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Updates on Nest Protect and pending Scottish legislation changes

RachelC
Googler
Googler

Hey everyone, 

I appreciate everyone’s patience as they’ve shared their feedback and questions regarding the pending Scottish legislation changes. We’re aware of the proposed legislation changes to the fire and smoke alarm standard in Scotland requiring households to have interlinked heat and smoke alarms. Nest Protect cannot function as a heat alarm due to specific hardware and functional requirements of those devices. So, beginning February 2022,  Nest Protects will not meet these new requirements due lack of interconnection with a compatible heat alarm. 

At this time, there are no current plans to produce a heat alarm and we do understand this is not ideal for many of our Scottish customers, but you can still use your Nest Protect as a smoke and carbon monoxide alarm as an addition to your interconnected system. We understand these options may not be suitable for everyone so we ask if you have any additional questions around next steps for your Nest Protect, you can contact support to get additional details.

We ask that you continue to refer to the guidance of your fire and local authorities and we’ll also share any updates and changes as they arise. 

Thanks,

Rachel

243 REPLIES 243

jss32
Community Member

Hello, it’s good to finally have confirmation on this after two years of asking. The lack of a compliant solution means that rather than just purchasing a single new Nest detector, customers in Scotland will have to purchase an entire set of detectors from a Nest competitor. There is obviously no obligation to keep an existing product compliant with future regulations, but I expect better from Google, given the huge period of notice we gave you for the change. Would Google consider a pro rata refund of the life remaining in what is now a defunct product? The suggestion of using existing Protects alongside a compliant system is frankly ridiculous.

Mikesudz
Community Member

Couldn’t agree more. I knew when Google bought nest it would be a disaster!

 

Suggesting using the protect alongside a compliment system is an absolute joke. Google need to take a good look at themselves!

 

are these now removed from sale in Scotland?

 

why not allow a third party to link their heat detector to nest? That way people in Scotland aren’t getting bent over by Google after spending hundreds of pounds on “smart” smoke detectors. Your lack of support just screams lack of care. 

faust82
Community Member

That would require them to fix integrations, something they've also been dragging their feet on for years...

EmersonB
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hello everyone,

 

Thanks for posting and sorry for the late reply. We hear you — our team is working hard to deliver the best experience for our users — we'll take this as feedback. Keep your eye on the Google Nest Community page https://goo.gle/2JvnMRy for any updates. Let us know if you have additional questions.

 

Regards,
Emerson

Kingin
Community Member

Working hard ? What do you mean by that ? Are the team working on releasing a nest heat only detector ? Or what exactly ? Thanks 

DanCoco
Community Member

"Feedback" is the corporate word for stfu stop whining about getting scammed.

EmersonB
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi folks,
 

We're always looking for ways to improve and to bring more features in the future. While we don't have any news to share if they'll be releasing any new products, I'd suggest you send a feedback about this using the Google Home App to let the Google Engineering team know about this. While they won't respond directly back to you, this is the best way to let them know about this. Here's how: Share feedback. 

 

Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns as I will be locking this in 24 hours.


 

Best,

Emerson

DanCoco
Community Member

Do not lock this thread. This is an ongoing issue. It needs to remain open to ensure as many people as possible can see that the products for sale in certain areas of the world will not meet the safety requirements put in place. 

 

Your response feels like a non response. Just using corporate speak. 

 

Why should this entire group of customers have to go repost all of our comments on this matter in another place? Making customers feel unheard is a great way to begin your corporate spiral. 

 

This entire website is a resource for Google to see what problems exist, and i definitely feel that anyone representing Google here has been dismissive and not helpful. Direct your engineers here. Direct the board of directors as well. 

It is not your customers responsibility to "submit feedback" as you describe. We're providing it with the hopes it will be helpful and guide your company to know what people want. If you fail to use the resource, that's on you when sales drop and nobody seems to know why. 

