Please use this thread to add comments and feedback to any of the nominees: Most Popular Contact Sensors in 2023
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Never got these to pair properly and batty always drained, Iām sure user error. Have you had any issues at all?
I have three of them and all have performed well. All paired without difficulty. Battery life has been very good. I use them on closet doors and they turn the light on quickly. Be careful when putting the device into a hollow door. I accidentally pushed one too far and it fell into the door. I had to drill a hole into the bottom of the door to get it out. I love these because they are completely hidden from view when the door is closed. And are not in obvious view when the door is open. Most people will not even notice them, but will appreciate the instant closet light.
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I use the Zooz ZSE41 contact sensor. You can buy a weather proof case for it. I use it for a gate. Works well in the outdoor case. Battery life is not all that great.
- Admin note: Those are zwave 700.
EDIT: As shown below, I was wrong. There IS an 800 version now of the device. Sorry for the confusion!!!
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Thanks, updated the post.
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Actually, they silently upgraded these to 800 recently (as they've done with a few other products). See: Zooz 800 Series Z-Wave Long Range XS Open | Close Sensor ZSE41 800LR - The Smartest House
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Just saw that. I stand corrected!!! In my defense, Zooz doesn't make that info easy to find.
Sorry for the confusion I caused!!! Thought I was being helpful, and was the opposite!
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They don't make it easy to figure out when this changes, that's for sure. 
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I see there is an 800LR version of the ZSE42 water sensor too... And they sneakily increased the battery from CR2032 to CR2450 as well (2.5x or so battery capacity).
Gonna have to order a pile of those!
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How big are these, actually? The Amazon page says 1.5 x 1.18 x 1.18. These aren't >1" thick, are they?
more like 1cm thick. just eyeballing it. I can measure if you'd like.
I'd love that. I'll pay by the hour for your time. Oops, less than an hour, so it's free!!
the sensor itself (minus magnetic part) is 1 1/4" x 1 5/8" at its widest point (slightly rounded) and just over 1/2" thick.
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Perfect, thanks very much for taking the time to measure accurately. Just to be a good citizen and pay it forward I added those measurements to the Amazon listing using the Q&A feature.
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I have a boatload of these - probably 40 installed. Got most for either $5 or $9 each. They've mostly been unbelievably reliable... except for 2, which when the (non-rechargable) CR2 battery got low they started to throw bogus open/close events. This wouldn't be much of an issue, except that they are on windows I monitor with HSM, and this happened when I was away (thus it was armed-away). So all of a sudden I started getting HSM alerts for a open/close events on window on the 2nd floor, while I was 2000 miles away. Thankfully with remote admin I was able to just go in and remove that window from HSM. But then a few days later it happened to a different window.
This happened when both devices were at 25% battery, and they'd been in service for nearly 2.5 years. These were still on the original battery that came with the devices.
I've replaced about 30 batteries in these this year (since they are all about 2.5 years old), and most of them have just stopped reporting as the battery got low.
I still love these contact sensors.
The one I want to nominate is the Aqara contact sensor (the "original" not the new Matter version)...it's the smallest I've found since the original Visonic MCT-340 (=high WAF), battery lasts forever, and for me they are completely reliable. But...Aqara doesn't play nicely on all hubs, so that's a bit too much of a caveat to nominate it.
Geeze, Zooz are leading the charge in terms of staying on top the next gen chips and features.
I've had a good experience with the Ring contact sensors. Batteries are still at 100% after at least 3 years.
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any contact sensor with temperature sensor ?
I like the original Smartthings COntact Sensor but having issues with it on C8 hub.
SO looking for an alternative...
