In ability to deactivate fire alarm remotely

Then I’d like a refund for all of my smoke and carbon dioxide detectors.  They do me no good when I’m out of the state and I’m getting fined by the city for false activations that I cannot turn off.  Furthermore, why is turning it off an option in the app when it doesn’t work?  Wouldn’t your explanation make more sense if the app told you on the main page that a fire alarm can’t be deactivated remotely?  Here’s another idea!  Why does the fire alarm run continuously.  Mine ran for over 30 minutes in both cases.  Any one should be able to get out of the house within the first five minutes of that alarm activating. Why not have an automatic shut off after five minutes?

I feel like your company just stole money from me.  I was really hopeful for these alarms.  I have 7 in total because safety is such a concern for me.  My money is better spent on regular smoke alarms that don’t cost me money in fines by the city.  I want my money back!

@jonfrye1​ If the Smoke Detector continues to sense something that it thinks is smoke, the alarm will continue to sound. I have gone ahead and requested a call from our escalated Support team regarding this. A senior specialist will reach out to you soon to help.

I've experienced the same issue yesterday, and I am unable to remotely disarm or reset the system.  I won't be back at the address for several days.  The sirens have been screeching ever since.  I'm really disappointed that I can't get this resolved remotely.  The monitoring center cannot reset the system, and tech support has provided minimal assistance.  Does the same thing happen with other false alarms?  I might need to seek out another solution as a replacement for this SimpliSafe system.

@Rcconroy​ if you're not able to access your system through the SimpliSafe app, then perhaps the issue is that your Base Station has lost connection (either to the local WiFi or the cell connection). If so, then unfortunately our Support team wouldn't be able to connect to the system either. The only way to get the system back online is to troubleshoot the system while onsite.

If there's an alarm event, the Base Station will sound for only 4 minutes, and then it will reset and re-arm.

But if the alarm event was caused by a Smoke Detector, a Carbon Monoxide Detector, or a 2-in-1 combo detector, then the alarm may repeat for as long as the smoke or carbon monoxide continues to be detected.

No...  That's not it.  The system was always online.  It just can't be reset remotely once one of these smoke detectors are triggered.  The system does not automatically reset or re-arm.  The sirens continued for four days, while I was away.  For now, I've removed the smoke detectors from the system.  They're unreliable.  

@jonfrye1​ 

I'm curious, how exactly are you determining it's a false alarm you can just turn off remotely instead of something you need to investigate?

For me, I have a SimpliSafe camera monitoring the location of the smoke detector.  When the alarm is triggered, each of the cameras record video.  There was no smoke, fire, sparks or anything else that would potentially trigger the smoke detector.  That's why I need to ability to reset my system after false smoke detector alerts.  

Agree this is a terrible feature.  I have a smoke alarm going off right now 3500 miles away and won’t be there for a month.  Neighbors are going to be furious and SimpliSafe does nothing to help.  I can clearly see from multiple indoor cameras there is no smoke, fire, etc.  

Right now I’m trying to hire someone to go into my house and tear down this apparently faulty screeching alarm.  

SimpliSafe you need a solution for this for remote home owners.

@krosinger​ Yes, a system can have multiple Keypads. You can add a second Keypad to your system by following the steps from this guide in our Help Center.

To be compliant with UL985, the Smoke Detector alarm must be turned off using the Keypad. Unfortunately, the Key Fob cannot turn it off.

Given the Smoke Detector alarm cannot be turned off through the app. Please can the UI on the app be updated to make it clear that the Alarm/Off toggle that appears when a smoke alarm is active cannot be used?

@emily_s​ I don’t want to be compliant with UL whatever.

I don’t even have to have a fire alarm in my house at all. Let me sign a waiver to be non-compliant.

So, why not give me the ability to switch off a false alarm?

Just had this happen to me on home 1900 miles away. I removed the smoke alarm unit from the devices but the app persists telling me there’s been an alarm. Can I rearm the system with this device removed? What has to be typed on the keypad to turn it off??? Just the master code??? There’s less than 60% humidity in the house. Did that trigger it or is it an insect inside it? Wish SS was more forthright with telling us the limitations of these devices. I need help! 

@lee_18​ Unfortunately at this time the alarm can only be stopped by entering your Master PIN on the Keypad; removing the Smoke Detector from your system will not bypass the alarm. After the Master PIN has been entered you will be able to arm and disarm your system again.

