Hi All, I’m after some real-world experience reccomendations. I would appreciate replies from people living with sensors rather than something you’ve found on google
I’m about to buy my first house and want to ensure I have good monitoring of external doors and windows for an alarmo based monitoring system. I used some bog standard zwave contact sensors on front / back door many years ago, but the battery life on the units was pretty terrible and they quickly went by the way-side.
What is the best zwave window / door sensor on the market at the moment? I see some advertising 5 years on one cell battery - seems optimistic…
Are hardwired options available / any good?
Is there actually a big difference between ones that cost under £10 and those at £30+ each?
My current zwave hub is an AeoTec Gen 5 Plus
Any advice you can offer would be appreciated.
I use the Z-wave contact door sensors from Ecolink (DWZWAVE25) and Ring (2nd gen).
The Ecolink has been wonderful. It uses a CR123 battery that lasts around a year with daily use. A nice feature is that it has dry contacts inside that can be used to wire in an external sensor in lieu of the magnetic contact (which I use to detect a few other items). I have them on all my doors for 4 years and they have been extremely reliable with instant response times.
The Ring uses two CR2032 batteries; I’ve replaced only one in the 10 months I’ve had them (maybe a hardware issue, the rest are still 100%). Their main advantage, in my opinion, is that they can be purchased refurbished for under $9/ea when on sale, and have the backing of a reputable brand. I put them on my windows, which I open far less frequently (and are less critical) than doors.
I’m not sure what you consider good vs terrible battery life, but I should note that I don’t trust the reported percentage. I’ve had sensors last many months while reporting 0% battery, so I rely on an automation to alert me when a sensor fails to wake-up for 24 hours (obviously I’d replace dying batteries before leaving for extended period). Also I just installed Battery Notes this summer to get better details on lifetime statistics (highly recommended!).
