I tested a smart smoke detector system that has custom sensors for each room of your house

Every smart smoke and carbon monoxide detector is designed to work in any room of your house, but Gentex’s Place smart smoke detector has a different approach than one-size-fits-all devices. Instead, its smart smoke detectors have room-specific sensors — such as for your kitchen or garage — that it says will make them more effective than just letting you know if there’s a fire.

But, the Place alarms are a lot more expensive than the best smart smoke detectors, so I tested them all out in my home to see if their higher price is worth the cost. Note, this is a review of the entire lineup of Place smart smoke alarms – which is made up of devices purpose-built for certain rooms in your home. We’ll note which features are reserved for specific models along the way.

Place Smart CO/Smoke Alarm review: Price and availability

There are four devices in the lineup of smart smoke detectors, and they have slightly different price tags. The base model is the Place Any Space, which is built to be the one device you can put anywhere if you want to. It costs $139, and has a smoke and carbon monoxide detector, as well as a motion sensor.

The Place Kitchen costs $249.95, and can detect smoke, carbon monoxide, natural gas, VOCs, as well as temperature and humidity. The Place Garage costs $299, monitors heat, VOCs, temperature and humidity, and has a 1080p camera. The Place Nursery costs $349.95, and can monitor smoke, carbon monoxide, air quality, temperature, humidity, and VOCs, and has a 1080p camera.

It should be noted that in most regions, to meet regulatory requirements you’ll need multiple smoke alarms. In California, each bedroom needs one, and one is required outside each sleeping area (one could be located in a hallway outside all of the bedrooms though). I live in a four-bedroom home, so I’m required to have at least five alarms – plus more if I want, for example, to have one in the garage. That can add up quickly in terms of pricing. Five Place alarms cost $695, and that’s if you only buy the base model and don’t buy any additional alarms.

If I were to buy one for appropriate rooms (three Any Space models for bedrooms and home office, one Nursery model, one Kitchen model for the living area, and one Garage model), it would run me over $1,300. You could, of course, buy a Place alarm for only certain areas or rooms and use other cheaper smoke alarms for the other areas, but note the interconnect feature will not work if you do so.

Place Smart CO/Smoke Alarm review: Design and setup

The design of the Place smoke alarms isn't necessarily the best thing about them, but they still look relatively modern compared to most other smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors. They have a square footprint and a white plastic exterior, except for the garage model, which has grey plastic instead.

On the face of each of them, you'll find a small LED indicator for status, along with a square light that serves as the nightlight. There are also LED lights on each of the corners, which stay off unless the alarm detects elevated levels of particles or smoke (yellow for “caution” levels, purple for “warning” levels, and red for “alarm” levels).

The other components on the face of the alarm vary a little depending on the model. Both the Garage and Nursery models have cameras built into them, and you'll see a small circular camera lens towards the bottom of each.

Installation is relatively simple, but if you're at all unsure about it, you'll want to contact an electrician. The alarms must be wired into your home, so they're not built for those looking for battery-powered alarms.

Assuming you are comfortable wiring in a smoke alarm, all you'll need to do is remove your previous alarm, along with its base plate. Then, screw the new base plate into the wall or ceiling using the included screws and drywall anchors. Finally connect the wiring harness that comes with the Place alarm to the live, neutral, and interconnect wires using wire nuts (also included), plug the wiring harness into the alarm, and secure the alarm to the base plate. Only then should you turn the power back on.

When you download the app and create an account, you'll be able to add each alarm to your account by following the on-screen instructions to initiate Bluetooth pairing and then connecting it to your Wi-Fi network. Along the way, you'll be able to name each alarm and set up features like motion detection, the camera, and so on.

The fact that you need to install the alarm wherever the wires in your home might be located does limit some of the usefulness of the device. For example, you might want to place the nursery model above your baby's crib so it can detect the motion of your child waking up more easily. If the wiring doesn’t happen to be in that location, you’re kind of out of luck.

It should be noted, of course, that the nursery model probably won't replace an actual baby monitor regardless of its placement, unless you're willing to keep the app open with the live view at all times.

Place Smart CO/Smoke Alarm review: App and smart home

The Place app is very easy to use and relatively well-designed. After you've added each of your alarms, you'll be able to see them on the main screen in either an expanded or contracted card view. With the expanded view, you can control some basic settings and features like motion detection and the nightlight without having to tap into a different screen.

Each alarm has temperature and humidity sensors built into it, and you'll be able to see information from those sensors. If you're using a model with a camera, you can also enter a live view, and for the nursery model, turn on the white noise feature. The camera models also have two-way audio, which you can access through the Live Feed.

