A smoke alarm’s job is to alert you when it detects smoke, so that you can address the problem if you’ve only burned the toast, or get out quickly if there’s danger. That's why your smoke alarm's speaker and siren are as important as the smoke sensor itself. But 90% of people don’t test their smoke alarms as often as they should (source: NFPA). That's why we gave Nest Protect the ability to automatically test its speaker and siren using Sound Check.
During Sound Check, Nest Protect makes a short sound and listens with its microphone to confirm that its speaker and siren are working. The whole test is over in less than five seconds. Open the link below to play the Sound Check test.
Play Sound Check audioHow Nest Protect schedules Sound Check
When enabled, Sound Check will run once a month. If you want, you can set a preferred test time range (for instance 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.) in the Nest app, so it will run when you’re likely to be away from home and won’t disturb you. If you have more than one Nest Protect, they'll all run a Sound Check at the same time.
If your Protect detects that you’re at home, it will wait until you’re out of the house to run Sound Check.
How you'll be notified about Sound Check
You’ll get a notification from the Nest app about five minutes before Sound Check runs, if you’ve turned on Sound Check notifications and your Nest Protect is connected to Wi-Fi. You can choose to skip the check if you want to, or allow it to run as scheduled. If you choose to skip Sound Check, it will automatically try to run again in about a month.
If you want to run the test before that happens, you can always run a Safety Check-Up, which tests everything that Sound Check does and more.
Change the Sound Check schedule and notifications, or disable them
When you first add a Protect to your account in the Nest app, you’ll be asked if you want to enable Sound Check. When you enable it, Sound Check will default to running between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., but you can select a different time.
Once setup is complete, you can always change Sound Check settings with the Nest app.
- On the Nest app home screen, select any Nest Protect.
Note: Changing the Sound Check settings for one Nest Protect will change them for all Protects in your home. - In the top-right corner of the screen, tap Settings
choose Sound Check from the list.
- At the bottom of the screen, set your preferred time for Sound Check to run.
choose Sound Check from the list.If you don’t want Sound Check to run at all, switch off Allow monthly Sound Check.
You can also switch Notification to Off if you don’t want to get a message before a Sound Check test.
Any changes made in the Sound Check menu will apply to all the Nest Protects in your home.
What to do if Sound Check finds a problem
If Sound Check can’t verify that a Nest Protect’s speaker and horn are working, you’ll get a notification on your phone that it needs attention, and Nightly Promise will glow yellow.
Run a manual Safety Check-Up test as soon as possible to confirm that each Protect can speak and sound the alarm. It's important for you to verify that you can hear each Nest Protect in your home. If a Nest Protect doesn’t speak or sound the alarm during Safety Check-Up, replace it immediately.
Note: If your Nest Protect’s speaker doesn’t work, you won’t hear its voice during a Heads-Up alert or Emergency alarm, but the horn will still be able to sound during an Emergency alarm.
If a Nest Protect is listed as offline or doesn't report test results, it may be having trouble connecting to Wi-Fi or the Internet. Or your Protects may be too far apart to connect to each other (more than 15 metres). Read the article below for troubleshooting tips.
Google doesn't receive Sound Check recordings
Sound Check audio isn't sent to or stored on Nest's servers. During Sound Check, your Nest Protect’s microphone listens to the alarm sound for less than five seconds.
Sound Check only works on 2nd-gen Nest Protects
1st-generation Nest Protects can't run Sound Check because they don't have a built-in microphone. To check the speaker and horn on a 1st-gen Nest Protect, run a manual Safety Check-Up and listen for the voice and alarm.