I decided to take the gamble on Orca which were less than half the price of Cavius for: 7 x Smoke, 1 x Heat and 1 x Basic Controller. I got the home pack + 1 more smoke alarm from Mitre10 price promise/matched to Placemakers.

Pairing the alarms to the basic controller, testing and install was easy/trivial as expected.

Two minor annoyances with the base plate/mounting system:

1: There is seemingly no orientation marker/guide on the base plate, so you need to use psychic powers if you care about the orientation of the logo once fitted to the plate.

2: The supplied screw anchors combined with the base plate hole design means the plate may tilt slightly instead of sitting flush/level on the ceiling (the base plate sits on top of top of the anchors). I had to add some washers under the sides to prevent them tilting when screwing in.

Apparently you can get magnetic base plates that sit flush for them where you can rotate the logo orientation to your OCD hearts content. I have let it go and decided I won't notice after awhile :)

Also apparently they do have a smart controller coming out in future for internet/app connectivity, I decided I didn't care about this for now as I still have the couple of Google Nest alarms in place.

Passed the reno building consent inspection, they did check all rooms and take pictures but didn't actually run the test (I guess they value their hearing).

Anyway hoping for long battery life and no false alarms!