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Fibaro Smoke Sensor 3.3 - false alarms


remcoploeg

Question

Hi,

 

In the middle of the night suddenly my Fibaro smokesensor v3.3 gave a firealarm (I see  also that the smoke alarm is breached in the HC2 for that sensor). So I went upstairs, but there was no smoke (also no smoke in the history of the sensor in the HC2). I removed the battery to sleep again. I have two questions:

 

- Why did the smoke alarm went off? There was no history of smoke in the sensor in HC2 (the graph was like the whole day). Any idea how I can troubleshoot this?

- Why did the other smoke sensor (gladly for now) didn't went off? 

 

This is the first time it happend and I have 12 Fibaro smoke sensors.... BTW I don't get any notification of a firealarm in the HC2 itself (glady I had a own virtual device) of other mobile devices from the standard interface of the HC2

 

thanks in advance,

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Hello,

I have the same or similar problems. I have been using smoke detectors of version 2 for nearly 2 years. I would like to share my experiences with you over the last two years.

In the first year:
I had installed two smoke detectors in the basement, they had produced false alarms after about 6 months. Preferably at night. These I have sent back after several times of troubleshooting(sensitivity adjusted, Blowing with compressor, basement ventilation multiple as usual, take battery a couple of days away) to the seller. (No exchange, in which case I preferred the money.)


Three other smoke detectors (version 2), which are distributed in the house, also reported alternating frequently false alarms. Again for no apparent reason. The values in the UI of the smoke detector give no information or the UI has no values only the temperature. But the temperature was static. If I have problems, then preferably at night. And when it starts again with false alarms, then usually several nights in succession.

In the second year:
I can circumscribe the false alarms. The false alarms are dependent on the season. The smoke detectors make most false alarms in the summer months. Almost, several nights, always again. In the winter months it is isolated, rather, if it is perhaps in the rooms by heating a little warmer.
I also tried to exchange the smoke detectors between the rooms. What is noticeable was interesting, a smoke detector (ground floor), which had never produced false alarms so far, I packed into the attic, where there were more frequent false alarms. And it did not take long, then this smoke detector also had false alarms.


Of 9 smoke detectors, 7 smoke detectors often have false alarms. The two smoke detectors, which have no false alarms, are on the ground floor. All other smoke detectors on the upper floor, attic or cellar have always had false alarms.


After the false alarms accumulated at the end of July, I removed all smoke detectors with false alarms in the rooms and placed them directly (30 cm away) next to the antenna from the HC2 (in the basement). Since then the smoke detectors have not had a false alarm. (since two and a half month)

My personal conclusion

I had a long time the hope that Fibaro provides a solution to the known problems. But, you have to keep in mind that after so many false alarms, the confidence in the smoke detectors is no longer given, because you only think of a false alarm instead of a fire alarm. Apart from the countless sleepless nights. According to the findings in the last two years, the smoke detectors go back to the seller before the warranty is over and I let the seller refund my money.

In my opinion, Fibaro has miss, despite known problems, to present a solution against the false alarms in recent years.

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  • 16 hours ago, Mickler said:

    Hello,

     

    I have the same or similar problems. I have been using smoke detectors of version 2 for nearly 2 years. I would like to share my experiences with you over the last two years.

    In the first year:
    I had installed two smoke detectors in the basement, they had produced false alarms after about 6 months. Preferably at night. These I have sent back after several times of troubleshooting(sensitivity adjusted, Blowing with compressor, basement ventilation multiple as usual, take battery a couple of days away) to the seller. (No exchange, in which case I preferred the money.)

     


    Three other smoke detectors (version 2), which are distributed in the house, also reported alternating frequently false alarms. Again for no apparent reason. The values in the UI of the smoke detector give no information or the UI has no values only the temperature. But the temperature was static. If I have problems, then preferably at night. And when it starts again with false alarms, then usually several nights in succession.
     

     

    In the second year:
    I can circumscribe the false alarms. The false alarms are dependent on the season. The smoke detectors make most false alarms in the summer months. Almost, several nights, always again. In the winter months it is isolated, rather, if it is perhaps in the rooms by heating a little warmer.
    I also tried to exchange the smoke detectors between the rooms. What is noticeable was interesting, a smoke detector (ground floor), which had never produced false alarms so far, I packed into the attic, where there were more frequent false alarms. And it did not take long, then this smoke detector also had false alarms.

     


    Of 9 smoke detectors, 7 smoke detectors often have false alarms. The two smoke detectors, which have no false alarms, are on the ground floor. All other smoke detectors on the upper floor, attic or cellar have always had false alarms.

