I’m in the market for new temperature/humidity sensors.
The ones that I have from Samsung are coin cell battery-operated and require battery replacement every couple of months.
Can someone point me to alkaline battery-operated sensors?
I’ve done extensive Amazon searching, but the ones I found require their own brand of hub while being z-wave sensors.
If they are Z wave sensors, they should work with any Z wave hub, which would include smartthings. What’s the brand and model of the ones that you found?
Also, what country are you in? The device selection does vary.
I’m in the U.S.
For example, this product page says their sensor requires their own hub to establish z-wave connection.
https://www.amazon.com/Aqara-WSDCGQ11LM-Temperature-Humidity-Sensor/dp/B07D37FKGY/ref=sr_1_8?dchild=1&keywords=zwave+temperature+sensor&qid=1610121674&sr=8-8
Ok, that’s a Zigbee device, not zwave. (That happens a lot when you search on Amazon.)
The Aqara devices are popular because they are so cheap. They work best with their own hubs. But then you can’t use them with smartthings.
It is possible to use them with smartthings, but they have a problem staying connected, particularly if they connect through a repeating device. The IKEA Tradfri pocketsockets and lightbulbs happen to be good repeaters to use with Aqara devices, but otherwise they can be a pain in the neck. You can find lots of discussion of those in the forum.
People looking for better reliability in staying connected seem to be shifting to the new Sonoff zigbee sensors. That one will also say it needs its own bridge, but again, you can use the smartthings hub instead. And it seems to work well with most Zigbee repeaters.
https://www.amazon.com/Temperature-Humidity-Checking-Thermometer-Hygrometer/dp/B08BCJNDYQ?th=1
But I believe both the Aqara you linked to and the Sonoff require coin batteries.
What other Zigbee devices do you have, in particular, which ones do you have which are not battery powered? Sometimes a battery powered device is running two batteries really quickly because it’s having a hard time getting a signal through to the hub and a repeating device can really help.
If you do want to use a Z wave device, the following is a popular model. Again, though, it uses a coin battery, which is typical, because then they can make the device smaller.
If you can find the older version of ^ they used a pair of AAA batteries. I’ve got 2 that that are Monoprice branded. My only complaint with them is that I can’t use regular rechargeable batteries without it sending a low battery alert daily. I do have some lithium ion batteries that have a built-in regulator (and a micro usb port for charging). But the battery life ends up being really really short with those.
I assume the reason they changed away from that, and why others don’t use AA/AAA batteries is that basic alkaline ones really don’t like slow steady discharging. If I use anything other than the fancy energizer lithium batteries in these sensors they end up leaking.
I’m personally hoping someone comes out with some sensors that take a swappable 18650 Li-Ion battery.
Try the monoprice 4 in 1 sensor:
My xiaomi and aqara devices stay paired, the only issue I have with them is they don’t automatically reconnect if the hub is disconnected and then reconnected.