Nest Halts Sales Of Smoke Detector, Disables 'Wave' Feature

By Eyder Peralta

Published April 4, 2014 at 2:00 PM EDT

The Nest smoke and carbon monoxide alarm.

The Google-owned Nest Labs has halted sales of its smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, the company announced on its website.

In a letter from CEO Tony Fadell to customers, he said the company was concerned that users could unintentionally disable the device by waving their hands in front of it.

One of the device's most advertised features is that you could disable it with a wave in case you've burnt toast or something like that. The problem, he said, is under "a unique combination of circumstances" this could happen unintentionally.

"This could delay an alarm going off if there was a real fire," Fadell said. "We identified this problem ourselves and are not aware of any customers who have experienced this, but the fact that it could even potentially happen is extremely important to me and I want to address it immediately."

For now, the AP reports, Nest has pushed a software update to disable the wave feature on the devices. The company is halting sales to make sure all the devices have the updated software.

The AP adds:

"The Nest Protect costs about $130. In comparison, other smoke and carbon monoxide detectors typically range between $50 and $80. ...

"Consumers with a Nest Protect connected to a Nest account with Wi-Fi will automatically have Nest Wave disabled within 24 hours. No action needs to be taken and their smoke alarm will continue to work. Those with a Nest Protect not connected to a company account should immediately connect to their Nest account so the company can remotely disable Nest Wave.

"For individuals with a Nest Protect not connected to an account and that don't have access to Wi-Fi, Nest recommends that they immediately stop using the alarm and contact the company for a complete refund."

Nest was acquired by Google earlier this year. Google paid $3.2 billion.