Onelink Home by First Alert Reviews

I’ve only seen a single review, posted in February, and I got the product and app in September. Maybe the first reviewer had legitimate issues, but I’ve had absolutely none. The alarm was simple to install; three adapters included, one for wire-to-wire installation, plus two other modular plugs for compatibility with other brands. I just opened the breaker for my smoke detector, matched the wire colors and attached with the existing wire nuts. The white and black wires come pre-stripped, but if you want to use the orange interconnect, it will have to be cut and stripped.
Once everything was hooked up, shut the breaker and everything powered up fine. Downloaded OnelinkHome and paired it to the detector. Linked up with HomeKit on my phone without even trying!
Now I don’t currently have a HomeKit hub at home, so I can’t say whether there are any issues there.
As far as interconnect goes, mine is connected to three basic First Alert wired models in other areas of the house (model 9120B), and when I tested the OneLink model, they all went off. You should have seen my cats! It’s nice that OnelinkHome keeps a history of these tests; I wonder if it will remind me when it’s time to test again?

Just installed my first Sensor and the process went very smoothly. I have two more to do and will adjust the review if needed, but after having Neat Protects at my old house, these are pretty similar. Hopefully pairing the other two to this one goes just as well. Will update.

Update: Got the other two installed. Third one I had to go through the process three times, but it worked. Tip: Be patient. It can time a little time for each step, so wait it out. I got impatient on the third one, which is why I think I had the issue of having to go through the process a few times.

Update: Moving to 3 stars as my first attempt to view the status of the three sensors did not work when I was away from the house. This is the main function I wanted, as I am used to Nest Protects and this is easy with them. Got a message via OnelinkHome of some Bluetooth issue, which doesn’t make sense if the sensors are on Wi-Fi. I want to be able to check the status or ensure I will get alerts when I am away from the house, otherwise there is no point to spending extra for these.

One thing I have learned with all of the HomeKit devices is if you want a smooth set up make sure the device you are using to set it up is connected to the 2.4 WiFi. It sometimes works using 5G to set up but 50/50 chance at best. Once set up you can go back to 5G to access.

Set up two battery OneLink detectors in about three minutes each. Showed up immediately in Home App, so far so good. Hope I never have a reason to get a notice. From what I understand if you want to test to see if notification works used canned smoke. It doesn't trigger notification to the Home hub until it has been sounding for about a minute per some on line literature I found. Supposedly works that way for two reasons. First is to avoid false or burnt toast alarms. Second is because it is only battery powered it does not maintain a constant WiFi connection. Has to use Bluetooth to notify to activate WIFi first.

I really Really don’t know how this company is still around or not completely bankrupt from law suits. My devices have been replaced 4 times and most recently a 5th with their “updated models” for HomeKit. Needless to say both devices, BOTH wouldn’t activate until finally after 4 restores did I get them going, or at least I thought. Now between HomeKit and their own app they need set up, not reachable, pairing needed, you name it, their telling me it needs it. .........(just to throw this in,,,, I’m on the phone with their ‘support’ as I’m writing this, and not one, but 2 different agents couldn’t help me because they couldn’t distinguish what product I was talking about without giving them the model number. ... I was not removing them off the wall again..... apparently “ Onelink Smart Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Alarm works with Apple HomeKit, wasn’t enough info for them to figure out what device I had, that one actually had the balls to start asking me to describe its size, shape, and color, for him!!! ARE YOU SERIOUS, so furious that can’t even finish the review.

After reaching out to customer service just yesterday before this update about my smoke detector alway showing a “Setup needed” button that always hangs when you try pressing it, I was told very promptly that it was a known issue and that they’re team was working on it.

And now that the error message has gone away in this update, I’m very happy with OneLink. Also, they’re customer service so far is quick, responsive, and informative. Judging from the low ratings of OnelinkHome, First Alert is certainly having their fair share of technical hurdles, but so far I’m satisfied with their responsiveness and efforts in trying to fix their app. Keep up the good work and thanks again!

