New multi use Sensor only lasted 3 months, showed unavailable a few days ago, couldnt get it to reset, swapped battery still no luck, removed thinking I could add again but now its not even found… hate it didnt last long.
I need another sensor to replace this on my front door, thinking I should get a motion sensor to monitor area instead, any opinions on these or best option:
Thx
How’s your zigbee mesh? How far is your SmartThings hub from your WiFi router?
Just have the one router within 2’ of the hub, connected to about 9 devices.
I have 2 of these on the stock DTH and they have been great. Batteries last 4 or 5 months.
https://www.amazon.com/GE-Z-Wave-Wireless-Portable-34193/dp/B01KQDIU52
Was curious to see feedback on Amazon on the 2015 version (which I have ) vs the newer version, more costly to try to get the 2015 so wanted to know folks experience with newer ones as well.
I have an older hub from my original kit if that matters.
Is it in high traffic area, alot shorter than the 2 yrs battery life stated on link.
Move your WiFi router at least 5’ away from the SmartThings hub
There’s no one “best” as different things work for different people. And different budgets. 
But as far as the smartthings motion sensors go there seems to be pretty consistent opinion that the third generation are pretty bad when compared to the competition. There isn’t much information on the newest one yet, though.
If you want a zigbee motion sensor, most people seem to like the Lowe’s iris 2nd or 3rd generation, And it’s a good value, but there are some other options as well.
If you want a Z wave motion sensor, see the following excellent article. It was written in 2017, but it still current on pretty much everything except not including the most recent Dome model.
One more thing:
When you say “monitor the area” do you mean outside the front door? Or inside in the entry space?
The motion sensors that work with SmartThings Are all PIR sensors (passive infrared) which measure tiny changes in heat passing across the lens. They almost all have major problems outdoors, as anything from a gust of wind to A cloud passing over the sun can cause a false alert. So they tend to just not be as reliable outdoors.
Thx, Its for inside the doorway, to replace the current door multi sensor.
Is there a difference between the smartthings hub working with the zigbee Iris vs the Zwave options?
Yes very high approximately 60 to 70 activation’s per day. They can be plugged in as well mine are just not close to an outlet.
Is this for the multi sensor? I currently have 9 devices on hub but it wont find this one, just thought it went bad vs issues with linking via hub…
The smartthings hub is a plastic box that includes both a zigbee radio and a zwave radio, it works well with both. 
Zigbee tends to be a little better at power management, which means the inexpensive models can be more responsive. Zwave models generally sleep a little more, so they may be a second or so slower if they were asleep and had to be woken up. But zwave has a noticeably longer range, So that’s another factor.
And most of the zwave models sold in the US give you a lot more setting choices than the zigbee ones. (See the article I linked to for a discussion of some of the different settings you might use.) Just be aware that if you change to a faster response time you will also use up batteries faster.
Ok, thx, may try the $15 Iris version from local store, will be easier to return if theres issues.
Just make sure you get the right model numbers. The first generation of Lowe’s sensors are not compatible with smartthings. The second generation, the ones in the purple boxes, usually are: look for “zigbee home automation (ZHA)” on the box.
The new third generation is, but may need custom code.
Item # 877640 Model # 3326-L2
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Iris-Motion-Sensor/1000321971
Item # 690402 Model # 3326-L
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Iris-Motion-Sensor-Works-with-Iris/999925310
The $14.99 shows a purple box but cant see if it list the ZHA, so will look for that
both of those will work