Rechargeables disrupt zwave battery reporting

Configuration Z-Wave
1

Wanted to share this observation with my fellow z-wavers.

Several months ago the template sensors I use to track my motion sensor battery levels stopped working: the motion sensors consistently reported battery levels of 0% even though the motion sensors were operating normally.

After trying all kinds of things to fix this issue I eventually just gave up and hoped a HASS update would one day miraculously fix them. Earlier this week one of them stopped reporting motion so I swapped the rechargeable eneloop batteries I normally use with regular non-rechargeables and suddenly the sensor was reporting 100% battery level. I made the same change in the other 3 sensors with the same result.

No idea why battery levels aren’t properly reported with rechargeables but I’m excited that I can use HASS once again to send notifications when a sensor is about to die!

2

Re chargeable batteries often output a different voltage than standard batteries. If the sensor is using voltage as a indicator I can see this throwing things off.

1 Like
3

Worth a read through here. As @silvrr said, the voltage curve is different, so devices expecting the curve of an alkaline discharge will be thrown by NiMH.

4

Thanks for the information!