     


    After the false alarms accumulated at the end of July, I removed all smoke detectors with false alarms in the rooms and placed them directly (30 cm away) next to the antenna from the HC2 (in the basement). Since then the smoke detectors have not had a false alarm. (since two and a half month)

     

    My personal conclusion

    I had a long time the hope that Fibaro provides a solution to the known problems. But, you have to keep in mind that after so many false alarms, the confidence in the smoke detectors is no longer given, because you only think of a false alarm instead of a fire alarm. Apart from the countless sleepless nights. According to the findings in the last two years, the smoke detectors go back to the seller before the warranty is over and I let the seller refund my money.

     

    In my opinion, Fibaro has miss, despite known problems, to present a solution against the false alarms in recent years.

     

    I think I will do the same with my 12 smoke sensors. Last night it was again.... again an other smokesensor. In the blackbox of the device you see one spike of smoke (that was not there off course) and al my lights in the whole house went off and on again.... great with 2 kids. Thanks Fibaro! And thanks for not solving this issue and ignoring our feedback on this device. 

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    Hi razorfish,

    I can get the graph also from my Z-Way controller, was thinking about the graph from the sensor inside. In HC you get an % value that shows the actual dust value.

    I checked this with a friend and we can see 2% to 4% on different times/days. He also had false alarms, but this value was never high.

    So i thougt of getting this value for different controllers, as i assume the sensor is sending this value. But where and when????

    @Fibaro support please answer.

     

    @Mickler and remcoploeg, very good description and conclusion. When I installed my exchanged sensors I realized that one of my other 13 sensors gave a false alarm in the morning and

    another at night.....

    I will test for some more months, but will return them at the end of the year if there is no solution and if i receive more false alarms.

     

    In summary there should be more reaction from Fibaro, maybe a Beta FW to Beta testers.

    I can understand that there isn´t a change in the smoke sensor possible, as it is tested by different legal departments, but at least I believe that it is NOT smoke that is creating the false alarms.

     

    Edited by enbemokel
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    >Mickler

    >After the false alarms accumulated at the end of July, I removed all smoke detectors with false alarms in the rooms and placed them directly (30 cm away) next to the antenna from the HC2 (in the basement). Since >then the smoke detectors have not had a false alarm. (since two and a half month)

     

    Btw, this is surprising. Cause the fire alarm should also work without a problem if the sensor is just used without a controller. Also I have a sensor sitting one meter direct

    sight to controller and I have one false alarm from this sensor.

    So, any more ideas are welcome  :-)

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    I had one Fibaro smoke sensor. It was giving me a lot of false alarms, especially at night.
    My sensor was approximately 2 meters from HCL antenna. So, it cannot be issue.
    I removed this sensor from my house and installed it in my workplace room. In there it was also giving false alarms.

    Finally I did send it  back to seller and after checking device under warranty money was refunded.

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    Hi Team, hi Forum

     

    unfortunatly one of the 4 new devices from the oktober batch started false alarms 2 days ago.

    So there seems no solution for this problem and I can see a lack of communication from fibaro in this case after exchanging the products.

    Yesterday I checked amazon and find out that there are many bad feedbacks and products going back to amazon or vendor.

    On the weekend i will disable everything on the sensors, temperatur and heat alarm to see if there is a change.

    If not I MUST return the devices for working vendor.

     

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    Lo and behold - I had another false alarm today! Went to check the HC2 to make sure all is well - as I'm sat at work and its telling me there is a fire at the house - so I go check my Fire Alarm scene and its telling me no fire. After the initial trigger, it decided less than 30 seconds later there was no fire (the scene double checks). So I think I need to update my scene to fire me one push message when 'fire' begins and another if it decides its a false alarm! 

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    Is there any update from Fibaro? I am considering buying some of the smoke sensors, but there are so many negative reviews on Amazon that I am hesitant to go the Fibaro route. TIA.

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    Fibaro devices are almost good but I can not recommend the smoke sensor in any way. Keep away unless they bring a new improved version of it. 

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  • Inquirer
  • 41 minutes ago, Hooch said:

    Is there any update from Fibaro? I am considering buying some of the smoke sensors, but there are so many negative reviews on Amazon that I am hesitant to go the Fibaro route. TIA.

    Off course no update. I am going for the NEST devices now (yes no integration with Fibaro), so if you want to buy 12 smokesensors please sent me a message, I am happy to sell

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    I would not even think about selling my 13 ones as I would have a guilty conscience as I know they do not work. They will go to trash. 

