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First Alert Wireless Smoke & Fire Alarm (ZSMOKE/ZCOMBO)

PostPosted: Mon Sep 30, 2013 4:59 pm
by jay (support)
Use this forum topic to discuss the ZSMOKE Smoke & Fire Alarm and the ZCOMBO Smoke/Fire & Carbon Monoxide Alarm from First Alert. These devices are basically identical except that the latter will also sound an alarm when Carbon Monoxide levels are too high.

ZSMOKE Device Details
ZCOMBO Device Details
How to use with Indigo

Re: First Alert Wireless Smoke & Fire Alarm (ZSMOKE/ZCOMBO)

PostPosted: Thu Oct 03, 2013 6:53 am
by Dewster35
Jay, Do you know if there is another model number on these? I've searched for ZSMOKE and ZCOMBO on amazon and I can't see anything that says it is z-wave compatible.

Re: First Alert Wireless Smoke & Fire Alarm (ZSMOKE/ZCOMBO)

PostPosted: Thu Oct 03, 2013 1:43 pm
by jay (support)
Dewster35 wrote:
Jay, Do you know if there is another model number on these? I've searched for ZSMOKE and ZCOMBO on amazon and I can't see anything that says it is z-wave compatible.


I believe those are exclusive to Lowes - at least for the moment. I have no idea if First Alert (aka BRK) has any plans to sell them through other channels but I assume after some period of exclusivity they probably will.

Re: First Alert Wireless Smoke & Fire Alarm (ZSMOKE/ZCOMBO)

PostPosted: Thu Oct 03, 2013 4:06 pm
by Dewster35
jay (support) wrote:
I believe those are exclusive to Lowes - at least for the moment. I have no idea if First Alert (aka BRK) has any plans to sell them through other channels but I assume after some period of exclusivity they probably will.


Are these fairly new devices? Not even showing up in their online store.

Re: First Alert Wireless Smoke & Fire Alarm (ZSMOKE/ZCOMBO)

PostPosted: Thu Oct 03, 2013 4:57 pm
by jay (support)
Yes, but they are on the website (though I found mine in-store): ZSMOKE, ZCOMBO. Prices seem to be extremely reasonable IMO.

Note that the packaging says "Requires Iris Hub", but that's not actually true. It's a standard Z-Wave device (the documentation even has a "Other Z-Wave Systems" section that tells you how to include/exclude).

Re: First Alert Wireless Smoke & Fire Alarm (ZSMOKE/ZCOMBO)

PostPosted: Thu Oct 03, 2013 5:20 pm
by Dewster35
VERY reasonable price! Thanks for the link! Just scored some points with my father-in-law!

Re: First Alert Wireless Smoke & Fire Alarm (ZSMOKE/ZCOMBO)

PostPosted: Sat Oct 05, 2013 3:55 pm
by gregjsmith
I purchased a ZCOMBO today. I was able to create a device in Indigo but when I try to create an trigger the only option I'm given is battery level.

Screen SharingScreenSnapz001.png
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Re: First Alert Wireless Smoke & Fire Alarm (ZSMOKE/ZCOMBO)

PostPosted: Sat Oct 05, 2013 5:06 pm
by matt (support)
The ZSMOKE and ZCOMBO support will be in the next release of Indigo 6 (v6.0.3).

Re: First Alert Wireless Smoke & Fire Alarm (ZSMOKE/ZCOMBO)

PostPosted: Sat Oct 05, 2013 5:43 pm
by jay (support)
Which is what it says on the device details page for those devices... :D

Re: First Alert Wireless Smoke & Fire Alarm (ZSMOKE/ZCOMBO)

PostPosted: Sat Oct 05, 2013 7:40 pm
by gregjsmith
Sorry. I didn't realize I had a version less than 6.0.3.

Re: First Alert Wireless Smoke & Fire Alarm (ZSMOKE/ZCOMBO)

PostPosted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 6:13 pm
by gregjsmith
I wanted to mention that I found these in the Lowes here in Albuquerque. They were not in the normal display for First Alert stuff in the hardware section. There was another display with Iris home automation stuff near the electrical section and they were located there.

Re: First Alert Wireless Smoke & Fire Alarm (ZSMOKE/ZCOMBO)

PostPosted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 7:22 pm
by jay (support)
Yeah, Lowe's hasn't really figured it out yet. I've been to two local stores: the first had all the iris stuff centrally located. The second didn't and had the zcombo with the rest of the smoke detectors. The latter Lowe's also had no idea what they were or where so I just had to look around myself.

So, for the moment, check on the website to see if there's a local store that has them. If so then it's a bit of a treasure hunt - just be persistent.

Re: First Alert Wireless Smoke & Fire Alarm (ZSMOKE/ZCOMBO)

PostPosted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 8:57 pm
by Dewster35
Free online shipping for my area! When I stopped in and asked them about Iris awhile back, the people here didn't even know what I was talking about until I pulled it up on my phone. Not sure they are doing a very good job of educating their employees on product...not that I'm surprised having worked in one of those big box stores during my college years.

Re: First Alert Wireless Smoke & Fire Alarm (ZSMOKE/ZCOMBO)

PostPosted: Sat Oct 12, 2013 2:19 am
by dduff617
i'm finding it hard to get much info on these units, particularly what you can do with them via z-wave.

here's what i'd like to do:

  • in a smoke detection event, tell which specific unit is triggering (not merely that some smoke or some CO detector is triggering).
  • ditto for a CO detection event, and it should be discernible from a smoke event.
  • monitor the status of batteries. i would like to at least be able to detect the onset of low battery condition (and before it starts chirping). preferably i'd like to be be able to track battery voltage over time so i could predict when low battery condition was going to occur.
  • track remaining service lifetime of the sensor, if applicable
  • monitor liveness of the units - i.e. set up a trigger for the event where indigo has not seen a status message or "heartbeat" or whatever in some period of time.
  • monitor the sensor level - i.e. periodically read the level of smoke or CO, including if it is below threshold. this might allow you to do something intelligent such as warn of the onset of an alarm condition or detect "nuisance" borderline alarms like burned toast.

do the zsmoke/zcombo support any/all of those?

i heard that nest labs is coming out with detectors that will do much of the above (and other stuff) and which i think will use WiFi to communicate, but it looks like they're also going to be expensive.

Re: First Alert Wireless Smoke & Fire Alarm (ZSMOKE/ZCOMBO)

PostPosted: Sat Oct 12, 2013 5:59 am
by midd
I have a z-stick and some z-wave devices en-route to me from MacHomestore. I'm intrigued with these ZSmoke detectors. I currently have a Smoke Bridge and a few OneLink detectors. I'm assuming I could setup triggers that will set off the Zsmoke detectors if the OneLink detectors are activated and vice versa?