I have a Smoke and CO listener device and ran into a situation today. I was testing the Nest Alarms and had Ring in test. When it tested the CO alarm, Ring actually dispatched on it and sent the fire department.
I cancelled the fire department, but when I called Ring I requested that for ALL alarms to my house I want them to call me first before dispatching. And it is set up that way except for CO alarms. Their CO policy is not practical and we (the owners) should have the ability to request a phone call before dispatching on an alarm.
After 20+ years in public safety I can tell you that CO alarms are false 99% of the time, and are usually due to a low battery. Smoke alarms have a better “real emergency” rate than CO alarms, but not by much. With this current set up, my fire department ad others will eventually get tired of false alarms and not respond unless multiple alarms are received, etc (just like security alarms).
When I called Ring to ask why they didn’t call me, I never got an answer, even though they did call my other contacts and I am listed first.
Ring also couldn’t guarantee when the system is in test that it won’t send the fire department.
So far, I like the Ring system, but this one issue is a big one and needs to be remedied quick.
Before all of you jump in and say “CO is dangerous and they should call first” - yes, I agree CO is dangerous, but the number of ACTUAL gas issues is very tiny and that 15 seconds it will take to dial and talk to me or me not answering isn’t going to make a difference in the outcome of the call in the REAL emergency…but it will prevent needlessly sending a response to a false call.