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    If you sell them one by one, then it´s not too bad. 2 false alarm a year is O.K. in a small house. But with 17 sensors it´s not fun.

    Waiting for Fibaro to get some help. I would like to get a debug FW to test.

     

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    On 18.10.2017 at 1:23 PM, enbemokel said:

    was thinking about the graph from the sensor inside. In HC you get an % value that shows the actual dust value.

    I checked this with a friend and we can see 2% to 4% on different times/days. He also had false alarms, but this value was never high.

    So i thougt of getting this value for different controllers, as i assume the sensor is sending this value. But where and when????

    @Fibaro support please answer.

     

    Hi Forum, hi Fibaro Team,

     

    is there any help available, how can I get the data? HC is showing this "actual dust value" so the sensor is sending the data. How to

    get this value to check this?

    Any idea?

    Thanks

     

    Edited by enbemokel
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    Hi,

    I have 10 Fibaro smoke sensors (002) connected to my HC2 and during the first and a half years had false alarms on six of them. The four that I sent for repair were repeatedly generating false alarms, but did not produce the symptoms any longer after I got them back.  

    I have not configured any associations or scenes. 

    Would like to share two main observations:

    • Alarm going off without smoke, the history shows zero smoke density 0.0. Today this happened a few minutes after replacing the battery.
      The only way to stop the alarm when that happens is taking out the battery. After re-inserting of the battery, the fire status of the module in the HC2 dashboard only disappeared after soft reconfiguration. (Logically, the module will never send a status change after false alarm as the smoke level is already zero).
       
    • I noticed with several smoke detectors that the push-button does not always work as specified. I was several times not able to go through the menu to initiate the range test. The LED went dark right after releasing the button, sometimes the first color change was briefly visible before the LED got dark. At first I thought that flexing of the case would prevent the button from being released properly or that the particular device had a flawed switch, but the audible click indicates otherwise. Today, when it happened again, I took out the battery and re-inserted it after a few seconds. After that, walking the menue by means of the push-button worked flawlessly. This should exclude a mechanical problem. To me, it looks as if the internal software was not started up properly, or maybe the memory was not cleared as it should. If this could lead to false alarms over time? Interestingly, when I replaced the battery today and left the device in such state, I almost immediately got a false alarm (see above). It would be interesting if anybody has made a similar observation, maybe without paying too much attention to it (as I did before).

    BTW: the batteries last for little less than 1.5 years in my installation, leaving reporting intervals at their default setting.

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    Hi Team, hi Forum, someone has an idea?

     

    On 18.10.2017 at 1:23 PM, enbemokel said:

    was thinking about the graph from the sensor inside. In HC you get an % value that shows the actual dust value.

    I checked this with a friend and we can see 2% to 4% on different times/days. He also had false alarms, but this value was never high.

    So i thougt of getting this value for different controllers, as i assume the sensor is sending this value. But where and when????

    @Fibaro support please answer.

     

    Hi Forum, hi Fibaro Team,

     

    is there any help available, how can I get the data? HC is showing this "actual dust value" so the sensor is sending the data. How to

    get this value to check this?

    Any idea?

    Thanks

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    Hi Forum,

     

    just an update even it´s not positive in regards to Fibaro. I exchanged 5 of the Fibaros with another vendor and had no false alarm any more.

    So, don´t use the Fibaros Smoke Sensors FGSD-002 if they are not in a living room enviroment.

    Also no reaction from the team to my question before, seems these are critical informations from their system.

    But luckily we have some other choices in Z-Wave market.

    CU

     

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    Think I will be getting rid of mine. They look great but too many false alarms and the wife has had enough. What brand did you go with?

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    Hi, I bought D-Link, they look the same like the Devolo. Unfortunatly they are stupid and just for Smoke, but I´m fine with this function  ;-)

    I assume there are some more clones of this type, found Philio or Zipato. It´s all the same.

    Edited by enbemokel
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    Hi there,

    I have systematically returned the smoke detector with false alarms but they repeatedly had false alarms again.
    I have posted several info in the Fibaro bug tracker. But it seems that Fibaro is not considering its customers and even does not answer to the posts.

    As I want a reliable solution, I decided to move to another type of smoke alarms which can be connected via radio but also wired.

    Finally this solution has a receiver with a dry contact output allowing to catch the status from the Fibaro HC2 via any type of input device.

    I tested 2 pieces they work very well.

    Manufacturer is Feller from Switzerland (Schneider Electric Group). Batteries are guaranteed 10 years. Compliant to almost all regulations.

     

     

     

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