Aqara Zigbee Door and Window Sensor 3 Pack Wireless Mini Contact Sensor Home Automation Requires Aqara Hub Zigbee

I have an August lock that is supposed to provide some "door ajar" alerts. It never does, and the sensor does not integrate well with HomeKit. Recently, I put down a door mat that catches on my door and leaves it open, and I've had a few times where I've left the house and left my door wide open because I'm used to it closing behind me. I already have a few Aqara sensors around my house for leak detection, and a door sensor on a deck door that is harder to close and can get left ajar accidentally, so I decided to get another sensor for my front door. This sensor is perfect! It was easy to setup and get connected to my existing Aqara hub, and it works very well with HomeKit. I get notifications every time the door is open or closed, and in addition, priority alerts when the door is left open past my timeout setting (two minutes). Installing it was also a breeze, and one of the sensor parts is small enough that it fits on my recessed doorframe with just enough distance between the sensors for it to be effective detecting opening and closing. My Zigbee hub is close by, so it does not need to communicate over a long distance, which should probably help with battery life - however, the sensor on my other door is on a second floor and it communicates perfectly, and I have only had to replace its battery twice. I continue to be pleased with the Aqara ecosystem! Read more

There's a lot to like about these little sensors, but a few things to note as well. First, I bought one of these to test before committing to putting them on all of my windows and doors. Worked great. I have now purchased several more sensors. I've seen recommendations that you don't pair your devices with the receiver until you have it near where the final install is located. It was explained that zigbee networks kind of self-sort and adjust power, channels, etc. based on the network signal. I have no idea if this is true, just passing it on. The Good: -- I connected these to Home Assistant via a Sonoff Zigbee USB receiver and ZHA integration. Home Assistant picked it up almost immediately upon putting it into pairing mode. -- The open/close signal is picked up within a fraction of a second. Very sensitive. -- There's a basic temperature sensor in the device that is reported back to HA. -- The devices report back LQI for your network. Kind of handy to know. -- However small you think these things are, you're wrong. They're smaller. I wouldn't call them non-descript, but they were significantly smaller than the devices they replaced. A quarter of the size. You can find the dimensions on the product page. The Less Than Ideal: -- Sometimes when I close my windows, the window "bounces" a little. Just enough for the sensor to "close" and then immediately "open" again even though the window is closed and properly seated. It's kind of annoying since the only way to see if this happened is to open the HA app and check the status. Maybe I should just pulse the lights in the room when it's been closed for 5 seconds. Anyways... -- There is only a small fraction of the information I would have preferred transmitted -- RSSI is not reported to HA. Not sure if this is a HA thing, Sonoff thing, ZHA thing, or Aqara thing. -- The temperature isn't very useful. It's the temperature of your door frame basically. I'm not entirely sure about the accuracy, but I have my doubts. The Ugly: -- The batteries that are shipped all show up as about 75% upon installation. Really annoying. But not a dealbreaker I suppose. The Undetermined: -- I've had these installed for 2-3 months. For the first month, several batteries went from "100%" to 77.5%. All have basically stayed at 77.5% for the entirety of the second and third months. Another went from "100%" to 55% in the first month. Another is at 65% after two months. There's no correlation between amount of use and battery life as of yet. My longest-lasting and first installed battery is also the battery with the highest amount of life left. --Update 10-28-2024: I have yet to replace the batteries in a single one of these. I have had three installed since May 2023, another three since July 2023, and couple of singles installed since. All are hovering between 50% and 70% battery remaining and have been flat since roughly November 2023. Bottom Line: I'd recommend them if you're looking for non-wifi, immediate signal, zigbee door/window sensors that are small. They tick just about every box you could need. Read more

I heard about this from a YouTube review of the best door sensors for a smart home. Only $18, why not give it a try? You don’t need an Aqara hub. Any Zigbee coordinator (like Sonoff USB plus, Conbee, etc.) that you have installed in Home Assistant or similar automation system should work fine. I’m using with the Sonoff USB plus as my Zigbee coordinator. The Aqara door sensor pairs instantly and configured in less than a minute. Installed on pantry doors. This was a bit tricky as I installed on the inside of the doors, so they would not be visible from outside. I had to try multiple locations (need to ensure magnet and sensor are close together at the proper height relative to one another) but finally got the location right (used scotch tape to test/identify best location, then I used the included stickers to attach the sensor and magnet directly to the pantry door interior, once I knew the proper positioning). Directly outside the pantry is a ceiling light that is controlled by a smart light switch (also integrated into Home Assistant). I config’d an automation so when the pantry doors are opened (door sensor detects motion), the smart light switch activates the ceiling light. When pantry doors are closed (door sensor detects the magnet has come close to the sensor again), the smart light switch shuts off the ceiling light. This works great to make it easy to see contents of the pantry, and we don’t need to bother with manually turning the light on/off anymore. We used to sometimes leave the light on accidentally/forget to turn off. Not anymore! Thanks Aqara and Home Assistant. Read more