Again, do not lock this thread. Doing so will show how little regard Google has for the safety of its users in selling partially non functional life protection equipment (smoke alarms.) 

ZombieBoy
Community Member

Can I translate this for Scottish members?

tough luck, you bought a pup when buying Nest. A total and utter waste of your dosh. Buy something else, and mibes just leave the nest stuff oan the ceiling… it’ll cover the holes made when you installed it, just fine. In fact, that’s the only purpose it’ll serve in Scotland from here on in.

thanks Nest, a total and utter waste of money and effort.

It's not just the Nest.  All of the older interconnected brands can only communicate with their own.

It would be a waste to toss out a Nest system, better to just use them until they expire as all detectors have a 10 year lifespan, after which they must be replaced.  And the clock on that begins on the date of manufacture, not on the date of purchase.

Rossmof
Community Member

Thanks for the update. Presumably you’ll be removing Nest Protect from sale in Scotland immediately as it is non compliant?

Ballsy
Community Member

Did you really just say "you can still use your Nest Protect as a smoke and carbon monoxide alarm", you are kidding right? You expect customers to keep your defective product along with a compliant set?

You have just lost a whole country of potential customers, not only for the smoke detector but I'll guarantee that people will also shy away from all other nest products in future. Not just from Nest but also away from all Google assistant based products, Google 0 - Alexa 1

 

I can't think of any other word than disgusting.

Maxx
Community Member

I was almost buying the Google Pixel 6 but not now

NickB
Community Member

Ouch!

I have 4 wired Nest Protects in my house, and because the one in the kitchen will no longer comply with Scottish law from Feb 2022 (and thus also invalidate home insurance policies) I'll need to replace the whole system.

So I have basically wasted ~£400 on the Nest Protects! 😞

JamesB81
Community Member

My 2 x Nest Protect still have 7 and 8 years life left in them. Will you be offering a prorated refund?

tomrup
Community Member

Same applies to new builds and major refurbs in England and Wales - would be nice if Google admitted this too.

-Craig
Community Member

@RachelC the tags in your post say Nest Protect (Gen1), so does this only apply to the older Nest Protects? Or does it also apply to Nest Protects that are currently on sale?

ZombieBoy
Community Member

Applies to all Nest Protects

diaveldes
Community Member

So the 7 units I have installed are basically ceiling ornaments not fit for purpose. 

I guess, the nightlight could still be useful… but yes, they are utterly pointless from a legal/insurance perspective.

MRTMoe
Community Member

I have been waiting for an answer from Google half expecting a date when I could purchase a heat alarm and make my very expensive 8 protect system compliant with Scottish law. This answer beggars belief! Big holes in my ceilings for the hardwired alarms which are nothing more than extremely expensive nitelights now and they still have 6 years of life in them. These are the only Google products I have ever bought and that fact will remain. Absolute joke of a company!

-Craig
Community Member

Just curious, has anyone contacted Google support, as per Rachel:


We understand these options may not be suitable for everyone so we ask if you have any additional questions around next steps for your Nest Protect, you can contact support to get additional details.

Thanks,

Rachel


I am wondering what the 'next steps' would be?

diaveldes
Community Member

I think I may be doing this as there is nothing letting you know these are non compliant.  

-Craig
Community Member

Maybe watchdog@bbc.co.uk would be interested?

diaveldes
Community Member

I intend to contact my MSP Monday and ask why they contine to allow these to even be sold. 

coolju
Community Member

I believe BBC Watchdog / Rogue Traders are already investigating Google on this topic.  I guess the more people that contact the BBC on this topic can only help.  There is a link on the BBC watchdog website to share your story/issue.

mwclubb
Community Member

This is madness. You need to put a compliant model into production ASAP. 

No point talking about how sustainable your products are when you've just scrapped hundreds or thousands of devices across Scotland.

Please provide an update

diaveldes
Community Member

Do you have an easy link for contacting support as I find my self with your not fit for purpose system that I need to replace.

