Does it send voice alert to tell you the type and location of danger? It warns you about danger with an 85-decibel alarm and voice alerts. In addition, Onlink App sends emergency notification to your phone or tablet. It interconnects multiple alarms to create a home safety network. Find details in Onelink smoke detector HomeKit review.
Pros & Cons – Onelink smoke detector HomeKit
Pros
- It has it’s own app that is modern and has a nice layout
- Easy to setup the alarm in the app
- The app has the ability to silence the alarm
- The alarm integrates via the traveler to set off existing alarms as well.
- It comes with several wiring adapters to make installation extremely easy.
- It has Alexa integration
Cons
- It is only compatible with Apple Home Kit.
- Alexa integration is a limited and doesn’t have direct integration
Price – Onelink smoke detector HomeKit
You can purchase the OneLink by First Alert Wi-Fi Smoke and CO Alarm now on Amazon and the Apple Store. Again, the hardwired model costs $120 (£80, AU$165) and the battery version is $110 (£75, AU$150).
The $100 second Gen Nest Protect does both well enough. I recommend that if you want a wholesale replacement, or the $35 Roost Smart Battery makes for an appealing retrofit option. It packs smarts into a familiar 9V battery and was quite responsive in our tests.
Onelink smoke detector HomeKit review
Build
The plastic build material and quality are both excellent and the back plate and the main unit snapped together effortlessly. Inside the box, there are three power adapter plugs, all very useful to have in hand for fast and simple installation
Design
The square enclosure has rounded-off corners, and a LED-encircled button in the center to test the alarm, or press it five times to reset the device. The device is smaller than the Safe and Sound, but still more sizable than your average hardware store smoke detector. Its dimension is 5.88 x 5.88 x 1.57 inches and it weighs 0.75 pounds.
LED indicator
Once you twist the alarm onto its mounted backing, the LEDs framing the alarm’s central button will flash green, and the alarm will speak a welcome before the lights flash blue, indicating that it’s ready to sync to your home’s router.
Sensors
This 2-in-1 smart smoke and carbon monoxide alarm alerts you to both types of danger in your home, with a photoelectric smoke sensor and electrochemical carbon monoxide sensor.
Phone alerts
If there is an irregularity with carbon monoxide readings or if smoke is detected within the home, users receive an alert via smartphone. That way, you can know there’s a potential problem even if you’re away. In addition, the First Alert Onelink Safe & Sound model also provides voice alerts from the system itself that lets you know the type of danger and where it is located within your home.
Loud alarm
Once the alarm sounds, it consistently takes 90 seconds or more for the push notification to come through. Perhaps I’m spoiled a bit by the digital age, but 90 seconds is an eternity. And since this is a safety device, this isn’t 90 seconds waiting for an Internet video to load. This is 90 seconds while your home is burning.
App – Onelink smoke detector HomeKit
The Onelink app was a pleasure to use. The interface was very clean and designed following Google’s Material Design language. Navigating around the app was fast and lag-free and all the important setting options were neatly sorted & easy to find.
When you first open the app, you’ll see the picture of your detector located in the room where you decided to set the detector into during the initial setup process.
Tap on the room and you’ll be taken to a different screen where all the useful information reside – Battery Level, Wi-Fi status, Device Status, an option to test the detector’s functionality, an option to silence the detector, and an option to adjust its “Nightlight” brightness level.
Apple HomeKit
As with any other HomeKit device, you can assign the alarm to a specific home, and then any of Apple’s organizational buckets within your home, such as Zones and Rooms. You’ll oddly assign the alarm to a specific room twice — once for HomeKit organization with a name you can spell out yourself, and once from a selected list based on the names the alarm is programmed to say out loud.
Once setup is completed in OneLink, in Homekit shows as two devices, CO Detector and Smoke Detector. In the first sight this might confusion as in the mindset there is only one device but you see two.
Feature usage: 1) Monitoring Status: in OneLink app it is neat and clear view of the status. Although with traditional ones can still know the status without being dependent on Apps and Phones where you go, and probably not frequently need to be monitored, the app give its benefit while you are away.
2) use of sound system: from OneLink site it is for virtual assistance. I tried with Siri, but didn’t;t work in first attempt, and this could be due to missing right setup in my guess. But the point to make here is that it is not a seamless process that once install app and hardware it works
Installation
If you’re replacing a wired smoke detector, the Onelink installation process is fairly simple. Begin by removing your old smoke detector. Utilize the mounting bracket provided with your Onelink smoke detector and plug into the AC power to install in place. After that, simply pair the device with the Onelink app. Once that is completed, you can pair the Alexa with your Amazon account.
The battery-powered version should be even easier to install, as it doesn’t need any wiring at all. You should, however understand the best areas of your home to place a smoke detector before you hook it up.
Onelink smoke detector HomeKit customer review
Easy install and setup
I was looking for a “smart” upgrade for my smoke/carbon monoxide detector after some friends brought up a good point about why these should be your most essential smart device. If your house is on fire while you’re away, it’ll alert your phone and you can contact someone immediately to check on it and call the fire department. In emergency situations like this, every second matters, especially if you have pets at home.The First Alert Onelink has a nice clean design and feels well built with solid, durable plastic. It should blend well in any decor, and looks more like a modern wireless router than a smoke/monoxide detector. I also love that you can label what room it’s in and what room it says in the voice alerts. Like “FIRE EMERGENCY DOWNSTAIRS. EVACUATE”.
However, what truly amazed me about the Onelink was how easy it is to install and setup. Wiring and mounting wise, it’s just like any other detector. A black, white, and optional orange wire that go to a simple harness, and it even comes with 2 other harnesses to daisy chain with other units. That was simple enough, but the amazing part came when I had to sync my phone app with the Onelink and connect it to my wireless network. On the Android market look for “Onelink Home by First Alert”. Once it’s installed, just make sure your phone is connected to the wifi network, open the app after you’re done wiring up the Onelink, and aside from asking your wifi info, it’ll detect and sync just about everything else automatically. From beginning to end, it took me maybe 20 minutes and I was taking my time.
This is a great choice for anyone looking for a simple and easy “smart” upgrade to their smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. I have pets, so knowing I’ll be alerted if there’s a fire or carbon monoxide emergency while I’m out gives me outstanding peace of mind.
By BIGASN at Best Buy
