I’ve got about 8 or so of the Visonic sensors around the house, and they are reliable, easy to pair (native smartthings support), run locally, and except for one at the farthest point in my house (where to be fair, other Zigbee sensors also did not work) have worked w/out issue. They use the CR-2032 battery, easy to find and it’s a 10 second job to slip in a new battery.
One the best benefits is that they are a lot “sleeker” and less obtrusive than other door/window sensors, which makes them easier to fit into tight spaces (less likely to get bumped by blinds/shades/people), helps w/the WAF and generally looks less tacky than the larger rectangular sensors stuck all over your windows and doors.
If you miss the sale on Amazon, you can also get them at the site below with discounts for quantity…I’ve ordered from them a few times, no issues. If you need more than 10 that’s down to $15.99 each.
For door sensors at the farthest point (including outside shed) in my home I’ve had to use Zwave/Zwave Plus sensors. I don’t have a Zigbee repeater and my Zigbee network isn’t as strong as my Zwave. I have Zwave light switches and Zwave plus door sensors that extend the Zwave network so I have better reach at extreme locations via Zwave.
I’ve gotten a couple of these Zwave Plus and they have had zero issues.
Motions and Contacts in every room that you want to automate and maybe even multiple motions.
Humidity Sensor in Bathrooms with exhaust fans.
IMHO the SmartThings Multi-Sensor is a horrible multi-sensor. There are soooooooo many issues with these things. I’ve replaced 8 in less than a year.
I have about 200 devices and I’ve tried many many many many sensors. Here’s my suggestions:
Motion:
Lowe’s Iris Motion run locally and you can find them sometimes for $14.99 when they go on sale for buy 2 get 1 free or 33% off and sometimes combined. Also there are the Lowe’s coupons that you can generate to knock even more off the price. They are damn near instant and only have a 30 second re-trigger time.
Ecolink Motion. Runs in cloud, super fast, pet immune, super reliable but has a 4 minute re-trigger time.
Contacts:
Lowe’s Iris Contacts run local, relatively inexpensive, batteries last a long time and are damn near instant.
Visonic Contact Sensors run local, relatively inexpensive, batteries last a long time and are damn near instant.
Xoami are fussy to get paired and sometimes drop off but they are the ones to get if you are going the cheap route.
Humidity:
I don’t have a solid recommendation for humidity sensors. I use the Zooz multi for humidity only as the motion is not fast enough for my taste. If using Zooz, it is almost necessary to hard-wire as battery life sux donkey butt.
Theoretically that should be true, since ST has certified that those devices will work with your hub, and you can even get support to help you out if it doesn’t (they may or may not help if you’re using unofficially supported devices).
In reality, many people find the ST branded devices to be very unreliable and a total headache to use.
@WB70 I have those devices but i never ventured into motion sensors and other sensors, i am looking to start but i wanted to get inputs on what start with that’s all.
Just a small datapoint - I recently replaced all (maybe 5) SmartThings multipurpose sensors because (to me) they were unreliable.
I replaced them with about 12 of the Visonic sensors mentioned above from mydigitaldiscount. Most of them cost me $10, the last few cost more (price went up as demand went up). I got an email yesterday from camelcamelcamel that Amazon currently has them for $14.99.
Humidity:
I don’t have a solid recommendation for humidity sensors. I use the Zooz multi for humidity only as the motion is not fast enough for my taste. If using Zooz, it is almost necessary to hard-wire as battery life sux donkey butt.
Thanks for the feedback @rontalley! We’re working on a new version of the sensor with both motion detection and battery life optimized. It should be available in early December.
We’ll also be changing battery to CR123 to improve overall battery life - that version should arrive in January. Feel free to contact our support if you’d like us to send you a sample for testing once the sensor is ready:
You can still find the Iris’s on FleaBay (EBay)but as always, you run the risk of someone selling you a defective device.
The Ecolinks are SUPER reliable and the batteries last forever. However, they are rather big and only update every 4 minutes. I use to think that that was an issue but most of my automations are at least 5 minutes of inactivity before something turns off…
The most comparable to size, battery life, function and reliability is actually the newer Samsung Motions…I only have a couple and they haven’t given me any issues.
The most affordable is the Xiaomi motion. However they are hard to pair and reliability is an issue sometimes. Once I got them paired and let them sit by the Hub for 24 hrs, they’ve been rock solid.
I have used only SmartThings sensors in the past and have no issues with them. I had narrowed it down to the tall ecolink, Samsung v2, and zooz 4in1. I think I’ll go with more Samsungs.
