I installed Google Nest smoke detectors a little more than 10 years ago. They all started their end of life shutdown. The old detectors were great, but Google doesn’t make smoke detectors anymore. They suggested I use First Alert models. Unfortunately, over the past few months, several of them have issued false alarms.

The most recent false alarm happened while we were asleep on or last day of the cruise. The alarm went off at 10 PM ship time, which is 4 PM here in Columbia. We found out about it at 7 AM ship time, which was 1 AM here in Columbia. Communication with our neighbors was sketchy. Thanks to our wall insulation, our immediate neighbors didn’t hear a thing, but a neighbor from across the street heard the alarm through the windows. Fortunately, our neighbors came over, confirmed there was no fire, and canceled the alarm.

The situation repeated itself the night we returned. Just as we were falling asleep, the same detector issued another false alarm. This time the “alarm cancel” button failed to cancel the alarm. Out of frustration and exhaustion, I removed it from the ceiling and permanently disabled it in the garage, with some help from my 5-pound sledge hammer.

I have since replaced that unit with a Kidde detector. If it runs for a month without any false alarms, I plan to replace all the remaining First Alert detectors with Kidde models.

Other than that, things are back to normal here. I hope this finds everybody doing well.