Ring Alarm Smoke & CO Listener | Mobile App Notifications for Existing Smoke/CO Detectors | Base Station Required

It connected fine and was installed appropriately, however it has gone through two batteries within a week. I’m not interested in having to constantly maintain. I’m also a little concerned with the immediate fire department notification whether it’s an accidental alarm or not. UPDATE: 3/2020 2 star to 5 Ring costumer service reached out to me immediately and has completely resolved the battery problem and answered my concerns regarding the C02 / Fire listener. First of all, I may have had a faulty listener, which was replaced with a new one quite quickly. However, with a larger number of sensors I had going on in my house, there were also some connection issues / low signal issues which seem to drain the batteries faster than expected. With the addition of multiple range extenders, problems with far away motion sensors and door sensors seem to be resolved. Now, I'm not saying this system is flawless, it may take some trouble shooting and working with your system and home to determine how the system itself best fits your environment, but all in all, I think RING is a pretty good DIY home alarm system. Big props to the RING costumer service... very helpful and easy to deal with through email. As for C02 / Fire alarm listener.... If fire alarm is tripped, whether it's a fire or smokey kitchen oven, the alarm company will call contacts, just as they would for a break-in alarm. If no answer, they will then call emergency. If the C02 alarm is tripped, dispatch will automatically call emergency services being that c02 leak is immediate and life threatening. (FYI, the listener knows the difference in beeps from each detector)

While we live in a fairly new home, exercise caution when it comes to things that could ignite a fire, have an emergency evacuation plan, fire extinguishers close by, fire blankets, etc. The famous saying “stuff” happens. Our interconnected smoke detectors can sound all the want when no one is home and they won’t cause the fire department to respond unless someone calls 911. When installing the Ring Alarm, we felt better knowing a signal would transmit to the monitoring center (with our subscription) if someone broke in, but frankly we are insured. I could care less about our things, don’t hurt my dogs and you are welcome to clear every last valuable. Then I got to thinking “what if a fire broke out”, how could we give our girls the best fighting chance when no one is home!?! I added these babies as well as a First Alert Z-Wave Smoke and CO detector to our Ring system. First and foremost, there is no missing an alarm activation, we’ve got 8 smoke detectors sounding at the same time, plus it triggers the Ring Alarm sirens (both the base station and the additional interior sirens we added) and Helen Keller herself couldn’t miss it. Then you also get an instant push notification and/or text to your phone before the alarm company calls. If I were out, I’d let Ring call the fire department, I’d be calling my neighbors to go smash the sliding door and get my girls out, because at the end of the day, everything else is just stuff. Aside from my dogs added safety, this removes a step from my hands in the event of a fire so my focus can be evacuation. Ring is calling the fire department for me, so I can focus on getting myself, my spouse, and my dogs outside safely. How do I know these “listeners” work, simple… I’ve had a false alarm due to a cooking mishap. Ring was very quick to get the ball rolling. Because I canceled the alarm within a few seconds of its activation, the dispatcher called before contacting the fire department, and at my request took no further action. It’s quite nice to know that someone is always there to back me up should I need it. These little guys work, and do their job well.

With Ring, you have two choices when it comes to alerting you and others that smoke or CO is in the house: a First Alert smoke/CO detector with Z-wave technology or this listener. The first actually detects a problem, and this listener waits for other detectors to go off before reporting the problem. Because I have a hard-wired system where every alarm goes off when one does, the listener was the most cost-effective. I need only one listener instead of several detectors placed throughout the house. If we didn't have a whole-house system, then I would have gotten one listener for each floor since it still would have been fewer devices than if I placed new detectors in every bedroom and hallway. As with all Ring security devices, this listener was a breeze to install and activate. Just follow the instructions on the app, and it's added to your list within minutes. The most time consuming part is installing it 6" or less from an existing detector. That is as difficult as drilling holes and screwing the base in. If you have a hard-wired, whole-house system, you can select any alarm to place it next to, even in an out-of-the-way location. Note: If you are connected to Ring's service, make sure you follow the instructions to put it in test mode so that it doesn't trigger a response. I love my Ring security system, and this listener add functionality that I didn't expect when I first bought into the system. -- Debbie Lee Wesselmann

Once set up, the smoke and CO listener work great. Set up instructions are not very clear. Recommend watching a utube video on setting up the listener. The issue is getting the listener into test mode. You will need to hold the button longer than the instructions indicate to get the device into test mode. Once you get the device into test mode, then everything works very well to complete the set up of the smoke and CO listener.

I love knowing that my smoke detectors in the remote locations of the house that might not be heard when alarming are being monitored and that the ring alarm will sound even when disarmed when a detector alarms. Only thing I would suggest for improvement is that a software feature be incorporated that can send an app notification when the battery is dying in the actual smoke detector. When it is dying, the actual smoke detector will periodically sound a single beep. The monitor is sitting right there next to it hearing this. Why can’t it alert the base station and have the app notify me to change the battery in the actual smoke detector? Just have it so if it hears 10 consecutive single beeps all spaced equal time apart, have the app notify me. If you’re worried about liability, just have the app notify what it has heard. ie: “Smoke detector monitor in garage has heard 10 consecutive single beeps all spaced 1 minute apart.” Then put in your usage agreement that the feature does not absolve the owner of the responsibility to change their batteries every 6 months and manually test every 1 month as required by manufacturer recommendations “ or something like that. I just think this is a feature that can be incorporated and would be really nice to have.

Highly recommend

This thing says in the ad when I bought it and still says it today, that it does not detect anything. It does not detect fire, smoke, or CO. Therefore, all it does is listens to your in home detectors and has no way of knowing anything about the particular issue itself. Here is what happened with me...My in home detectors aggravated the heck out of me with the dreaded low battery chirp. So I go buy a 9volt, get on the ladder and change it. While I am there, I decided let me test my detectors. Forgetting to put that ring listener in test mode. 5 seconds later, Ring alarm is alarming, 5 seconds later I cancel via the app, 5 seconds later, the monitoring people call me and ask if everything is ok. I say yes, i was just testing and forgot to put it in test mode. They then say well we will send the fire department no matter what. I am like why, they said because its CO alert. I said no its not, because i was just testing and a listener doesnt detect anything. They said oh well we are sending them anyway because that's our policy and no matter what you say that's what we are doing. And they did, the fire department was at my door within 3 minutes. All great responses if it was an actual emergency. The said part is Ring is basically randomly deciding to flag everything at CO level even when the device doesnt know the difference and then they do not allow you to cancel that type of alarm and will send the fire department no matter what you say. This device fraudulently flags things as CO when it doesnt know the difference. I want my money back!!!!

We bought these because we were going on vacation, and I wanted to know if the smoke alarms go off. We live in a rural area with far away neighbors. Much easier to install these instead of buying new smoke detectors. I have tested them, and they seem to work well. This gives us some peace of mind while on vacation and a little less stress worrying about the house.