Best Small Z-Wave Door/Window Sensor

Hello all,

I am looking for recommendations on small sensors for doors/windows. I am looking to use them inside around the house but also in my mailbox, outdoor freezer, and a few other select places. I purchased the Ecollink sensor but it is very bulky in comparison to the smartthings sensor but I would like to get something that is z-wave compatible.

Any recommendations? Thanks!

All the z wave door sensors I have are about the sane size. I think if they have the terminals they will be that big. If you don’t need the terminals you could try the aeon recessed door sensor. I would search for gen 5 zwave plus door sensors as the chip is smaller.

The HD trippers are the smallest I’ve seen with the 2nd Gen iris being pretty small as well… but they are both zigbee without terminals.

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I like the fibaro sensors, can also do temp readings also with a DS18B20 sensor

The smallest z-wave open/close sensor I’ve found is the Fibaro sensor (as Fuzzyligic mentioned above). I’ve got one of these, and a handful of the Ecolinks.

One thing you might keep in mind is that the Fibaro uses a 1/2 AA battery (I think, it’s been awhile since I opened it up), and I haven’t found a local supplier. The Ecolink uses a CR123 battery (which is partly responsible for the sensor size), but they can be purchased in Lowes or HomeDepot. Of course, you won’t be replacing the batteries in both of these sensors for awhile, but your mileage will vary. Also, the Fibaro is roughly twice the price of the Ecolink.

People kept bringing up the fibaro, so I wanted to know how much smaller it is…


Edit: the ecolink dimensions didn’t seem right I believe this to be correct:
Larger component:(device)
3 1/4" tall x 7/8" thick x 7/8" wide
Smaller component: (magnet)
1 3/8" tall x 7/8" thick x 1/2" wide

Thanks for your replies.

These all seem to be fairly large in comparison to the Smartthings multisensor and the Lowe’s Iris sensor too.

I received the Ecolink and it is very bulky, wouldn’t want to put it in my mailbox or interior door.

Those Iris ones are the smallest ones I’ve seen. Of course the Aeon recessed aren’t even visible but whether or not you can use them depends on your application. I only use those for doors.

True, but the ST multi and iris aren’t Z-wave.

If I remember correctly the Quirky trippers are about just as small as the iris, but again they aren’t zwave protocol

Aeon Labs is advertising a new door/window sensor on their website. The specs look good, but I don’t think it’s available yet.

Bump. I’m looking for a good, cheap open/close sensor.

I don’t need any other features but I have a lot of windows and doors and I’m not willing to spend $25/sensor.

Is there anything out there that would reliably work with the ST hub (It doesn’t have to be Z-wave if it works well).

Thanks!

Good luck with the Iris contact sensors. $23 full price, but often can be had for around $15 on sale.

You can get ecolinks for around $25 a pop, and add external contact sensors. If the windows are close you can daisy chain them to use one contact sensor to cover 2-3+ windows. I did this with a few windows, but then started to use the Iris sensors. Every time they went on sale picked up 3-4.

If you do go with iris (or any zigbee) I would recommend getting a zigbee repeater. Just 1 will vastly improve the mesh. I picked up a Iris smart outlet. I would make the same recommendation with zwave.

I love the Iris sensors and have a bunch of them and I even use a few of them just for temperature sensing in my freezers. However, they are Zigbee. The smallest open/close I have is the following NYCE sensor, which is also Zigbee:

I was looking to make a smart mouse trap and this thing fits perfectly on a trap like this:

Aeon has that tiny corner window/door sensor as well:

It has a rechargeable battery though, which is kind of odd.

Sounds like the Iris sensors on sale is the best way to go. What is the range on the sensor? (How far can it easily transmit before it needs a repeater?)

Its pretty good. I have some about 20 feet through a couple walls, and on different floors.

I have 20+ Iris motion and contact sensors. Started to have random ones dropping from the network and required a battery pull. Adding a repeater reduced the path for about 6 of them, which I believe improved the overall health of the mesh. Want to add a repeater for every floor (3 story house), but with one it has been a huge improvement.

Was it the repeater or ST enhancements? Not sure, but it you have issue with devices falling off, get a repeater.

edit: Should be clear get the second gen ones in the purple box. The old ones will not work with ST.

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Hi there, newbe question, how specifically do you daisy chain a series of windows using one sensor? I would love to cut down on the cost of purchasing sensors and several of my rooms have windows ~6 inches apart. Thx

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I did. Some zwave sensors have contact points that you can purchase external contacts that you can chain together.

Here is a good post about it: