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.
If anyone finds this thread going forward here is the fix that worked for me.
I put in new Lithium batteries.
Excluded the First Alert from my Z-Wave network.
Did a shutdown, remove power, restart of the hub.
Did the factory reset on the First Alert. (Remove battery, replace battery while holding test button for ten seconds after sliding in the battery compartment.
Re-include the First Alert using the select by device type option.
All is well. Battery reporting nicely.
PS: I included the First Alert with security. I understand this may improve communication. Guess I need to exclude and include my other First Alerts with security at battery change time.
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Here are the screens from add device. I'm not sure what difference it makes during the inclusion process.
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