Zcombo not reporting low battery

Anyone have an issue where their zcombo devices aren’t relaying low battery information correctly? I just had a unit start to beep with low battery warning, while smarthings was still reporting it at 90%.

Can you just open the battery cabinet once and reinsert? For me when I rejoined the device it gave a low battery notification, but after doing the above step, it showed a more reasonable charge left. Guess it’s not worth taking a risk… Always test and change batteries when in doubt. Waiting to replace with nest protect wired once I have funds in order…

It gave the low battery once I touched the device and forced the test to take place, but I was curious why it wouldn’t have reported the correct battery level back before then. It doesn’t do much good to have a battery indicator in the app if it’s not reading the right value. My dogs lose their mind when the low battery beep goes off, so the goal was to be able to see in the app long before the hardware failsafe beep is triggered.

I actually have one wired nest protect still in the box. Maybe it’s worth trying it out to compare the two.

I’m also going to read up on the zcombo device, maybe there is a way to trigger the “test” function with a zwave command, and I can just trigger that once a month when nobody else is home to be bothered.

Go figure! :wink: the second version of the wired nest protect conforms to the local code in most areas and as far as I know gets you home insurance discounts in certain areas and hooks up with security monitoring companies.

Also do report it to support so that they are aware!

I think we’ve all been waiting for the hardwired zcombo. I’m not sure that First Alert is listening though :slight_smile:

The more I’m reading other posts on here from folks who use the device, I think it’s because of the way the unit reports the battery.

  1. It’s infrequent - “sleepy” device, so that limits what we can send to it from the hub.
  2. It seems to want you to change batteries when the level is between 70%-80% not much lower levels like many other devices.

I have a few more, all installed a few weeks apart, so I’m going to try a new monitoring scheme and report back.

@jr0 @smart , I have 11 of those smoke/CO devices. All of which don’t like to get below 80%. I test mine every 4-6 months, and usually the second time around I’m replacing batteries.

Take a look at this SmartApp:

Parent:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/constjs/jcdevhandlers/master/smartapps/jscgs350/dashboard-battery-monitor.src/dashboard-battery-monitor.groovy

Child:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/constjs/jcdevhandlers/master/smartapps/jscgs350/dashboard-battery-monitor-child.src/dashboard-battery-monitor-child.groovy

It lets you set low level thresholds where ever you’d like, so for me I have an instance of this app running just for zcombo’s with a low threshold of 80% when it notifies me.

Works like a charm!

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that’s a good idea for a bad device. Mine started beeping at 77% - not good. Maybe 11 months on the original 2 AA Duracells. Rechargable NIMH LSD only start at 82%.

Another unwanted chore.

Same experience here. Bought 11 of these devices less than a year ago and just had the 2nd one start beeping at 3:00 a.m. with a reported battery status of 77%. Would have NEVER even considered this product had I known it would be “another unwanted chore” as the previous poster said.