More advanced settings can be found for each device by tapping on the small settings icon on the top right-hand corner. Here, you'll be able to adjust things like motion sensitivity, camera event recording, and the color and brightness of the nightlight.

While the app is well designed and easy to navigate, unfortunately it's the only way that you'll be able to access any of the features built into these alarms. That’s right – Place smart smoke alarms don’t work with any smart home ecosystems, which is my biggest issue with them.

I wish that other features built into these devices could be exposed to ecosystems like Google Home, Alexa, and HomeKit. All of these ecosystems support sensors for temperature, humidity, and motion, and they all have mechanisms in place to, for example, control the nightlight or access camera feeds.

I would even go as far as to say that not offering wider smart home integration arguably defeats the purpose of spending this much money on a multi-purpose device in the first place. Sure, it's great that these devices have motion sensors built into them – but what good is a motion sensor that can't actually do anything beyond sending you notifications? If you could use motion sensing in your preferred smart home, you could use it to trigger automations for things like lights. If you could access the temperature sensor in your preferred ecosystem, you could use it to better control your home’s climate. And, if you could access a camera feed, you could actually integrate it into a wider smart security system.

Smart home integration could even be helpful in emergency situations. Smart locks, for example, in an emergency, they could unlock a smart lock, making it easier for you to exit your home or for emergency services to enter it.

Place Smart CO/Smoke Alarm review: Performance and extra features

The lack of smart home integration doesn't take away from the actual home safety features built into the devices though, and there are plenty of them. All of the models (except the Garage model) have a photoelectric smoke detector and carbon monoxide detection.

It’s worth noting that there are other safety features I could not safely test, especially with children in my home. I was unable to test the natural gas detection and VOC detection of the Kitchen model, but assuming that they work correctly (there’s no reason to think they don’t), it’s handy to have them. VOCs, or volatile organic compounds, are a key component of measuring indoor air quality, and can come from plastics, paint, air fresheners, and cooking.

If smoke is detected, the alarm will obviously sound, but the alarm built into these units is a little different than a typical smoke alarm. Gentex, the manufacturer of these smoke alarms, says that these models have the first built-in low frequency alarm. Some studies indicate that a low frequency tone wakes deep sleepers, children, and the hearing-impaired more effectively. Regardless, rest assured that they’re still incredibly loud and incredibly jarring – which is a good thing. You’ll also get notifications through the app, which is particularly handy if you’re away from the home. Lastly, you’ll be able to disable the alarm straight from the app.

The cameras built into the garage and nursery models are decent, though not necessarily incredible. They have a 1080p resolution that I found was crisp enough to easily see what was happening, but not nearly as crisp as the best home security cameras. They also have infrared night vision, so you don't have to turn the lights on to get a good view.

Place Garage

The Garage model is the next most advanced model, and it doesn’t actually have a smoke detector at all. This makes sense. Garages can be prone to false alerts from smoke detectors because of things like vehicle exhaust and dust, so instead of a smoke detector, the garage model has a heat detector.

Place Nursery

The most advanced model is the nursery model. It has the VOC detection from the kitchen model, plus a PM2.5 air quality monitor. That's along with the camera and two-way intercom feature, which is basically just a microphone and speaker. It also has a white noise generator built into it. And while the speaker isn't necessarily incredible, it's certainly high quality enough for white noise and gets loud enough.

I really like the fact that the nursery model has a camera and speaker for white noise built right into it, but it doesn't quite have the advanced features that you might expect from a dedicated baby monitor.

For example, modern baby monitors can detect when your child is crying through sound recognition, but that’s not something you’ll get here. That feature in particular can come in handy – my daughter moves in her sleep a fair bit, so relying on the motion detector to know if she’s awake or not doesn’t really make sense, and I would easily get desensitized to notifications from movement. All that to say, while the device does serve basic baby monitoring needs, you may find that it's not quite what you're looking for.

Place Smart CO/Smoke Alarm review: Verdict

The Place line of smoke detectors is so close to being an absolute home run, even for their high price. Their extra sensors for specific rooms of your house make them more likely to detect issues that aren’t necessarily fire-related.

Unfortunately, they're held back by the lack of smart home integration. While I liked that they were able to alert me to all sorts of potential hazards, they couldn’t do anything else on my behalf, like turning on the lights or unlocking the door, or contacting emergency services.

I really hope improved smart home integration comes at some point. Until then, these are still advanced smoke alarms with helpful advanced features. If you're looking for more advanced smart safety, then you might find that these are worth the high investment. Just keep in mind that for the price of a Nursery model, for example, you could get a more traditional smoke alarm and an advanced baby monitor with more features.