+1 on using the Device Watchdog app. It's fantastic. (The Device Activity app is also great) It has allowed me to wait for a battery to either be below my threshold (20%) or fallen off of a dead battery and not reporting for 48hours.
Same, I thought I was replacing batteries way too often, but this has helped me realize I get 6months for most chatty devices (that have temp sensors) and a year+ for the rest.
The one exception is if we are about to go on an extended vacation, I will check the battery sensor of some items like water leak detectors and preemptively change them if it's been a while.
