X-Sense XS03-WX: Affordable, Reliable Wi-Fi Smoke Alarm with App

The X-sense XS03-WX Wi-Fi Smoke Detector can be silenced from your phone. It's inexpensive but can you trust it to perform like larger models?

The X-Sense XS03-WX Wi-Fi smoke alarm can give you peace of mind by sending an alert to your phone if there is an incident in your home. You know that feeling when you leave the house and wonder if you turned off the stove? If you can't go home to check, that worry may stay with you the whole time you are away. With a smoke alarm connected to a phone app, you would know if there was a fire at home. This could allow you to contact the fire department before the fire does catastrophic damage.

Who is X-sense?

X-sense offers a complete line of home safety devices. Manufactured in China, the company makes home security systems, including cameras, a smart video doorbell, and smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

X-Sense also make the XS03iWX smoke detector. This model is the same size as the Wi-Fi version, but it is part of an interconnected network where all smoke detectors in your home will go off if one detects smoke. The network requires the X-Sense SBS10 base station. It can accommodate an alarm in a separate structure over a mile away.

The Diminutive XS03-WX WiFi Smoke Alarm

The XS03-WX may be small, but it's mighty. Although the X-Sense smoke alarm can fit in the palm of your hand, its 85 dB alarm blares with the ear-piercing volume of its bigger traditional brethren.

It's a stand-alone battery-powered unit that can be placed where you need it. Because the alarm can be quickly silenced using the app, you can put it on a high ceiling without worrying that you'll have to reach it to press a button.

How Smoke Detectors Work

Smoke detectors detect smoke, not heat, in contrast to commercial sprinkler systems that will spray water when they detect the heat of flames. Two technologies are used to detect smoke—ionization and photoelectric sensors.

Ionization smoke alarms have two electrically-charged plates with radioactive material in between. This allows a current to flow, which ionizes the air. Smoke interferes with the flow of ions, causing the alarm to go off.

The XS03-WX is a photoelectric alarm. This technology works by shining a light into the sensing chamber. When smoke enters the chamber, it reflects the light onto a sensor that sets off the alarm.

It is recommended to use a combination of ionization and photoelectric fire alarms. There are very few on the market that includes both technologies in the same device. And none of those models are associated with a smartphone app.

If you are looking for even more peace of mind to keep your home safe from fire, consider the Ting by Whisker Labs. It detects electrical fires before they start. Plug the Ting into an electrical outlet. It monitors the electrical wiring in your home, looking for arcs, spikes, and interruptions that could spark and cause a fire.

Easy Setup

Because there is no wiring, setting up the XS03-WX is fast and easy.

Download the app for iOS or Android. Tap on "Add Device." Follow the instructions to remove the back cover and put in an included battery. The X-Sense alarm does not use the typical 9-volt battery. Instead, it uses a CR123 lithium battery that is often associated with cameras.

After allowing the X-sense to access your camera, aim your camera at the tiny QR code on the device. It will connect the device to the phone app. Create a name for your home and pick the room where you've placed your alarm.

Enable Bluetooth to make it visible to other devices. Then pair it to your phone by pressing the "Test" button on the bottom of the alarm unit. It's ready to pair when it blinks blue.

Once connected to your phone, find your home network and enter the password. You'll need to bring the alarm very close to your router for it to connect. In testing, it only worked when it was within two feet.

Placement of Your X-Sense WiFi Alarm

Because the X-Sense WiFi Alarm isn't wired into electricity, you are free to place it anywhere you want. While most people will put it on the ceiling, you can also set it high up on a wall. If you place it on the ceiling, be sure it is a minimum of 20 inches from any wall. If you put it on a wall, be sure it is between 4 and 12-inches from the ceiling. Place it within three feet of the highest point on an angled ceiling.

The unit should also be located within range of your home router. Put it far away from the stove and sink if it's in the kitchen. If your hallway is longer than 30 feet, use multiple alarms.

Before mounting the X-Sense alarm, attach the unit to the backplate to see where the test button will be once mounted. You'll want easily reach the button. Using the backplate as a guide, mark the screw placement on the wall or ceiling. Drill a hole at the marks and insert screw anchors. You'll attach the backplate with screws through the screw holes. Fit the unit onto the backplate and twist.

Testing

We've seen someone hold a lighter up to a smoke alarm in movies, and it goes off—but that's fiction. While fire sprinklers in commercial buildings are activated by heat, you need smoke to set off a smoke alarm.

In my home, I have a sure-fire test. My stove doesn't have an exhaust hood. When I sear meat in a pan on high heat, my existing smoke detector alarm goes off even though it is over 20 feet from the kitchen. It happens every time, even if my doors and windows are open and I'm using a room fan. This is a bother with my traditional alarm. I need a broomstick to press the button on the ceiling-mounted unit to silence it. Typically, it takes a few tries to get it to stop. Meanwhile, the dogs are crying.

To test the X-sense, I heated the cast iron pan to high and dropped in some tenderloin to sear and brown. Within a few minutes, the old alarm went off, and the X-sense went off after—about a minute later. When the smoke reached the alarm, it blared its 85 dB horn as loud as the big alarm.

The X-sense could quickly be silenced by picking up my iPhone, tapping on the alert and pressing silence. On the other hand, the old alarm took several long pokes with a broom handle to the silence button before it stopped.

This delayed reaction was repeated when I tested the X-Sense using a wooden match. Although I held the match just below the X-Sense, the existing alarm on the ceiling sounded almost a minute before the XS03-WX.

Both detectors are close to one another. My existing alarm is a Firex ionization-type unit compared to the photoelectric sensor on the X-sense WiFi Smoke alarm. This demonstrates that there is a noticeable difference between the two technologies.

Tapping the silence alarm button in the X-Sense app stopped the alarm from going off again for 9 minutes. If the unit still senses smoke after 9 minutes, it will sound again. I quickly cleared the smoke during testing by turning on fans and opening doors. The alarm did not repeat, but the red light flashed every second until the smoke density was below the alarm levels.

XS-03 vs Other Smoke Alarms

Where the X-sense XS03-WX is a small, simple, easy-to-install, inexpensive smoke alarm, other detectors are twice its size and three times its price.

Granted, other smoke alarms have more features. The Google Nest Protect includes a carbon monoxide detector and a smoke alarm. When the Nest alarm is activated, its voice will announce the problem and where to find it. It runs over $100.

The Onelink Safe and Sound by First Alert is not only a smoke and carbon monoxide detector, it also has an omnidirectional Amazon Alexa speaker built-in. If you are near it, you can look to the heavens to ask Alexa to play music from the detector, ask questions, or control your smart home.

A few other smoke alarms are just a bit more expensive than the X-sense, including a First Alert alarm that works with the Ring app.

Peace of Mind at Home or Away

Despite the slight response delay, the X-Sense XS03-WX is reliable. If you've ever disarmed your smoke detector because it has been annoyingly too sensitive, the ease of silencing this alarm quickly will allow you to always keep it active. Plus, you will have peace of mind knowing that you will be alerted whenever there is a problem, whether you are home or away.

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