Google Nest Protect - Smoke Alarm

TLDR Basically Google/Nest made some kind of big mistake on the design and they found a higher voltage AA battery that bumps the voltage up high enough to make it function. They say you need these special batteries because other batteries will drain too fast which isn’t really honest. AA battery standards are to operate in the range of 1.65v to 1.2v. The batteries the recommend start at 1.8v. When my batteries died they still had 1.65v. So any battery that starts at less than that this smoke alarm will read as dead and needing to be replaced even if it is fully charged. So yeah you need a battery like the one they recommend or something that starts at 1.8v or more just to get any life out of it. Also save your “dead” batteries and use them in other devices because they still have what would normally be considered a full charge. Throw them in another device and they should still last longer than a brand new typical battery. Google has you throwing away perfectly good expensive batteries just because their engineering department completely failed to properly design the product. Full review and rant because Google get your S together! It is rare I can be bothered to write a review for something and there has to be pretty good reason for me to do so. This Nest smoke detector has got to be one of the worst stains on Google’s deteriorating reputation in their history. Even worse than their line of mediocre earbuds that they sell at a premium price. Being an Android user it is convenient to get pulled into the Google ecosystem. We have Nest thermostats, Pixel phones, and somewhat regrettably two generations of Pixel Buds. I decided it would be worth spending a little extra on a Google Smoke alarm that presumably would tie right into Google home right? Right? Wrong. Found out after the purchase that the alarm can only be accessed through the nest app and cannot be tied into Google Home in any way. Can’t see it on the app, let alone interact with it. Other household members won’t get alarm notifications through home, etc. The main thing inspiring me to write this is the battery issue which I now understand better and am primarily pissed because of how dis informative and misleading their marketing is. Of course this is just common practice for companies. Why be honest and have informed consumers when you can spin things to try to protect your companies reputation? We have had our S3000BWES for 9 months now. 9 months of wondering why we spent so much on such an annoying device. I will admit the big button on the face that can easily silence it when it is going off is a nice feature and even more valuable since it goes off if you are boiling water for spaghetti or taking a shower with the bathroom door open. This is with it’s steam false alarm mode or whatever it is called enabled. But back to the battery issue. So Google’s marketing in many places using different wording says things along the lines of “Both battery and wired Protect require Energizer Ultimate Lithium AA (L91) batteries. Don’t use rechargeable or alkaline batteries. If you do, they will quickly drain and will need to be replaced soon after installing them.” Now it does make sense if this device is a high draw device that lasts say 9 months on 3000 mah lithium batteries you probably don’t want to throw in your old worn out 1000 mah nicad rechargeable batteries because you will be replacing them all the time and your smoke alarm might just die while you are at work. Being the tree hugging environmentalist I am I have good modern rechargeable batteries. Both Ni-MH with 2800 MAH and an acceptable 1.45v fully charged and 2400MAH lithium that put out a solid 1.5v fully charged. When deciding to order the Nest I figure if I have to replace the batteries twice as often so be it but in reality these should last almost as long. This warning they give must be exaggerated to get you to buy the safest, longest lasting option right? So yesterday morning while I am sleeping the smoke alarm starts beeping loud and like once a minute. Not like old smoke alarms that just go off every once in a while. This thing is so persistent that I got out of bed, ripped out the batteries, and went back to sleep which is definitely safer than having a smoke alarm with low batteries right? You might think a company that specialized in “smart” devices might have say a notification on your phone that the batteries are getting low. Then maybe start with a quiet and rare beep, then ramping up slowly as it gets more urgent. But no it is the most annoying and constant low battery warning I have ever seen in a smoke detector. So I replace the batteries with freshly charged 2400 MAH lithium rechargeables. The other batteries lasted 9 months. If these last 3 I’ll be happy. Heck if I have to replace them once a month whatever. 3 hours later the smoke alarm starts beeping a low battery alert again. So I start digging and I find out that the Energizer L91 batteries have a higher than typical starting voltage of something like 1.8 volts. After a little more digging I realize that Google designed the alarm around 5V presumably to tie into USB standards. They could have engineered it to run on 1.5v x 4 in series to get 6 volts but no instead from info I can find they designed it to run on x3 in series which at 1.5v only hits 4.5v and at 1.2 which is typically considered the low end for a AA is 3.6v. Now many electronics can run a wide range like say 3.6v to 6v to have good safety margin so not being able to do this seems like a failure to spec acceptable components for the design. But as mentioned above they could have just run x4 in series and if necessary just stepped voltage down. But again that shouldn’t be necessary because electronics are designed with headroom. AA batteries have standards and any AA device should be designed to operate with a battery ranging from around 1.65v to 1.2 v. And apparently with a little high end headroom for batteries like the Energizer. Any AA powered device that can’t operate on 1.2v is just bad engineering and a failed design. Google effed up somehow and found these batteries as a band-aid. I tested the “dead” L91 batteries I took out of the smoke detector and they are still at 1.65V. They still have more charge and more life than a typical AA battery. I can put these in some other device and get a whole other life out of them. If you do get one of these smoke detectors save your old dead batteries and run them in other devices because they are still practically new. With that said why buy this smoke alarm? It doesn’t tie into Google home. There is very little functionality through the Nest app. It is expensive. It needs expensive batteries that need to be replaced all the time because of the high power draw to connect to wifi even though you can’t do much with it. You will get notifications if the alarm goes off but plenty of other newer smart smoke detectors can do that as well. It really seems like Google is just coasting on brand recognition and people wanting to stay in an ecosystem even if that ecosystem kind of sucks. The only positive thing I can say about this smoke detector is the big easy to bop button on the front. Every other aspect has just been frustrating, annoying, and disappointing. I did just figure out however that the USB port on the back (I wondered why it was there) does actually power the device so I’m going to set it up to use that as a primary power source and see how the rechargeables hold up hopefully just acting as a backup. I wish Google would start making some effort again. They are a horrible corporation but so are the alternative options. It would be nice if I could stay in their product ecosystem and not constantly regret it. It would be nice if customer service, technical support, etc, were easily accessible. Reality is however that next time I go to buy earbuds, a smoke alarm, maybe even a phone I will be much more actively looking at alternative options and this smoke alarm has been a big push in that direction.