Boy, Do Google's Nest Smoke Alarms Have A Lot Of Crappy Reviews

It's handyman day around the Blodget household.

One of the items on the list is replacing a couple of smoke detectors.

I recalled that Google is now in the smoke-alarm business, through its acquisition of Nest.

I was looking for a WiFi-enabled smoke detector that can be controlled from an app, and Google's fits the bill.

The Nest smoke detectors cost about 5-times as much as normal smoke detectors, but the app allows you to control the thing (sort of) from your phone. And that seems cool.

So I went to Amazon to buy a couple.

And then I had the same experience that I had when I went to Amazon to buy a Nest thermostat. I was bombarded by a fusillade of terrible reviews.

Basically, Nest smoke detectors seems to come in two varieties: Some that work, which people love. And some that constantly squawk false alarms, which people hate. As a result, the Nest smoke detectors have tons of 5-star reviews and tons of 1-star reviews, with few in the middle.

Well, I hate false alarms.

I also already hate another apparent "feature" of the Nest, which is that you can't turn off the alarm from the app. Instead, in the middle of the night, you have to find a ladder, rip the thing off the ceiling, and figure out how to remove the batteries, all while wincing from the piercing shrieking coming out of the device.

(And, after that, you presumably leave the device in a drawer somewhere, far from its batteries, and thus go unprotected.)

That sounds horrible. So now I don't know what to do.

Should I spring for one and hope that I get one of the good ones?

Or should I go with one of the old reliable app-less ones?

While I'm weighing my options, here are some representative binary reviews.

GREAT:

AWFUL:

What sayest thou, Google? Fix on the way? What's a buyer to do?

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