Silicon Valley darling Nest, the home appliance startup snapped up by Google in January for $3.2 billion, has discovered a flaw in its second product, the Nest Protect smoke detector — a flaw big enough for Nest to halt sales Thursday.
The flaw in question has to do with a feature called Nest Wave, which allows users to turn off the smoke and carbon monoxide alarm by waving their hands in front of it. Nest has discovered that the feature could be activated by accident.
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"During recent laboratory testing of the Nest Protect smoke alarm, we observed a unique combination of circumstances that caused us to question whether the Nest Wave could be unintentionally activated," wrote Nest founder and CEO Tony Fadell in a blog post. "This could delay an alarm going off if there was a real fire."
Fadell stressed that he was halting sales "until we fix this issue" out of an abundance of caution. "We identified this problem ourselves and are not aware of any customers who have experienced this," he wrote, "but the fact that it could even potentially happen is extremely important to me and I want to address it immediately."
Customers who've already bought a Nest Protect are not being asked to return them. Rather there's an automatic update that will disable Nest Wave within the next 24 hours. Any users who don't have their Nest connected to a Wi-Fi network are being asked to discontinue using their Protect. Those who want a full refund will be given one.
Fadell anticipates that it will take "two to three months" to fix the Nest Wave issue, at which time it will be automatically turned back on. What wasn't clear was how fast Nest could ship new versions of the product.
The company's original and better-known gadget, the Nest thermostat, was unaffected by the issue.
Image: NEST