Which hardware to buy - Door/window contact sensors

Hardware
1

This post is based on an idea put forward by @Nick4.

Forum members are encouraged to add short hardware reviews of similar hardware items they have used in the format below. (Note that you must have actually tried the hardware as a user - no spam please!)

This thread is for Door/Window contact sensors. Add a new post to review yours. Start a new thread in the same format to review other types of hardware.

Template

Please use this format when adding items to this thread

Brand:
Model:
Link to exact product:
Protocol:
HA Integration:
In use since:
Number of this item in use:
Positive:
Negative:
My rating (1-5, 1 being bad, 5 being super):
Comment:

2 Likes
2

User experiences: Door/window contact sensors

Brand: Philips Hue
Model:
Link to exact product: Hue Secure contact sensor | Philips Hue UK
Protocol: Zigbee/SkyConnect 7.3.1.0
HA Integration: Philips Hue, ZHA
In use since: September 2023
Number of this item in use: 2

Positive:

  • Local
  • Zigbee
  • Pairs with ZHA
  • Included in Philips Hue integration
  • Well made
  • Long battery life (2 years claimed)

Negative:

  • Philips integration requires Hue hub
  • Hub may require cloud account in future
  • Larger than expected (7cm long, 2.2cm wide)
  • Philips Hue app now requires Android 10 or above (IOS 15)
  • Expensive

My rating (1-5, 1 being bad, 5 being super): 4

Comment:

Size means it may be a struggle to fit on some doors or windows. However, the mounting distance between sensor and magnet is generous at 2cm.

3

User experiences: Door/window contact sensors

Brand: Shelly
Model: Door Window 2
Link to exact product: Shelly Door Window 2
In use since: September 2021
Number of this item in use: 2

Positive:

  • Local
  • WiFi
  • Relitively quick <1 sec.) state change notification
  • Additional sensors including temp, tilt angle, vibration, and LUX

Negative:

  • difficult to open the sensor housing to install the batteries
  • battery contacts were too far apart to make contact with the batteries so I had to bend them using enough force to make me worry that I might break the contacts
  • The web interface setup required waking the device multiple times to continue and complete the setup
  • Expensive: sensor = $43 US for 2 pack; batteries (2 CR123A 3V Lithium for each sensor)

My rating (1-5, 1 being bad, 5 being super): 2

Comment:

Actual use was fine but battery drain was bad enough to ensure they would not last the advertised 2 years. A search of this forum and Github confirmed that turning off the majority of the sensors and triggers should conserve battery life.

Then one of the DW2s started to intermittently go “unavailable” around January (5 months after installation). I found and contributed to an existing issue on GitHub (Shelly Door/Windows sensors appear unavailable after some time of idle state · Issue #60123 · home-assistant/core · GitHub ). In summary: batteries lasted ~5 months (with everything set to conserve power), the battery sensor is very inaccurate (ex. 85% battery = 0.0 to ~2.7 V = dead battery), and the “root cause” was attributed to either a network problem or firmware bug (and/or possibly a hardware failure - more on that later). I have a proven solid network and the packet loss was due to dying batteries.

In addition to the batteries lasting only 5-7 months for each DW2, both DW2s have failed and needed to be replaced, firmware updates have failed for unknown reasons, troubleshooting sometimes requires factory resets then suffering through setup again (and sometimes removing then re-adding them to HA).

The most recent firmware updates, as of this post, have installed without issue. Battery life appears to be better.

4

User experiences: Door/window contact sensors

Brand: Digoo
Model: 433MHz New Door & Window Alarm Sensor for HOSA HAMA
Link to exact product: DIGOO 433MHz New Door & Window Alarm Sensor for HOSA HAMA Smart Home Security System Suit Kit Access
Protocol: 433MHz
HA Integration: ESPHome, RFLink, Broadlink, …
In use since: 2019
Number of this item in use: 12

Positive:

  • Local :round_pushpin:
  • Reports Open, Close, Low Battery :signal_strength:
  • Tamper pin and on/off switch :muscle:
  • Well made :star2:
  • Extreme low power consumption (Sleep 0.47uA continuously / 12mA for 1,6s when sending signal) :zap:
  • Extreme long battery life :battery: (11.439 days or ~30 years in theory) :exploding_head:
  • Extremely cheap (bought for $3 per piece with battery included) :money_mouth_face:

Negative:

  • Low range (~13m) :pinching_hand:
  • 433 receiver necessary (for example $2 superheterodyn modules for esp’s) :tokyo_tower:
  • No encryption support :unlock:

My rating (1-5, 1 being bad, 5 being super): 4.5 :star: :star: :star: :star: :whale:

Comment:

Awesome catch. Bought in 2019 still going strong with the included battery after 5 years :rocket:

6

User experience: Door/window contact sensors

Brand: Sonoff
Model: SNZB-04
Link to exact product: SONOFF SNZB-04 ZigBee Wireless Door Window Sensor
Protocol: Zigbee
HA integration: zigbee2mqtt
In use since: 26 Oct 2021
Number of this item in use: 1
Positive: Small, cheap, works reasonably well
Negative: Reliability, loses connectivity to often to my liking
My rating (1-5, 1 being bad, 5 being super): 3
Comment: I’m keeping track when I replace a battery but not when a device looses connection.
With this one, it has happened +/- 3 to 4 times that, even if the battery level is reported as good, that all of a sudden there is no feedback anymore.
A few days ago, with 67% of battery for about 1.5 month, it fell off the mesh again.
It sits close (about 1m) to an IKEA bulb and there should be no interference close to it.
My mesh is very stable/reliable.