Nest Protect batteries very low 24 hours after replacement - using Energizer Ultimate Lithium

[msawyer91]

I have numerous Nest Protect smoke/CO detectors in my house, and last week the one named Kitchen announced its batteries were low. I replaced them with a fresh set of Energizer Ultimate Lithium, as these are the recommended batteries for these units.

Less than 24 hours later, I received an alert that the batteries were low. I got six fresh batteries out of the pack and replaced them again, and less than 24 hours later, the low battery alert returned, and a few hours after that, the "very low" alert (with chirp every minute) showed up.

The pack of batteries is an 18-pack of Energizer Ultimate Lithium that I bought at BJ's, and it claims to have a 25-year shelf life and the expiration on the batteries shows the year 2048. It's a brand new pack, purchased a week and a half ago. They should not be bad after 24-48 hours of use. I have a small battery tester and I compared the batteries I used in the Nest Protect with the remaining six in the pack, and the needle jumps right over well into the green "good" indicator.

I factory reset the Nest Protect by holding the button until it announced the version, then said all settings would be wiped in five seconds. I removed it from my account, put batteries in, and re-added to my account. Eight hours later it was chirping that the batteries were very low.

Technical Details in the app show this Nest Protect is model Topaz-2.9, Software 3.5rc3, with a replace by date of April 3, 2031.

I went to the store and bought an 8-pack of Energizer Ultimate Lithium and, before installing six of these in the Nest Protect, compared them to the ones I bought from BJ's. The battery tester shows them all good, but the ones from the 8-pack show on a voltage meter a voltage of 1.8V DC, but the ones from BJ's vary from 1.51V DC to 1.58V DC. Did I get a bad pack of batteries from BJ's?

[Ashepherdson]

Yup sounds like a bad pack of batteries if the voltage is that much lower 

[ChicklesG]

Take a look at the BJ batteries, if they have any Chinese lettering they could very likely be knock-offs.  I have seen this issue with some so called OEM batteries on Amazon. 

I'd take them back to the store and have them check a new pack off the shelf just to prove your point, then ask for your money back if they are not reading 1.8 v

[msawyer91]

They're definitely Energizer Ultimate Lithium AA batteries. No foreign lettering or anything else to suggest they're a knock-off. I'm hoping it's just a bad pack. I've got the receipt; I'll take the batteries back and get a new pack. Since my wife bought two of the 18-packs, I'll open the other pack and voltage test a few of the batteries. If those are also low I'll take back both packs.

[msawyer91]

Well, my jubilation was short-lived. Four days after installing those fresh Energizer Ultimate Lithium, which measured a healthy 1.8V on a voltage meter, the Nest devoured them. I'm guessing the unit is bad. It has an expiration date of 2031, so it's one of my newer ones, but well out of warranty. I'm going to hang onto it and wait until I see the other units get a firmware upgrade. I'm hoping maybe a firmware upgrade will fix whatever is causing the Nest to gobble up the batteries so quickly.

[Ashepherdson]

Are the self diagnostics showing all is well (green circle? ) that's really strange.   

[msawyer91]

They do, and I ran the long test (the one that makes them all go off and drives the whole house crazy), and it passed. A few days later, batteries low, then "very low" a few hours after that. I hit it with the air compressor, hoping maybe it was full of dust and debris, and hardly anything came out. I'm thinking it just had some kind of malfunction.

[AxelD]

Hi @msawyer91,

Thanks for posting in the Community! Sorry to hear that your Nest Protect is getting a low battery message even after replacing the batteries. I'd also like to thank you for the troubleshooting steps you tried already, such as replacing the batteries and performing a factory reset.  No worries, help is here! Please fill out this form and an agent will contact you as soon as possible with further instructions. Remember to add your thread conversation link.

Let me know once you've filled out the form.

@Ashepherdson, thanks for assisting the member.

Regards,
Axel.