Z-Wave Plus Wireless Door and Window Sensor - Compatible with Samsung SmartThings - White

I bought this because the Zooz sensor I wanted to get was out of stock. This thing is enormous, *but* it connected right away, and stayed connected even when I took it outside (under cover; it's not designed to be weatherproof). When the Zooz sensor became available, I bought one, intending to replace this one with the smaller Zooz, inside a weatherproof case. Nope. As soon as I got it outside, the Zooz stopped responding. Exactly the same spot this one worked just fine, and it did nothing. I put this one back; it's big for an open/close sensor, and there's no weatherproof case, but it *works*.

I bought these sensors primarily since they were Z-Wave Plus and SmartThings-compatible. Previously, I had some of Samsung's multipurpose Zigbee sensors, but they were incredibly unreliable and only accepted expensive coin-cell types of batteries (really dumb for devices that don't have to be tiny, tiny). Unreliability is a no-go for me, so I've switched to Z-Wave devices mostly since it operates at 900 MHz, allowing for much less interference and longer range. In contrast to my previous sensors, these sensors have been 100% reliable so far, and they accept AAA batteries which last longer and are cheaper and more convenient to replace (you could even use Eneloop rechargeables, if you wanted). So far the adhesive pads have also been holding without any issues.As long as you have a hub that is compatible with Z-Wave, I wouldn't be too turned off by some of the negative ratings on this product (it is a small sample size, after all). At least with a vanilla SmartThings implementation, it's a good bet that these sensors will be very reliable for you. The negative reviews mostly appear to be coming from other software ecosystems, which come with their own compatibility and reliability issues.

I was able to add this using a different brand zwave profile/driver. As far as contact sensors go it’s nice to use alkaline and not expensive lithium batteries. It may not be compatible with the latest most secure S2 zwave protocols, but for a long’ish range door sensor it seems to work fine.

Does not report back to HomeSeer. Initial pairing was ok.

Works great on the most distant door from my Smart Things hub. Easy to install and connect.

I'm probably reviewing this device a little early because I haven't put it into service yet. I will be using it with a custom application I wrote using the open-zwave library and an Aeotec Z-Stick as the controller. From running a minimal test program, it appears that the device supports the set of z-wave features it advertises and reacts quickly to the removal of the magnetic "wand" that came with it. For now, I'm impressed at the functionality it provides for the relatively low cost.

It works I found this in the q&a and it was extremely helpful with SmartThings. A: This unit looks identical to the BeSense sensor. It pairs perfectly when you select the native BeSense open/close sensor in Smarthings.My Kaipule/BeSense sensor works perfectly

I am running a Universal Devices eisy unit with the Z-wave dongle and tried a number of Z-wave Plus door sensors with mixed results. I used Zooz, Aeotec, HomeSeer, and Monoprice. Granted that all locations can be different, and networks may vary in strength due to the number of devices and type, but this one clearly worked the best of the group in my instance. I have a Zooz Z-wave 700 in-wall switch about 15 feet away from the location of the sliding door that uses this sensor. The other devices seemed to struggle to register state changes reliably in this location.I also really like that it uses standard batteries and I did not have to go to coin cell or half-height AA as some of the others require. It is a little larger than some others, but the battery life is supposed to be great and it seems to work well. I took a flyer trying this one out as I was not familiar with the name, but so far, it has worked well for me in a location that most of the others did not. The HomeSeer equivalent was a close second in terms of registering state changes reliably, but it did not work quite as well. I hope this helps some others who might be looking for something with good range.