Fibaro Smoke Sensor 3.3 - false alarms

[remcoploeg 10]

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,

[Cameleon 17]

I've ended up with a Nest Protect. We only need one, but ideally should have 2. For now I have one Nest Protect and taken away the Fibaro alarms. Shameful response from Fibaro really. Not seen any negative reviews of the Nest Protect v2 and I trust it much more. 

 

Now wondering, as I'm 100% Apple user, if I can ditch the Fibaro stuff completely and replace it with other Homekit devices like the HUE motion sensor etc and just sell it all. Only thing stopping me is I have the hall lights on a dimmer which brightens on motion and I can't seemingly get that from a homekit device (been hopeful for years there would be a physical HUE switch/dimmer)

[remcoploeg 10]

I am also moving to Nest, have two for one year now and never had a false alarm. Bye bye fibaro smoke sensors...

[sumsum 0]

As Fibaro is not handling the case seriously, as they keep on to not doing any proactive proposals to solve the issue.

I will return today all my smoke detection sensors and of course loose the money invested.

This device is definitively not reliable and therefore not safe.

I have finally chosen the both brands, Feller and Hager.

They are radio connected and two models are existing.

One for standard areas and one for areas with humidity or dust, the latter detects smoke but also heat.

I enter the signal to my domestic system via an EcoDevice dry contact input, and all works well.

We do not have anymore overnight false alarms.

Fibaro smoke detector subject closed for me!

[poseidon 1]

Hi, I'm new member and I need smoke sensor for my home. Did you consider at the moment that I need to buy another smoke sensor than Fibaro ?

[MrHill 0]

Hi all,

Same problem here. I bought 3 sensors in august 2017. Since a few months I got random false alarms. The seller said I had to remove them from the HC, clean, reset, and reconnect them. Quite strange if you ask me, I never had to clean my old DIY-store sensors.. 

[kroeatschge 29]

hi guys,

I own 3 fibaro smoke sensors. I have them installed since aprox 3 month.

All are working without false alarms so far.

 

I included them in secure mode. How did you guys include them? Secure or unsecure?

 

I was also concerned buying them as I read the topics here.

I need temperature and smoke detection, and so far I'm happy with it.

 

As some report the problems started only after 1,5 years, I'm still hoping they keep working.

 

BR - kro

[razorfish79 3]

Good luck. You will need it. 

Included as secure device. 

[hetbeest 0]

Same here. I just have one, got false alarms. Had it replacee. Got false alarms. Went back to a simple, old-fashioned smoke alarm. The €60 sensor is just laying around doing nothing. I hope for a solution from Fibaro, too.

[sumsum 0]

I have currently put my 9 smoke detectors in a box, to be sent back to Fibaro.

They are not handling this case seriously, see previous posts.

As I don't want to be waked-up during the night with false alarms, I return all smoke detectors.

My recommendation try another product for smoke detection but not the one from Fibaro.

I have interfaced Feller and Hager detectors to the HC2 and it works well.

I lost time and money with these products

[Tony270570 92]

Hi @kimbo, i already had this issue the only way i fond to fix it was to exclude/reincude.

i’ve tryed many thing even cleaning the device, removing batteries, soft reconfiguration, reconfiguration.... nothing did the job except the exclusion/inclusion.

 

[kimbo 0]

12 hours ago, Tony270570 said:

Hi @kimbo, i already had this issue the only way i fond to fix it was to exclude/reincude.

i’ve tryed many thing even cleaning the device, removing batteries, soft reconfiguration, reconfiguration.... nothing did the job except the exclusion/inclusion.

 

Hi, I will try to do it this weekend and keep you posted. thx

[Tony270570 92]

@kimbo thank you always good to have several returns on experience, hope that it will help!

[Cameleon 17]

5 minutes ago, poseidon said:

Hi, is it possible to connect Nest Protect to HC 2 ? Thks

Not as far as I'm aware, but I don't need any automation off the back of my smoke alarm, just has to let me know that its gone off which on testing, Nest is much more reliable than Fibaro push notifications. Admittedly, its not a perfect replacement as it doesn't integrate if you want some kind of automation off the back of the alarm. 

[kimbo 0]

On 7/20/2018 at 4:34 PM, Tony270570 said:

@kimbo thank you always good to have several returns on experience, hope that it will help!

 

So I did a reset of the device, cleaning it, re-connecting it and after some time I have again the same issue:

 

Please login or register to see this image.

[master_jo1 9]

Hey just today at 13:30 there was a false alarm of one of my smoke sensors.

 

any suggestions for me beside clean up?

