Best Window Sensor

[JDRoberts]

@Buddyl33

Looking to start adding sensors to my ground floor and basement windows and doors to detect open/close status (temp status is an added bonus). Looking for something small/discreet so I don’t have some giant brick attached to the windows and doors.

As others have mentioned, there are a number of different form factors available in contact sensors these days. Thin flat triangles, even thinner flat strips, tubes to go inside the wall. Quite a few choices. The following thread discusses the various options and has some pictures.

Bulbs, switches and sensors, oh my....what to buy (device class features FAQ)

Battery-Powered Contact Sensor Features There are many different brands of battery-powered contact sensors, operating on many different protocols. There are zigbee ones that use the Zigbee home automation profile and work directly with SmartThings. There are proprietary Zigbee sensors which cannot talk directly to SmartThings. There are zwave versions. There are security system versions using 433 MHz which cannot talk directly to smart things. Sometimes a manufacturer will make identical-looking ones in several different protocols, so you have to read very carefully to make sure you get the one you want. It’s also really common that someone moves into a house that already has sensors set up from a previous security system that they want to try to use with smart things. It is sometimes…