Nest Protect is a terrible buggy product
What it is
Brad Fitzpatrick records himself struggling to silence a set of first-generation Nest Protect smoke alarms that keep beeping and triggering one another.
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN cites it as the famous example of how over-clever smart-home devices can fail at something as basic as a smoke alarm.
- 2 people recommended it
- 2 different months
- 0 strong recommendations
- first 2015, last 2025
What HN commenters said
“on an artistic level it is really well done, it is an epic battle between human and machine.”
Epic, well-made human versus machine battle with beeping Nest alarms
rdtsc, 2016-01 · Recommendation · in “Nest Thermostat Glitch Leaves Users in the Cold”
“I honestly like bradfitz's youtube video the best to show the Nest Protect (the smoke alarm) issues”
Best demonstration of first-generation Nest Protect issues
kyrra, 2020-08 · Recommendation · in “Google to buy 6.6% stake in ADT in home security push”
Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.
Topics: nest protect, smart home, product failure, brad fitzpatrick, iot
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