 

attached tho files as evidence 

Please login or register to see this attachment.

Please login or register to see this attachment.

[kroeatschge 29]

I'm sorry to say it, but didn't want to belive it myself in the first place.

It will not recover from this state. I tried really long and all sorts of ideas to clean it, reposition it, re-include it.

None of it was a permanent solution. Once it starts to trigger false alarms it will stay like this.

Always at night, always without smoke. You will loose trust in the smoke sensor, because you start expecting false alarms. This is not what you want from a device

that should save your lifes.

 

@FIBARO is still not doing anything about the false alarms. Propably even not admitting there is anything wrong with the device.

 

So the one and only solution is to remove the battery and use it in a different device.

Then throw away the smoke sensor before your wife questions the whole home-automation system.

 

If you are still on warranty, return it to the place where you purchased it. Don't take a replacement smoke sensor, take your money back.

Amazon even stopped selling the fibaro smoke sensors. Take a guess why ...

 

kro

[razorfish79 3]

14 minutes ago, kroeatschge said:

I'm sorry to say it, but didn't want to belive it myself in the first place.

It will not recover from this state. I tried really long and all sorts of ideas to clean it, reposition it, re-include it.

None of it was a permanent solution. Once it starts to trigger false alarms it will stay like this.

Always at night, always without smoke. You will loose trust in the smoke sensor, because you start expecting false alarms. This is not what you want from a device

that should save your lifes.

 

@FIBARO is still not doing anything about the false alarms. Propably even not admitting there is anything wrong with the device.

 

So the one and only solution is to remove the battery and use it in a different device.

Then throw away the smoke sensor before your wife questions the whole home-automation system.

 

If you are still on warranty, return it to the place where you purchased it. Don't take a replacement smoke sensor, take your money back.

Amazon even stopped selling the fibaro smoke sensors. Take a guess why ...

 

kro

Nothing to add from my side. Perfect summary

[master_jo1 9]

Thank you both for the outstanding outpointing to the bottom of the facts.

 

After your statement I lose not only the trust in the fibaro smoke sensor due to the fact there are false alarms, I also lose the trust in correctly working device in fact there is a real issue.

Will they work as expected and protect my family or not?!?

 

Due to that, one more device out of the fibaro group wich I can throw away.

i can even not sell it as a used good because then I feel sad a non working device given to someone... (no further explanation)

 

so i paid expensive apprenticeship.

 

hope there is a reaction by fibaro doing like amazon and they stop selling this device to protect the customer health and the customer pocket.

 

For those who have this devices hope fibaro will give a update or withdrawals possiblity, otherwise beside the update Desaster and some devices within there portfolio the community I promise will give up and no longer supports fibaro as a brand and move to other brands.

 

let me point out one more thing:

I decided for fibaro as a exclusive brand with unique selling point (USP) by devices and command center. I thought all fibaro portfolio device working together perfectly, one smart home out of one company.

Now, Due to more than 3 years experience, they moved to a expensive brand w/o any competitive advantage anymore.

when there is a point for a need to decide for a implementation of new smart home, I will stay by z-wave but using a raspberry (35€, no joke) with z-wave products from other brands which will work and are cheaper.

 

Kind regards

 

ps: I am a disappointed costumer.

[karaokek 3]

On 5/12/2018 at 7:44 AM, sumsum said:

I have finally chosen the both brands, Feller and Hager.

They are radio connected and two models are existing.

One for standard areas and one for areas with humidity or dust, the latter detects smoke but also heat.

I enter the signal to my domestic system via an EcoDevice dry contact input, and all works well.

 

You seem to have found an alternative solution.

Is it possible to post the model numbers you use.

also, exactly how do you connect then to Fibaro controller - HC2

Thanks

[Michal G. 0]

I had more than few Fibaro Smoke Sensors (both Zwave and Zwave plus) fitted in my house over 1.5 years ago. Here are my observations:

- Smoke sensors are extremely sensitive, for example: it's enough to smoke an e-cigarette in same room to set it off, even smoke alarms in aircraft toilets are not that sensitive. The sensor located in my (insulated) loft can often be set off by fog outside.

- Fibaro Smoke sensors are also set off by dust in the air - way quicker than any other home smoke sensor i tested.

- Dust in air severely degenerates Fibaro Smoke Sensors - they are quickly and permanently becoming even more sensitive when there's any kind of dust in the air.

- This has nothing to do with the distance from the hub. Some people are reporting that the sensors history doesnt register any smoke while sensors sets off. I believe that the "spikes" of smoke detection are so short that sometimes they are not even registered.