A few days ago I installed a Kwikset 914 (zwave). I set up some automations related to locking the door at bedtime and when we leave the house and unlocking when we come home.
I’m finding that the battery is going down really fast though. I went from 100% to 70% and it’s been maybe 4 days. I’m a bit worried it’s draining too quick.
I didn’t see any options related to poll rate or anything like that though, so what are my options? It’s around lots of other zwave devices so I would think distance relaying back to the controller would be the problem.
Ah, well if that’s all it is, then I’ll be quite happy
I do have a separate mechanical problem where the bottom lock isn’t latching every time the door closes, so I notice the the 910 works hard trying to close and fails (it says jammed). I’m certain that problem is caused by my weatherstripping. The weight of the door closing doesn’t consistently compress it enough to latch. When I removed the weatherstripping to test, I found it latched perfectly on every close. So I guess that could also be factoring into the fast battery drain if it’s running the motor for a few extra seconds and failing occasionally.
As for a solution for that mechanical problem… I guess I’ll be running to home depot to see what other weatherstripping options are out there to fit my door. I’m sure this is the cheapest stuff that exists (my home builder tended to cut corners wherever they could I’ve been finding).
I have a door sensor (reed switch) that will detect if the door’s still open and not fire the locking automation, but will fire an alarm stating the door’s been left open.
I do have a magnetic zwave contact sensor on the door too, but at least with it’s current location the 1-2mm difference between latching and not latching isn’t measurable. For a grossly off door close it would trigger of course.
I concur with @firstof9 here - I have three 914 deadbolts, and they are all lasting at least a few months after dropping to 70%.
When the battery level does drop low, though, make sure you put in fresh ones promptly! On the one where the batteries have already died (the first one I installed), I got the “battery low” alarm while I was on vacation. Only two or three days later, while I was still away, all of a sudden it started running the motor back and forth endlessly and stopped responding to commands. This while the cat sitter was in the house, basically freaking out about it. I had to have her take it apart with a screwdriver and take the battery pack out, haha. Poor lady - not sure if she’ll ever come back.
Well it’s been a week and now it’s dropped down to 60%. I notice that when it’s closing even if the door is lined up properly it sounds like it’s really struggling with the internal motor. I wonder if I need to recalibrate the closing or something.
What percentage did you set your low battery alarm for? Does it show up as an alarm on one of the entities and you did an automation? Or just manually based on some %?
I have an automation set to any batteries under 40% to fire off warnings.
Mine also sounds like it’s struggling at times, I was thinking about redoing the hanging procedure from the manual again and/or putting some graphite lubricant in the lock’s internal moving bits.
Would you mind to share the automation? I guess you came up with something with templating so that it can use the same automation and just tell you what device triggered it? Right now I have a bunch of single automations for batteries that it would be nice to consolidate if possible.