Philr
Community Member

The building regulations in England also require a connected heat alarm in the Kitchen but unfortunately that hasn't stopped Google continuing to sell them here even though they know they're non-compliant and not suitable for the UK market.  Shame on you Google.  

I  bought 9 of these before realising they're non-compliant, by which time it was too late to return them.  Please do the honourable thing and either withdraw these products from the UK market or ensure they're clearly labelled and advertised as being non-compliance so that potential buyers don't fall into the same trap as I have.

tomrup
Community Member

I’m trying to get Which? to cover this but they seem strangely uninterested. Of course they like most of the media rely on a lot of traffic from the search engines…

Auldian
Community Member

Edward posted a reply to a question question in 2/21, regarding Google Nest's smoke alarm compliance with the latest Scottish Governments legislation, which to come in on 2/22.

Here is part of his reply,

"At this stage, this is a proposal from the Scottish Government that is yet to be passed into law. As a result, it may be subject to change between now and being made formal legislation. Google Nest is monitoring these regulations awaiting confirmation of exact legislation from the Scottish Government. Check out the Scottish Government’s report here for more information.
Thanks,
Edward"
Is there an update? 

The Scottish government list the Nest Protect system as non compliant. It may not be passed into law but I think the wording is pretty much set. There are many reasons for a dedicated heat alarm. This is just one. I had planned to fit one of these in my garage when I realised they are no good in there either. 

NickB
Community Member

I shared this thread on Reddit here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Nest/comments/q96b1a/google_confirm_nest_protect_alarm_system_not/

 

I also contacted Nest Support directly and these were the replies I got:

Nick: Hopefully there is a solution. It would be very disappointing to have to replace my 4 wired Nest Protect with a different system to comply with the law come February.

Google Support: We do appreciate your time checking this with us. As of now, we don't have any update but will keep our users posted via our support site. 

Nick: As such, that makes the £400 I've spent on the Nest smoke alarms a waste of money. Do you have a buy back/ refund scheme?
Google Support: About buy back or refund scheme, as of now, we don't have either of these options. 

So no real additional information or help! 😞

coolju
Community Member

NickB - Did you make any progress with Google Support on this topic?  It seems Google Support have actually stopped replying to support tickets on this Google Nest Protect Scotland issue - Which is a curious way to treat customers.  Personally I'm stuck what to do... 

NickB
Community Member

No, that was the last update from them. Which was basically a polite non-answer. They have acknowledged that their alarms are not compatible with the up-coming law, but have offered no solution (updated firmware for heat-only, or heat-only new model, etc), nor offering any refund/buy-back scheme. So basically Nest alarms will need replaced with another system that does comply with the law. A frustrating waste of money 😞

Swayze88
Community Member

I believe that it's not just the lack of heat detectors that make the google nest non compliant. Also on the battery model the batteries can be removed, so are not tamper proof, and communication via WiFi is also not permitted, so I would say that unfortunately for all of us with Nest alarms, we are screwed. As has been said before, a now very expensive night light system. 

NickB
Community Member

The battery replacement might be an issue, but the Nest Smoke alarms do not connect to each other using WiFi, they create their own wireless connections (just like other wireless smoke alarms. ZigBee if I remember correctly), Wifi being used only for initial setup and mobile notification.

Swayze88
Community Member

Ah, I didn't know that I thought they all spoke back via WiFi.

Interesting regarding the ZigBee system, I wonder then if it would be possible for a 3rd party to make a "works with google" version of their ZigBee connected heat sensor.

If they could then they would capture anyone in Scotland who already has a wired nest setup, as they would only need one new device. 

NickB
Community Member

After a bit a digging it turns out that Next Protect use 'Weave' which is based on IEEE 802.15.4, and although similar to Zigbee is not the same thing.

So it's seems unlikely that any 3rd party Heat Sensor that are compatible with Nest Protect will be immediately forthcoming. 😞