Every time there’s a slight bump in technology we are pulled back on the upgrade treadmill, obligated to replace everything we own with the newer, better, faster. With home safety, newer really is better but does that mean you have to replace everything, every time? Not if Kidde Fire Safety has anything to say about it.
Look up. Odds are good that the smoke alarm and CO alarms in your house are from Kidde. If you’re in a modern house, those alarms are probably all hard-wired into your electrical system and work together to keep you and your family safe. Nice. But the industry hasn’t rested on its proverbial laurels and there are some cool new alarms on the market with features like 10-year sealed batteries. They’re not hard to replace — as I demonstrate in this YouTube video — but what if you can’t afford to just replace a half-dozen or more alarms in your home?
Enter the brilliant RemoteLync Monitor device. It’s part of a class of devices that I really love, what I call “bridge technologies” that let you gain some of the benefits of technological improvement without having to fund a full replacement or upgrade. For around $100 (retail, it’s considerably less expensive at Amazon.com) it’s a box that sits discretely plugged into a wall outlet and listens to your home interior. If a smoke or carbon monoxide alarm is triggered, it will then immediately send out a notification to your smartphone, email you, contact someone else you’ve also listed as an emergency contact, etc. Small, easy to configure, and a “set and forget” device. Excellent.
Here’s what one looks like, plugged into the wall:
Might be hard to estimate from the photo, but it’s roughly a 2″ x 2″ x 2″ cube with the two prongs needed to plug into the wall. Since modern alarms are ridiculously loud (which is a good thing in this case) the RemoteLync can also be located just about anywhere in your house: mine’s located in the room behind the kitchen, on an exterior wall. Plenty good enough that it worked without a glitch when tested.
Configuration and setup is all done through a free smartphone app, either Android or iPhone. Once downloaded, the app prompts you to connect to the RemoteLync via wi-fi (it’s broadcasting a wi-fi signal when it’s not paired and set up):
Note that if you want to plug the unit directly into your router (for homes that don’t have wifi), that’s easily done with the second option. In my home, however, there are more devices on wifi than you can shake a stick at, so I’ll choose the first option.
Follow the steps – it’s easy – and you’ll have the app talking to the device in just a few seconds of back and forth. The Kidde app will then prompt you to choose your home network and enter the password as appropriate:
That’s basically the entire configuration process for connectivity. Next step is to set up a Kidde home account so you can specify what should happen when the unit is triggered.
This is easily done:
I will note that at this point in the process I found that I didn’t need to push the setup button on the RemoteLync as it was already automatically in “enroll” mode, making it even easier.
A tap and I was done.
To test it, I tapped the “test mode” button:
Ready to go, I pushed the center button on one of my smoke alarms a few rooms away. Since they’re all wired together the house was quickly filled with a cheery beeping echoing from room to room.
And the RemoteLync did its thing:
Next thing I knew, I was inundated with status messages, starting with text messages:
Heck, even my Apple Watch lit up and told me that there were alarms triggering in my home:
The app itself keeps a log of all trigger events too, which can be helpful if you have one installed in a rental unit or are worried you’re off the cellular grid too often:
It works great, and while it’s always easy to know about smoke alarms going off when you’re home (which is the point of having them in the first place) it’s impossible to know what’s happening when you aren’t home — or in your office — without the very latest expensive networked devices.
The Kidde RemoteLync fills that gap in a simple, elegant and cost-efficient manner. If you don’t already have the very latest and greatest throughout your home, this is a no-brainer acquisition for home safety, and at $56 at Amazon.com, (retail price is $100) there’s no excuse not to pick one up, set it up, and know your home’s just that much safer. Recommended.
Disclosure: Kidde Fire Safety compensated me for writing this article. My opinions, however, are my own and I really do think it’s a terrific device.