Aeotec Recessed Door Sensor Gen7

Works great with Smartthings V3 but you need to pair the sensor in a specific way as of 12/14/20. If you follow the instructions in the package or use Steven’s review it will not work correctly and the sensor will show closed when the door is open.To pair, first remove the lid and take the microchip/battery out of the plastic tube by squeezing the tube and pulling out the chip. Remove the plastic battery tab and then pull the battery completely out. Replace the battery and you will see the red light flash, which will eventually turn off. If there is no red light, twist the battery in place as this may clear any debri that was preventing the battery contact to the chip. Keep the chip out of the tube for now.Next step is to load the new Smartthings app and then hit the + button on the top right. Hit Device, then Aeotec brand, then Open/Closed Sensor, then Door/Window 7 Sensor, then Start, then Next in the hub/room screen. Hit the button several times until the red light starts flashing and the pairing hits 100%. The next window will ask you to scan a QR Code BUT HIT THE X ON THE TOP RIGHT TO EXIT THIS SCREEN!! Do not scan the QR Code or enter a code or your sensor will NOT work correctly. After hitting the X you will get a Exiting Secure Set-Up Message. Then you will get a warning that you are not using the highest security but ignore this warning by hitting OK and then rename the device and hit Done.Now the final step is to immediately remove the battery, wait 10 seconds and then replace it. Wait for the red light to turn off. Move the magnet piece over the top of the chip and you should see a successful open/closed indication on Smarthings. If it doesn’t work, take the battery out again, wait 10 sec and then replace it. Eventually it will start to work perfectly and you won’t have to touch it again. Place the chip back in the tube, replace the lid and install in your door/window.I just installed 8 sensors in most of our doors and windows and all of them work great after following this method. For some reason this sensor only works with the lower Smartthings security, but as an open/closed sensor this was not an issue for me. If Aeotec or Smartthings updates their software and this method no longer works, I will update my review. I hope this helps!

The two parts of the device were easy to install in a wooden door with modern weatherstrip. You'll need a 3/4" (US) drill bit and possibly a 1/16" as well-- the instructions don't mention it, but making (tiny) pilot holes for the screws on the sensor will make the job easier. The magnet part is more permanently secured with "white PVA glue" according to the manual. I had no idea what that was and googled it -- it's just good-old Elmer's School Glue. ;) The sensor is held in by the tiny screws to allow battery replacement. it's almost invisible when the door is closed which nicer (IMO) than having a little plastic goiter on your door and door frame with most other door sensors.Caveats: I'd agree with the installation instructions and doubt that it would work as well in a metal door, since the wireless transceiver is buried inside the door when installed. Also, if you have old-fashioned springy metal weatherstrip, you'll probably need to replace that with the newer felt/foam type -- otherwise you'd be drilling a hole thru the metal strip into the door frame to mount the magnet which doesn't sound like a great idea.Including it in the z-wave network with Home Assistant was simple by scanning the code on the box and the software did it's thing and the sensor appeared ready for use a few minutes later. Once it's included, you can do whatever automations you like or just watch the status on the HA overview page. (My system is a Raspberry Pi 3+ running Home Assistant and a Zooz ZST39 LR USB Z-wave controller.) I don't see any reason it wouldn't work with the other Z-wave compatible home controller systems.I haven't been using the device long enough to comment on the life of the replaceable but not rechargeable lithium cell. Overall, this is a nice door sensor for use when you'd prefer not to have to see it all the time.

I purchased two of these in May 2021. They are solid performers. Quick and reliable open/close detection to date, and battery life had been very good. The factory-installed battery in one unit lasted nearly 2 years while the other lasted only 10 months. Turns out it was starting to fail, with each battery needing to be replaces in about half the time of its predecessor. Finally the unit failed this week (Nov 2023), draining the battery in a matter of hours. An IR camera reveals a failed surface mount element overheating.The other unit still shows 100% battery level three months after its first battery replacement, so these things can and do last a while.

The sensor works (except for low battery warnings?). The mounting screws that came with it are utter garbage, and the heads stripped out during installation (even when I used the proper #1 Phillips bit size that the instructions never mentioned). I had to deal with these screws again only 1 week later when the OEM CR2 battery was dead (discovered because the sensor stopped responding). They estimate their battery will last 2-3 years with 20 activations per day, but ours lasted less than 10 days with 12-15 activations per day. I was extremely disappointed with the OEM peripherals, but the sensor itself seems pretty good. BEWARE that you should preemptively provide your own CR2 battery and 3/4” #4 flat head screws!UPDATE 6/26/21: I have now gone through 3 batteries across 2 units (1 replacement) in LESS THAN A MONTH! Aeotec will blame it on incorrect configuration settings, but I was extremely careful how I setup my replacement sensor after my first sensor SUDDENLY DECIDED TO COOK ITSELF. See the "constant red light on" that a few other reviews mention. The battery in my first device burned out in about 8 days (despite giving 100% battery reports the whole time). Shortly after I replaced the CR2 battery, the light came on solid red for at least 12 hours and wasn't reporting the correct state. Since it was late at night and screwed into the wall, I figured I'd deal with it in the morning. The battery was already dead when I came back to it mid-morning the next day. When I replaced the battery AGAIN (mind you these CR2's run $10/2 pack at Target), I quickly noticed as metallic smell that was quickly followed by the sensor getting warm to the touch. I quickly removed the battery and contacted Amazon to exchange the device. The replacement sensor I was sure to configure it to use a wakeup interval of 21,600 (6 hours) instead of the default 3,600 (1 hour). Aeotec specifically mentions changing that wakeup period to 4 hours or greater in order to get the 3+ year advertised battery life. I also configured the LED to be disabled completely to further preserve battery life. It improved 75%!!!....from 8 days to 14 days >:( BTW, I checked the logs, and even the replacement sensor has the faulty 100% battery report issue.I'm about to try 1 more battery in this replacement sensor before I lose my gosh darn temper. THIS IS DEFINITELY NOT A "PLUG-AND-PLAY" DEVICE. FWIW I'm using the latest Zwave JS driver on the latest version of Home Assistant OS.

