setting it off (Nest protect went off, abode called to see if I was ok).” (Link)
Reddit Post 3/1/2020: No clear answers (Link)
Google Support Post 12/5/2021: No answers (Link)
So, maybe? Maybe not?
I purchased one to find out for myself.
And it works! There are beeps before/after the spoken part of the Nest warning that must be the T3 pattern.
In a real-world test (burned newspaper) the Nest Protect system went off and Abode triggered about 10 seconds later. I disarmed both, and then received a call from Abode Monitoring confirming if everything was OK and if the house was on fire. Screenshots below.
I’ll send this to Abode to confirm that their system does in fact work with Nest Protect.