App won’t let me adjust the temperature range for which I want to receive notifications. I change the settings and OnelinkHome just forgets and doesn’t allow me to adjust it. So when I turn notifications on I’m getting notifications for the default range, not the range I attempted to program in. App also forgets the device it’s connected to.

I have no issues with the HW. It interacts with Homekit and I get all the data I need through the Apple Home app. But this vendor app has issues.

I contacted tech support. They acknowledged it was an issue and, at this point, it’s been about 4 months and no fix available.

Have 4 identical units setup in the house. Each had its own hiccups during the setup process. One of them had to get reset multiple times. The units, like other FirstAlert alarms are prone to false alarms. If you follow their support document online the cause of the false alarms can be anything. When the alarms go off, it’s so loud that one cannot distinguish where the issue is coming from. OnelinkHome DOES NOT tell you right away there is a problem; in fact it says everything is fine. After a while, it may tell you... and offer to silence the alarm but in my experience that feature has always failed.

When you take the units offline to clean, OnelinkHome does not show you if the unit has power issues; it says everything is ok; even after pulling down on the screen to refresh.

These things are expensive and yet unreliable.

App is clunky. Login is tricky. They need to add FaceID support for login. Also sharing access with others in your Home is impossible. You can “manage users” through OnelinkHome but this is just your HomeKit users you have already shared with. This needs to be fixed. the notifications are not working either. I’m not receiving any and no one else I have shared my home with receive any alerts. That is the only reason I bought this product. I need alerts sent to my phone. I do not receive alerts from the onelink app or the Apple Home app. There is basically no control offered through the Home app at all. I am very disappointed in this product and app. If an update isn’t made within the next few weeks I will most likely return the alarm because it is essential not more useful than a standard fire alarm.

I have the wired HomeKit enabled detector which in itself has been poor quality, but relying on OnelinkHome is a safety hazard. For the past month I had noticed OnelinkHome saying the device is connected and no issues nor changes. However I finally realized myself that the device had not been powered nor connected and OnelinkHome said everything was fine! You have to dive into settings and prompt an action for OnelinkHome to reveal that the device isn’t connected. Worse yet, after stating the device is not connected in a pop up message, OnelinkHome will not update the status and still says connected and “Hello, everything is OK”.
With both the hardware disconnecting often, OnelinkHome being a safety risk, and poor ratings from others, I will never buy or trust OneLink again.

I had to replace the detector after 4 years. It’s supposed to have a 10 year life. When I tried to install a replacement every attempt failed. OnelinkHome is very unreliable in setting up the Bluetooth connection to the detector, adding the detector to the Apple HomeKit, and especially connecting to Wi-Fi. There’s no trouble shooting support in OnelinkHome . If any step fails you have to start the whole process over from the first step. It’s particularly annoying that mounting the detector is included in the setup process, so you have to page through those steps every time you have to retry the setup. Come on, once it’s mounted your done with that. Do you really need to walk through that 20 times? I gave up on the setup after 2 hours effort. Now I’m looking for a better smoke detector.

Two glaring problems with this product/app:

1. Better integration with Siri. Let’s face it, HomeKit users are purchasing these because we want them within our smart home eco systems. As such, it floors me that I can not command Siri to either Test or Silence my detectors. At least open OnelinkHome up to Shortcuts.

2. Dear God please fix the set up routine—“easy setup” my foot. Never have I ever had so much trouble adding a device to my home network. I lost count of how many times I had to reset the device due to it’s failure to connect. All I’m going to say is that I HOPE it’s a result of OnelinkHome ’s software vs. the detector’s hardware, as that would make me worry about getting a notification that my house was on fire while away.

I don’t want alexa integration, but if someone spoke the word “alexa” or even worse when having conversation without even saying “alexa”, first alert smoke alarm will tell you that alexa is not setup - I know that already, it is fine to tell me the first time but after that to disable this alert or to have a button to tell that I want to opt out of enabling alexa so it is not going to ask me again - I don’t want alexa integration because when I see that first alert will tell me about alexa integration not set up without even asking “alexa” I don’t like any conversation to be send to alexa without even asking alexa, privacy first please!