*UPDATE*HUGE BATTERY LIFE IMPROVEMENT VS GEN 5. Installed early Nov 2020, I just replaced the battery here the first week of May. It died sometime near the end of April. So it went approximately 6 months on a VERY busy door. Worked immediately after replacing the battery, no fussing with pairing again.I replaced a Gen5 sensor with this Gen7 sensor. Can confirm, it's a drop in replacement. You don't even need to swap out the magnet side, they appear to be the same and function fine. Tricky pairing with the Samsung Smart Things Hub...if you read the QR Code it works ONE time and doesn't work again. Delete and add manually. (See Steve's review above)Now to see how long the battery lasts. (Gen5 was a cruel joke on our busy garage entry door) 11-6-2020 install date. I'll try to come back when the included battery finally dies.

Good product, poor quality. Ordered 4 items off ebay, all of them were overheating immediately draining battery in 10 min! Could probably cause fire if unnoticed. Returned and purchased 4 more from this store less than 1 year ago. And now I'm having the same issue with 1 of them, drained battery in 1 week, replaced it, same issue!

I've been using two of these for over a year. When they work, they work great. But, I've had to spend a lot of time getting them to work again when they start to malfunction. Aeotec even replaced them after 6 months because of severe battery life problems.Based on my recent experience, I think that malfunction problems can be solved by a factory reset (hold button down for over 20 seconds) and then repairing them.The screws that are supplied to hold the cap into the door are extremely small in size and ridiculously long. My advice is to use a slightly larger drill bit than you normally would when installing the sensor. You will also need a #1 Phillips screwdriver, the more common #2 screwdriver will be too large and will strip the head.To remove the sensor from the door, you will need to use needle nose pliers. You will need to grab the sensor's printed circuit board directly with the pliers. If you are not careful, you will grab in the wrong spot and damage the PCB. If you to pry the sensor out with a screwdriver, you will definitely damage the switch that is on the board.If you need a recessed sensor, I'm not sure that you have many options. With some hints, you can be successful using this sensor, but you will likely have to factory and reset it periodically. Hopefully, this will resolve battery issues that several report as well.=== UPDATE AFTER 2 YEARS ===I've given up. The battery life on these is is too unpredictable. Sometimes they last for 6 months, other times less than one month. To make matters worse, the process of replacing the batteries is a PITA because of the tiny flat head screws that are much longer than they need to be. I don't know of any other recessed door sensor, so I'm not sure what sensor I'm movng to yet, but the cheap Xfinity window/door sensors with small coin cell betteries seem to last about a year and have been very dependable.

Installation was reasonably easy, used a 3/4" Speedbore bit. One lesson learned was that all more doors are metal and partially blocked the z-wave signal so I ended up installing the magnet in the doors and the module in the door jams, being careful that it was set far enough back to not pop out of the sheetrock on the other side of the door trim.I am using these with Home Assistant and struggle for a while. By default they report on the "access control" entity with a 22 event for open and 23 for closed. The problem being that they eventually fall asleep and report a 254 on the same entity.After some digging around I found that I needed to enable Binary Report mode.Go To Developer Tools and do the following:call service - zwave.set_config_parameterenter the following data:node_id: <your node id number>parameter: 1value: 1size: 1Wake the device up so and wait a while. Once this parameter takes effect, the binary_sensor "sensor" entity will start reporting "on" or "off". Go to Home Assistant Configuration Customizations, find the Sensor entity and set the Device Class to "door".In all I probably spent around 10 hours to get 4 of these devices reporting correctly in Home Assistant. If I had known what I was doing, it would have been less than an hour.

I bought these sensors as the description clearly states The battery is a CR123A which for me is a much better choice than a CR2 battery (better availability and cheaper) So I decided to swap over my existing Aeotec sensors to the latest gen. I opened the box and surprise surprise a CR2 battery :( The boxes come with the smart scan sticker on the box I wish they would keep the sticker inside the box now I have to keep these stickers forever so I can securely add these devices. They added instantly to my hubitat hub and switch very quickly. I'm hoping since they're Zwave 700 the battery might last a bit longer on these. I wouldn't have bought these if the real battery was listed. A waste of $250...