Hey
Just got a Starter pack of these Notion Smart Home Devices sent to me by my insurance company.
Just wondering if anyone else has them and what they think of them.
I am yet to set mine up so was wondering what they works best for and any tips would be great
Thanks
So do you recommend them? Any issues that you have experienced
You're getting them for free so why not set them up. I got mine through Honey. You need to have them setup to receive the discounted premium. They are programmed to report back to the insurance company
Why did they send them?
Mine only send me their bills.
Just a deal they had going
From specs these seem like typical locked down WiFi based smart devices.
Look like you also need to pay a monthly subscription to use all the features, so I won't be considering them at all.
Yikes. That’s a shame! One would need pro subscription to get Push Notifications. OP please avoid this Notion ecosystem.
I didn’t know it would cost me
I got it for free and they said nothing of the sort to me about it hahaha
I won't consider them if I'm paying for the sensors (I'm not, Honey is giving a 3-pack with bridge for free on their home insurance if you want a monthly discount). Notion Pro subscriptions are kind of useless anyway if you have other security system in the house already.
Push notifications works with or without paid subscription. Text and phone call notifications requires Pro plan, though. App push doesn't.
It's a very common Sensors -> Bridge -> WiFi -> Cloud infrastructure just like most Zigbee solutions out there.
In fact Notion sensors are based on a proprietary protocol, but the actual chipset inside them supports BLE, standard Zigbee and Thread anyway. Though currently I don't see any existing hacks or custom firmwares to convert them into normal Zigbee or BLE sensors.
What makes Notion interesting is mainly two folds:
- Honey and some other home insurance providers give out starter kits for free and the users get a premium discount if they keep feeding data back to Notion and insurer (so the users essentially exchange their privacy, to a degree, for convenience and discounts)
- Notion sensors are all-in-one sensors that do everything at the same time, instead of having different kind of sensors for different purposes. This can drive the cost up significantly if you want more than what the starter kit offers.
I'm not sure how much those sensors help Honey to save from their actual claims but I'm sure it's lucrative otherwise they won't provide such options. From the user's standpoint I'd say there's no fundamental differences than using other cloud-based smart home solutions as your data is being transferred online anyway.
Thanks for your help everyone
I’ll set them up and see how they go
How's it been going Twisty?
I joined Honey in November and been using them flawless since.
I'm actually really appreciating the updates oh door open/close status for when I'm not at home. Gives me the peace of mind that I'm not having my house broken into.
I've noticed that the extra 3 sensors shipped to Australia currently costs $185 AUD. Will be watching to see if these ever go on sale.
Yes I have had 2 disconnections which are a pain as you need to delete the bridge and re add it to get it to work again
Apart that been going ok
They monitor temperature well giving you a nice graph. This can help if you're trying to improve the thermal performance of your house.
They can also be setup to detect a door/window opening or put under a sink to detect a water leak. Another feature is listening for smoke alarms, but this drains the battery quicker.