Setting up the smoke / CO alarm through OnelinkHome took several tries before it completed successfully. In particular, while discovering the device through Bluetooth and initially adding it to my HomeKit “home” worked on the first try it took several attempts before it would get past the “joining Wi-Fi” step. Once it did, everything seemed to work as expected for a few hours after which the Onelink device disappeared from view inside the Apple Home app even though it is still accessible through the Onelink app and the Onelink app can still see the state of my HomeKit data. Don’t waste your time or money on First Alert products if your goal is HomeKit integration.

Please we NEED AN UPDATE So we can BE ABLE TO MANAGE Our DEVICES AWAY FROM HOME Since is already connected to wifi even when the smoke detector goes off i cant not even silence the device away from home the is really a downside please fix that issue

Answering the following questions reveal major flaws in OnelinkHome and devices (probably why it’s so difficult to support and has so many 1-star reviews):
1.) on the main app screen, why download the list of devices from “the cloud” on the main screen when homekit (which users already authorized) gives you access to this data locally (without a web request)?
2.) If the first alert smart smoke/co detector connects to WiFi, why is Bluetooth range required? I can’t change the brightness of the night light without Bluetooth connectivity, what?!
3.) when I “Reset Networking” on my iOS device, it requires I re-pair with my first alert devices? Why? (Re question #2)

In general, it seems OnelinkHome was built and conceived poorly as several other Homekit device makers who utilize WiFi in the implementation of their homekit devices don’t seem to have any of these issues (ConnectSense, Elgato Eve, iDevices, etc).

Think CAREFULLY before you rely on these first alert devices for your homekit implementation!!!

Product and app works BUT if you VALUE privacy and do NOT use Alexa (just Apple HomeKit only for privacy concerns) the hallway nightlight function doesn’t work.

*** When you turn off the onelink microphone, the hallway nightlight is STUCK with a red light. ***

You can’t use the other nightlight colors. Even though I don’t have Alexa installed, I would still PREFER to keep the microphone feature off. I simply don’t trust having Alexa on a product that could listen to our most private conversations.

OnelinkHome crashes two out of every three times I launch it. When it does run, it reports trouble connecting with the smoke alarms. On the rare occasion that it does connect, it will stop responding for two minutes when you tap a button. When an alarm goes off OnelinkHome won't silence it, even if you can get it to launch and you hold the button down like it says to. And all it will do in HomeKit is let you look up the serial number of each alarm. We have four of the alarms, and OnelinkHome forgot which one is which so it just shows a list with "smoke detector" in it four times. No help whatsoever in trying to fix it.

Setup was smooth and straightforward but that's where it ends. Siri integration and homekit work as expected. Alexa responds, however, she doesn't know the status of the device where it is running. It claims there's no device that can answer the question, even though it is listed as a registered device on my account and the onelink skill is properly enabled. And, the options are incomplete, this device does not offer the option to change the wake word, which is a problem because the rest of my echo devices respond to a different wake work. They need to spend time improving the firmware on this product and the companion app.

I have had two of these for several years. Well i should say two installed but at least 8 different replacements over the years so at least they have been good about that but to be frank OnelinkHome integration has never worked very well. I mean when (or should i say if) i get them added to homekit they eventually lose connection. I run a test by holding the button down (in OnelinkHome ) and OnelinkHome says they passed and has no clue the devices never even activated.

I would not recommend these to even my worst enemy. Stay away!!!

Very annoying process using my iPhone to board two new Onelink Smoke/CO wired alarms to Cloud. For each device the Onelink App had to be deleted/installed and iPhone powered down after OneLink customer support 2nd tier advice. Once you upload the second alarm device you have to re-pair the first one!
The Hardware installation to replace old wired alarms took 10 minutes each. Software pairing took several hours due to Onelink App software issues for IPhone. The devices do finally show up on the Onelink App & Apple HomeKit and I do not regret purchase. I urge First Alert to correct the setup glitch in their App software.

All available features work through OnelinkHome , but it takes far too long for OnelinkHome to open when the smoke detector goes off.