Nest Recall Issued for 400K Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarms

Roughly 440,000 Nest smoke and carbon monoxide alarms have been recalled after the manufacturer learned the products may not signal an alarm if a particular motion sensor is activated, potentially causing a delay in alerting homeowners to danger.

The Nest Protect: Smoke + CO Alarm recall was announced by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission on May 21, after recognizing that activity near the alarms during a fire may prevent or delay the alarm from immediately sounding.

The problems stem from a feature known as “Nest Wave”, which is designed to allow users to temporarily silence some alerts or cancel a manual test by vigorously waving an arm near the detector unit. While the feature is designed to allow users to avoid false alarms, such as when smoke is the result of cooking, it has been determined that the Wave feature may be accidentally engaged.

The recall includes all Nest Protect Smoke + CO alarms, which are square and made of black or white plastic, measuring about 5.25 inches around and about 1.5 inches in depth. The alarms have the word “Nest” printed on a large button located on the center face of the square.

Nest Labs Inc. determined the Wave feature may pose a hazard to users due to the feature being automatically set to the “On” position from the factory.

The products were manufactured in China by Nest Labs Inc., of Palo Alto, California where they were sold at Best Buy, Home Depot, and other retail stores nationwide as well as online at nest.com, amazon.com, bestbuy.com, and homedepot.com from November 15, 2013 to April 3, 2014 for about $130.

On April 3, Nest Labs CEO Tony Fadell issued a warning letter about the potential Nest alarm problems, indicating that sale of the alarms was being halted until details on how to repair the issue are discovered. In the release, the CEO stated fast burning fires may be mistaken by the Wave feature as an arm moving vigorously which would disable to alarm from sounding.

Customers with Nest Protect: Smoke + CO Alarms should connect the device to their wireless network and link to a Nest account. Connecting the device will automatically receive an update that disables the Nest Wave feature.

Nest Labs Inc. is requesting all customers to confirm they have been updated by going to Nest Sense on their Nest account mobile or web application and by checking to see if the button for Nest wave is in the “Off” position and is grayed out on the actual device. Customers with questions may contact Nest Labs at 800-249-4280 or visit them online at nest.com and navigate to the Nest Protect Safety Notice for more information.