Has anyone found a way to monitor the battery level on these detectors? I would rather not wait for the annoying beep in the middle of the night.
It reports a level but it is not correct and there is nothing in the logs.
I just decided to replace mine every spring with the start of daylight saving time. I have been using lithium batteries in them that last well over a year it seems.
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I am curious how you know it is inaccurate. I have 4 of these running for about a year. Device Activity Check app is set to let me know if any don't check in daily.
Battery readings are often wrong. For instance,my door lock reads 24%, but measures over 1.35V per AA cell. It is directionally correct, but conservative. Other sensors can read low with a brand new battery. So your experience is greatly appreciated.
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Which detector do you have? The z-wave or z-wave plus? The old z-wave detector is definitely not accurate on battery report. I have 6 of them and they are getting close to the 7 years expired date with the none resettable beep. Replaced 3 a few months ago.
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No battery events in the events list on the device? It should report it around every 12 hours at least.
I have a Zwave Plus ZCOMBO that I have not paired up yet. I will have to check it out. The battery status should be a pretty basic thing the generic driver should pick up. Maybe the device does not send it out and the driver is not asking for it.
If it doesn't work right you can be sure I will make my own driver for it 
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My older ones go at least several days between reports. I have a 3 pack of the z-wave plus zcombos coming since these are getting close to retirement. I’ll soon see how well they report.
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Z-wave Plus, 2nd generation. Using type:
Generic Z-Wave Plus Smoke/CO Detector
Reporting is every 4200 seconds (70 minutes +/- 2 minutes, in reality). I checked all 4 of mine to be sure.
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Thank you for sharing. Nice to see that there has been improvement beyond just “plus”.
I ordered at two different times on Amazon. They are supposed to be the same. After more investigation one batch reports every three days and one batch not at all.
It should have a regular wake up interval. Do you have a state variable or check the data at the bottom of the device page, see if anything say something along the lines of "wakeInterval". Most drivers will set it to 43200 (12 hours).
It is possible it wakes up but does not automatically send the battery info. In this case the driver would need to ask for it.
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I ordered from Costco online. Hopefully a better batch.
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- 1 from Lowes (expensive!) Nov or Dec2021.
- 1 from Amazon (looks like the same unit) circa Dec2021.
- 3 pack from Costco (one unit remains uninstalled) circa Oct2022.
Even though it is a very mixed lot, all have behaved well.
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The 3 I ordered from Costco look like they came directly from BRK. They are all sending battery reports. 2 of them send a report about every 67 minutes and the third one sends it every 59 minutes. I’m a little bit worried that this is going to result in more frequent battery replacement, but at least I’ll know when they actually need replaced. They all show up connected directly to the hub (C-8) and at 100k.
Agreed. The ones that I have had in service for 15 months are reading 83% and 84%. When they get to the halfway point, I might measure with a volt meter out of curiosity.
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Possibly adjustable with the wakeup interval. I will keep you all posted when I start messing with mine and see what I can do with it.
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I do not see anything like that.
I have 9 of the plus models and I use the generic z-wave plus driver in that list...
I also use lithium batteries and they constantly report 100%... Never seen anything lower and I've had this set of batteries in since July last year... I usually just replace them every year... It would be nice to get a battery level..
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The discharge curve of a disposable lithium battery isn’t really conducive to battery level monitoring.
In general, they’ll read full voltage until right before they’re fully discharged, when the voltage will rapidly drop.
Not much the hub or a device driver can do about that.
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I did not know this. I just ordered some lithium batteries in hopes of reducing how often I have to get on a ladder to change smoke detector batteries. Now I know that they will last longer but probably surprise me when they need to be replaced. I'm just trying to stay off ladders at this point.
