X-Sense Review – Smart fire alarms the easy way

Design, Range and Features

• Smoke, heat and CO2 detectors
• Battery-powered
• Wireless interconnection

Smart smoke detectors started with the Nest Protect, which remains a top-quality smart smoke alarm, although Google has since discontinued the product. Even before the Nest Protect was killed off, it was expensive and, as there’s no heat alarm option, you can’t install it in a kitchen, which makes it useless if you need a set of interconnected alarms throughout your home.

Then, there’s the FireAngel Pro Connected system, which has all of the alarms you could want (smoke, heat and CO2), in both wired and wireless versions, but it’s expensive and the smart system is a real pain to configure. Not to mention that it’s inflexible: my system ended up being reported offline permanently and showed long-since removed smoke detectors.

With the X-Sense there’s a better balance of features, range and price. For this review, I had some XS01-M smoke alarms. An individual alarm costs £21.99, although you can buy them in a pack for less.

This model is a basic smoke detector, which runs from a replaceable battery and should be replaced every ten years.

I’ve also got the X-Sense Smart Wireless Interconnected Smoke Detector with Voice Alerts on review (XS0B-MR), which also speaks when there’s a fire alarm to let you know from which sensor the alert originated. This also runs on CR123A batteries, which should last around five years.

I also have the XH02-M heat alarm, which is designed for kitchens. Heat alarms react to rapidly increasing temperatures, rather than smoke, so they won’t go off when you burn the toast or have the grill on. This product has an integrated 10-year battery.

There’s also a range of CO2 alarms. All products in X-Sense’s line-up are battery-powered and wireless, with no wired interconnected options.

To get started with the smart system, the SBS50 bridge has to be installed first. This connects via Wi-Fi to your home network and provides remote monitoring and control of your system, plus notifications of any fire alerts. Up to 50 devices can be connected to the bridge, which is more than you’ll likely need.

I found it very quick to get the bridge connected to my network; far quicker than getting the FireAngel Pro Connected bridge working.

Once the bridge is in place, the app can be used to add alarms to the system. This process starts with getting the alarms working, and varies depending on the type of alarm system.

The smoke alarms that I have, including the X-Sense Smart Wireless Interconnected Smoke Detector with Voice Alerts runs on a CR123A battery, which is provided in the box. Each battery will last for five years, and will need to be replaced once to get the smoke alarm’s full 10-year lifespan. That’s the same lifespan as all other smoke alarms, and models should be replaced after this time.

With the heat alarm, there’s an integrated battery that will last for 10 years.  A tab has to be removed to activate the alarm, but after that you don’t need to touch the alarm until it’s time to replace it.

Handily, the alarms have a sticker on them that tells you which month and year you have to replace them.

With power to an alarm, the app takes you through connecting it to the system by hitting the test/silence button. This causes the alarm to give off a short, very loud beep, which is a touch annoying. However, it’s an improvement over the FireAngel Pro system, where the install process sounds the full alarm system for a longer period.

I found that each detector was quick to add to the system. Once added, I could choose a room for each device to be in. The pre-defined list can be used, but there’s also the option for a custom name.

The only issue with using a custom name with the Voice Alert models is that the alarms can only use voice alerts with the pre-defined names, where the alarm speaks which device is triggered. The workaround is that you can set a custom room name for the app, and pick a second name that the alarm system can call out.

For example, I named my children’s rooms individually, but set the alarms to speak ‘kids bedroom’ in the event of a problem.

As the heat alarm and basic smoke detector don’t have the speech option, I could only add them to a room.

Once added to the system, its then a matter of physically installing the devices. This is generally very easy. Each alarm has a mounting plate, which needs to be screwed to a ceiling. Alarms then just clip and turn until they lock into place.

These are quite a bit smaller than the mounting plates for my old FireAngel Connected alarms, so I ended up with a few holes that needed to be filled. And, since my old system was mains-powered, I had to have the power disconnected at the consumer unit.

It took me a couple of hours to connect and install the alarms throughout my house, with a total of eight alarms. Plus, I added two alarms to the garden office and the shed.

At this point, the system is ready to go and sits there monitoring your home. Via the app, I could monitor each device and keep an eye on its battery life.

There aren’t many options for each device, although the Voice Alert models have a few extra options, including a scheduled Night Mode. With this turned on, the alarm won’t flash its green status light, during the Night Mode period, which helps avoid disturbing sleep.

The app has an extra purpose: testing the alarms. Alarms should be tested regularly, but it can be annoying and difficult to reach the manual test button. With the app, I could test each alarm at the tap of a button, which makes life a lot easier.

Performance

• Responds quickly to alerts
• App shows what’s going on

The most important thing for any alarm system is that it responds appropriately. I’ve not had my X-Sense system go off incorrectly, and the heat alarm has coped with some burnt toast and other kitchen mishaps.

I tested all smoke alarms with a smoke alarm tester can. I found that the XS01-M responded in nine seconds, and the XS0B-MR in 11 seconds. Although testing with one alarm, the interconnected system meant that all alarms were sounded, just as it should be.

Critical alerts were sent through to the app, telling me where the alarm was triggered and giving me the option to silence the alert.

It’s also possible to silence an alarm using the physical button on each smoke detector.

With the Voice Alert models, they speak to say which alarm has been triggered, although it can be hard to hear what’s being said over the loud alarm. In fact, it’s not that useful, and seeing the alert on the app is better.

Should you buy it?