Aqara Adds Matter-Compatible Smoke Detector and Valve Controller to the Smart Home
Aqara has been spoiling smart home users with its increasingly common inclusion of Matter compatibility over the past few months. Two new products, previously announced but unavailable until now, underline the company’s commitment to Matter.
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Home safety is paramount. Whether it is leaks or fire, it’s great to have something in place to raise the alarm and initiate a suitable response. Aqara’s new smart home devices, a smoke detector and a water valve controller, could make your household safer.
Aqara has been spoiling smart home users with its increasingly common inclusion of Matter compatibility over the past few months. These two new products, previously announced but unavailable until now, underline the company’s commitment to Matter.
Aqara Valve Controller T1
If your property is prone to leaks, a remotely activiated controller for your water supply is a useful addition. The Aqara Valve Controller T1 was one of the Aqara devices unveiled at IFA 2024, and is a retrofit solution for water valves and pipes. The device attaches to a pipe (1/2", 3/4" and 1"), and the attached lever or butterfly handle, and requires no wiring or additional plumbling. All you need is a Wi-Fi connection for Zigbee support, and 4x AA batteries.
Once set up, the device can be automated alongside water leak sensors for instant triggering. As soon as a leak is detected, the water supply is shut off. Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, Home Assistant, Homey, and Samsung SmartThings are all supported, the Aqara mobile app can control it, and you can also manipulate the state of the valve manually with the controller attached.
The Aqara Valve Controller T1 will require an Aqara Matter hub for Matter compatibility. You can learn more on the Aqara website.
Aqara Smoke Detector
A more surprising release is the Aqara Smoke Detector. Limited to an exclusive EU and UK release, the device has an 85 decibel siren and can activate any siren-equipped Aqara hubs and devices in the home when smoke is detected. A red LED flashes at the same time.
As a smart device, the Aqara Smoke Detector can provide alerts via the mobile app, which also supports remote control – useful for false alarms, for example. A switch on the device will also reset the alarm, while a companion device, the Aqara Camera Hub G3, can detect a specific gesture to reset the alarm.
Supporting Matter-over-Bridge and with interaction support on Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, and Google Home, the device uses the low-power Zigbee protocol, and a battery life of up to 10 years.
Matter interoperability means that the Aqara Smoke Detector can be used in conjunction with RGB smart lights when the alarm sounds.
We will point out that as well as requiring an Aqara hub with Matter compatibility, there are smart home platforms that won’t support the device. Until this changes, it will probably be better accessed via the Aqara hub app.
The Aqara Smoke Detector listing page on the manufacturer website features full specifications.
Aqara Continues to Push the Matter Smart Home
As previewed at IFA 2024, and demonstrated with a series of releases throughout the year, Aqara is developing into a key supporter of the Matter smart home standard. Both releases are significant additions, and represent a step forward in what we can expect from Matter.
While the full features of these devices are not yet supported, Matter is clearly heading in the right direction. You can see what is coming next from the standard in our look at Matter 1.4.