Dust or debris buildup over time can trigger false alarms, so we recommend cleaning the device's sensing chamber once a month to prevent any buildup. For more details, check out the Preventing False Alarms From the Smoke Detector article in our Help Center.

This is total horse doodoo. Why is this not told to us UP FRONT when purchasing SS systems? When I’m 1900 miles from my vac home I have no way to touch the panel and just so you know, it’s 2024 and there’s NOBODY WE CAN TRUST to go to our home and access the home let alone the panel. If this is not fixed within the next 6mo I’m gonna scrap two homes worth of this equipment and cancel 2 full price subs. Period. Mic dropped. 

@Garveyjm​ Good, bad or inbetween, your post will be here as long as the site is up. By policy, and in my 13 plus year experience, unless your post is threatening, uses profanity or has personal identifiable information - none apply here - your post will remain.  And for the record, my 3 CO, six smoke and one combo sensor all are doing fine for years. Location and cleaning every other month does the trick. And I know many others that have the same experience. That all said, there should be a way for a customer, if they choose, to decide if they want to take the sensor offline, remove it and then arm it again. That we are in agreement.

@captain11​ Perhaps there should have been advance notification of this change that occurred and also, perhaps the system should not go dead when one trigger is activated. That's just lazy engineering. Your competitors have multiple triggers which would allow not only burglar protection after a fire alarm but to track an offender traveling throughout the dwelling and direction of travel out if not by the same means as entry.

Even if the UL-985 explanation is a "correct" interpretation of the third-party "standard", a system like this was specifically designed with the flexibility of remote operation.  Users and the SimpliSafe monitoring service should be able to set, reset, disable and monitor the entire system remotely.  Like others, I have now removed my SimpliSafe smoke detectors from my system.  

I will most likely be removing the smoke detectors from my system when I get back to my vacation home next month. I am also going to get my $ back from SS for them. Total BS that the limitations are not outlined in plain English up front. 

@lee_18​ get your money from whom? How? I have 6 detectors, sure would be nice to get the money back from them.

@meickemeier​ I'm not sure.  It's only been an issue with the smoke detectors for me.  Everything else works as expected.  

This is a big issue. What compounds it is that you lose all protection elsewhere once the fire alarm goes off. No burglary trigger while the fire alarm is ringing endlessly.

That’s messed up.

Hi Paul, 

A smoke detector alarm can only be disabled by the keypad. Due to the nature of the alarm, being on site to confirm a real or false alarm is intended for your safety.

If the smoke detector has had a false activation, we recommend to clean out the chamber, as it's a photoelectric sensor, it is sensitive and requires some maintenance. 
If you remove the sensor off its bracket, holding down the tamper switch will also silence the siren. We recommend holding down the tamper switch, and then removing the battery when you are ready to clean it. 

If the smoke detector is not paired to the Base Station, but fitted, it will still detect smoke and siren, it just won't alert you through the SimpliSafe Base Station and app. 

Please feel free to call our support team if you have any queries around how the smoke detector is designed to work. 

Thanks, 
SimpliSafe Team

Delete the sensors in the app.

@lee_18​ They aren't going to. It was a deliberate act to comply with an ANSI Standard so that their systems could receive certain certifications for commercial and multi-unit dwelling applications in certain jurisdictions. They make too much money in this market to care about the homeowners [that built their company] complaining about remote homes.

Well,

I suppose you are right, SimpliSafe is after money.

I hope they will find a way to make this happen. Like I said, sign a waver for home owners to enable remote alarm off would suffice.

You hit the nail on the head!
I wasn’t 100% sure, but I thought that I did switch the alarm off, June 2022, first day on vacation in Germany.

You have just corroborated what I thought all along - Simplisafe changed the way it works, all hush hush, quietly.

Now they play dumb, and have excuses. I’m sure it’s not the people’s fault with whom we may chat, they don’t know and they cannot effect changes.

Sad story.

I will also call them and ask to escalate the problem. Maybe we can raise enough voices to make them notice.

I will also make sure this problem will become known to all potential buyers.

They don't care. They've got us already. Either spend more money to change systems or deal with it. They turned their backs on us.

One of the representatives told me this has never been possible.  Not true.

Fix this, Simplisafe!  Return it to the way it was.