Z-wave door contact and tilt sensor does report batttery

I have a few door zwave door sensor and tilt sensor that is not reporting the battery, just realized they have been in about a year and it still say 100%. Any idea why

They are setup as zwave switch and door and window sensor.

Depending upon the manufacturer, it may start at reporting 100%, and then only report again at a predetermined low battery level. Some devices report in ranges, while some do report actual. It all depends.

Sounds like you have one that will report only when it hits a low threshold value. Is it an Ecolink or Monoprice door/window sensor?

Both are ecolink sensors.

Thought so. I have a ton of them. When initially installed I got battery levels ranging from 98 to 100. I have several on doors very frequently used, and they’re still at 100%, but I know they’re not. Most have been in place on my doors and windows now for almost 2 years too.

The most frequently used one just had a battery replacement, and it was at 100% in the app (1 year of very high usage). The only thing that caused me to notice and replace the battery was that Alexa stopped reporting open/close and the red LED stayed lit. I did a voltage test compared to the new battery, and was easily way below 1/2 of the new one. I don’t remember what it actually was, just that I was surprised it was that low. There was no event log captured, so who knows what the device sent right before it was too weak to maintain a radio signal.

My EcoLink stopped reporting battery level at all, all of the sudden. It’s new – about a month old. The battery used to be 100%. Now there aren’t any battery events at all in the log over the past 6 days. The open/closed status updates are still being generated properly.

I am still new to the ST scene. Is it what it is like, in general? Devices stopping to report their battery levels, session variables getting garbled so SmartTiles go bonkers, cats and dogs sleeping together etc? :grinning:

Many of the zwave devices rarely report battery. i have a bunch of Ecolinks and I may get battery updates every 2-3 months.

Zigbee and some other devices report battery updates once a day.

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ST has had (still does too) their fair share of issues, but I can tell you it’s a lot better and getting better. Each person will have their own opinion and results. I’ve spent a lot less time tracking down issues now more than any other time previously.

I use to be a fan of Zwave, but as of late I’m leaning towards Zigbee. I’m fine with both, and I haven’t had a need to do a zwave repair in many months. Zigbee did have a few hiccups recently, but that’s been good for me too. What helps is a good design for your HA environment, and the use of repeaters to have a strong and healthy mesh.

An event will only show up if a device sends/does something, and with battery events it could take several days (beyond the 7 days ST retains) or months in between reporting events. That all depends upon the device.

Remove the cover, and you should see an event (live log is better) for that, and perhaps an updated battery report. Here’s one of mine I just did:

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Here is another recent thread that talked about it.

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@desertblade, @johnconstantelo, thank you for the great info!!

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