Richard Felt: Nest Protect Smoke & CO2 Alarm Giveaway!

Quick question: is it just me, or is everything becoming smartphone-enabled these days? What’s next, a smartphone-enabled dog collar?

Kidding. They totally have about fifteen varieties of those already. No offense to the gadget-loving tech nerds out there (#fistbump from a fellow nerd of many things), but I personally think I fall a little further down the scale between “Early Adopter” and “Waiting Until the Duct Tape Peels Off” in terms of when I replace technology. It’s not that I don’t think gadgets are cool; it’s just that I hold a much tighter grip on my wallet and am unwilling to part with its contents until something is close to breaking—or completely broken with no hope of repair.

There’s usually only one exception that convinces me to fight my normal instincts: products that make my life a little safer and less stressful.

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Did you ever read the children’s book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, as a kid? I didn’t, but one of my ex-boyfriends used to accuse me of thinking that way every time I left the house (I eventually looked up the story on the internet, which also means I then spent that evening giving him crap for the analogy). But, I had to admit that he was right: just as we’d head out of my neighborhood, I’d audibly worry about whether the doors were locked. That the dog wasn’t able to get into the trash. That I’d unplugged my flat iron and wasn’t about to come home to a smoldering pile of ashes thanks to my vanity (I’m exaggerating, but he had a valid point).

I first heard about Nest Labs back in 2011 when a bunch of bloggers reviewed their energy-saving thermostat and went on and on about how cool and convenient it was for being able to program it from their phone. I hesitated to buy one, thinking that more than likely, there would be a few upgrades and a new version would eventually come out with added features and a better app (coughcough, every other piece of technology ever). And sure enough, their 2nd generation version was exactly that.

This thought process, of course, clearly only applies to tech gadgets. As the eldest of two sisters, I am not at all applying this to people. (So don’t even try it, Emily.)

Anyway, when the same company came out with the Nest Protect smoke and CO2 detector in 2014, I figured that the same thing would happen and there would eventually be a 2nd generation version. And a year later, there is—and that’s why we find ourselves in a giveaway situation.

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Recently, TotalProtect Home Warranty has been running a promo this summer that gives homeowners a complimentary Nest Protect with a qualifying TotalProtect Home Warranty plan (a retail value of $99). And just because they seem to love this new smoke and CO2 detector regardless, they offered to give away a Nest Protect to one of you guys!

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I haven’t had the opportunity to install one for myself yet, but given that this thing has some pretty nifty features, it seemed only right to get the giveaway started as soon as possible so that one of you amazing readers could try it out for yourselves. Some of the key features include:

Spoken alarms (none of that annoying beeping at 2am… a real human-sounding voice will literally tell you “head’s up” that your battery is dying)
Battery or wired options available
It tests itself (admit it—you know you forget to do this)
If there is smoke or CO2 detected, it tells you which detector (so basically, which room) it was sensed from
Can detect both slow- and fast-burning fires (as much as I love Ikea, did you know that today’s use of particle board and foam in furniture makes a room burn faster? Yikes!)
Smartphone control (including hushing the alarm if you burn the toast and don’t feel like getting on a ladder) and alerts, even when you’re away from home (so less worrying)

Not to mention: it looks one hell of a lot sleeker than the giant urinal cake design that most of the competitors have.

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Let’s get on with the giveaway, shall we?

Prize: One (1) Nest Protect Smoke & CO2 Alarm
Number of winners: 1
Giveaway ends: Wednesday, Sept 2 at 11:59pm
Eligibility: U.S. residents only
To enter: I’m using Rafflecopter to run this giveaway (just because it makes things a lot easier to pick a winner), but since you know how I like to have a little fun with giveaway comments, I’d like to know: What was the last thing you accidentally burned? Your hair… the carpet… the roof of your mouth?