SmartThings Multipurpose Sensor Battery

So my SmartThings Multipurpose sensor (about a month old) decided to go from 77% battery to suddenly it hasn’t reported any events in 3 days. Putting in a new battery fixed it, but I’m curious what type of battery longevity I should expect from these?

Also, what are you all using for apps/rules to notify you if a sensor has gone down for an extended period of time?

I got 2 months out of one and it went from 66 percent to dead.

is that a new ST Multipurpose with 1xCR2450? I just got a couple of these and was suprised and disappointed to see the coin cell. I bet it sucks.

Or an old ST Multipurpose with 2xAAAA - these are amaaazing. Been working in the fridge for shoot, 16-18 months, lots of activity, still reading 38%.

This was not a good change.

It’s the coin cell type.

Mine was the coin cell.

Well I just ordered 20 CR2450’s from digikey pretty cheap, but I really don’t want to be changing batteries on my 12 smartthings sensors every month or two. If this pattern continues, I’ll likely swap them out for something more battery friendly.

Any suggestions? I have some linear/go-control z-wave contact sensors, but they are massive by comparison.

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I’ve had a dozen sensors go about 6 months so far, some report 100% still, others 66%, I’ve had two batteries die completely. One was in the garage all winter the other in a nice warm part of the house so can’t really correlate. The lithium batteries do have a unique curve though, strong power, till they die, so the % is basically useless.

I have had varying battery life issues. Original Kickstarter mulisensor battery life over 1 year. New multi 2 months. This is why Amazon DRS needs to be implemented in ST to auto order batteries before they run out.

Just last night I noticed that my 2 original Multipurpose Sensors (from the v2 starter kit) stopped reporting events. I’ve only being using these as temperature monitors; one last reported a temp on May 21, the other on Aug 1. They were initially installed in December and the app says both last reported 66% battery!

I’ve not checked, but I suspect the batteries are dead. What’s the point of the battery report if it does from 66% to dead, though?

This happens to mine as well, battery algorithm sucks on these. I keep an eye on my graphs every few days for any flat lines…There are some apps that will report battery levels if too low, but 66% isn’t TOO low, and the next reported level up is certainly not at a point that needs battery replacement, so it’s basically useless.

I can confirm that the multipurpose sensory has been observed to die at 66%… which sucks. It’s on a list of things we’d like to improve, and it’s something that I will be investigating over the next couple of months. However, we were able to get about a million open and close events in testing before the battery died.

We’ve changed manufacturers for the multis and we definitely need to re-test the new ones. I’d also like to see the voltage lookup table improved on the current gen multi’s, but the ZigBee spec only allows checking of 100 mV intervals. Regardless, the battery reporting definitely sucks right now and we’d all like to see it improved.

The devices should still go 6 - 12 months on a battery. It’s possible that the battery that came with the device was subpar, but if you guys are consistently having trouble with the battery dying too quickly then I’m sure support will replace it for you.

Sorry I couldn’t make this post happier, but this is something that definitely has my attention.

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I just replaced the batteries in my two multipurpose sensors. They were completely dead - one read 0.01v, the other 0.2v!

Neither of my multipurpose sensors getting open/close events – they are just using the stock DTH and I’m logging the reported temperature, which I’m pretty sure is a passive activity (it wakes, reports). As I said, one made it 6 months, the other 9 months, which is I suppose is pretty decent. But they kept reporting 66% battery even when there were no events coming in anymore.

I use several things to monitor devices (Device Monitor, Simple Device Viewer, Battery Monitor) and I didn’t pick up on when these stopped reporting events, which really sucks.

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I am planning to get 5 multipurpose sensors. Now I am wondering whether I should wait or are the new ones already in circulation. Could you please confirm if the ST site / Amazon will have the new ones now or still the old ones?

My ST Multipurpose Sensors always seem to have problems.
I get alerts all the time that ST sensors haven’t reported an event in days. Replacing the batteries usually fixes it but I have some that only go a few months before failing again. Not sure what is going on with the ST sensors but I would NOT recommend them to anyone.

I had a ST Multipurpose Sensor battery die on me around 5 months, it was reporting 66%. I tried to reset the sensor and connect it again using the same battery, it sync up again with the hub and reported 77% but the next morning it died again after reporting 66%.

One thing of note was that the sensor had a “Lixing brand” battery in it, I check some other sensors and it was a Panasonic. Perhaps they are not of the same quality.

I have a multi-sensor on my main entry door that looks like it died/reporting at 77%. I just had the ST Motion sensor die at 66%, as well. The worst part is that hub still thinks both are there. Instead, it should poll and let you know in the app that these sensors aren’t reporting.

If they die in Away/Away mode, or in the middle of the night (Arm/Stay),that’s just as important as someone opening the door for example and is a huge security flaw in what I was using as a security system but may not be reliable enough for that purpose anymore.

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Had the same issue here. I have two sensors in my garage (3 others in the house are fine) which both were reporting “closed” when actually their batteries were dead. My garage door stayed open for several hours yesterday with no one home…as several routines failed to see it open. SHM arms when we leave…and is supposed to check that the garage door is closed. I also have a rules machine app which is another 2nd check, to close the garage door when presence sensors (iOS) determine we’re not home.

The garage door app depends on the input of the multi-sensor on the door to control the door.

Smart Things should be reporting dead cells, or any sensor for that matter that has stopped checking in. Any automation depending on the multi-sensor, like auto-locking etc. depends on these inputs. This is a very basic, very necessary requirement…sheesh. Just wasted 30 minutes trouble shooting, and risked theft of our garage contents on something that should absolutely be part of the system. The very integrity of SHM is about zero with this knowledge that a door may report closed indefinitely as a user has no way of knowing the sensor is not working, unless they manually test it.

Edit: Just confirmed that our entire house is being serviced by dead multi-sensors…so all doors were reporting closed…zero notifications from SM. They all report 66%.

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Another one here 66% last report but dead, approx 6 months life on a fairly active door. After continual errors on alarm setting checked the sensor which Smarthings was still showing a temp from and said it was active. Bit of a problem if ST still reports the sensor as alive even when not seeing comms - is there any alive polling checks that should be happening to report sensor (battery) fail.

Me too, 2 multi-sensors

The garage app I’m using sends a notification every time the garage door is opened or closed (but not using the app) to let you know that the app is syncing with the door position: New smart app to link the virtual/simulated garage door device with two actual devices I’ll need to start paying attention to these in order to monitor the door sensors…when the sensor is dead, the app assumes the door is closed 100% of the time.

The four multi-sensors I am using all pretty much died in the same time frame, about 6 months after installation, all without warning.

Ecobee has it sorted with their Ecobee3 stats…the thermostat will broadcast messages as soon as a wireless remote sensor is lost. Our DSC panel also reports “missing” door or window sensors the moment they are offline. Battery life on 15 of their remote wireless sensors has not been an issue, with all of them over five years now…and distance as far as 100 ft from the panel.

SmartThings is off my list of recommendations to anyone until this issue is resolved. “Dead” sensor reporting for anything advertised as a “security system” is 100% required.

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