About a month or so ago, our basement fire/carbon monoxide alarm began chirping, signaling low battery.

And – of course – the chirping started in the middle of the night…

Seeing as how this would be the third set of batteries in that unit in about six weeks, I figured the unit was a goner; time for a new one.

I got to thinking about Nest’s – the thermostat maker – new product: The Nest Protect: A combo fire and carbon monoxide detector/alarm.

Long story short, I bought one. It’s considerably more expensive than other detectors – the Nest Protect was $129; the one it replaced was around $40-$50.

After purchase, installation and use of the product for more than a two weeks (installed ~ two weeks ago), here are some first impressions, in no particular order:

• It’s smaller than I expected. While pictures of it up on the ceiling/wall don’t give a real sense of scale, I pictured it larger (but am glad it’s not!). It’s about the size – WxLxH – of three regular plastic CDs cases stacked.
• Heavier than I expected. There grill appears be be metal (or some non-plastic). Good.
• Brilliant design from a looks point of view. It’s a sexy looking product. When have you ever thought that about a smoke alarm?
• Software is brilliant as well. From the different colors of the collar around the Nest logo to it’s alert design – smartphone message as well as just the audio alarm. Behavior-wise, there’s a lot to like about this little unit.
• Overall, this is the first non-Apple product that looks and acts like an Apple product – and that’s high praise. Apple sweats the little details (maybe too much, but that’s another entry), and in the case of the Nest Protect, it too reflects this holistic approach to design.
• Nest was founded by two former Apple employees, including one largely responsible for the iPod. So the Apple-ish of the Nest Procect is no surprise.
• The (replaceable) batteries are designed to last a “couple of years” – the documentation says they cannot yet make that claim officially, because it hasn’t been in testing that long. But if true, that’s a real selling point, as well – especially for those hard-to-reach detectors it could replace.
• Just an FYI – have to have a smartphone (to run the free app) as well as a WiFi connection for this to really work as advertised.
• One complaint – the notifications to the smartphone come to the Nest app – I’d prefer a text message. The Nest app might be buried down on screen four; text messages are always up front. The notification comes in, but if you don’t check right away, you might think it was something else. Nest – address this please.

Again, handful of weeks with the unit, and so far so good. The batteries could crap out tomorrow and then I might be less than thrilled, but – for now – very happy. Worth the extra cost for the extra features (especially the remote notification) at this point.

Also, the Nest Protect and the Nest thermostat are the first real “internet of things” items that are getting into average (non-geek) homes. Interesting to be seeing this from the ground floor.

* Picture from screenshot @ nest.com