Outdoor contact sensor withstanding minus teperatures

Hey

I am looking for some outdoor contact sensor which can withstand temperatures below 0.

Now I have been using Sonoff SNZB-04 but it loses connection everytime when temperature is low or the rain is big. The distance between sensor and HE is around 14 meters.

Any ideas?

I'm not sure as for a "contact" sensor you might try searching the forums as to what some might be using for freezer temp sensors if any of them are contact sensors. I know that the Hue "motion" sensors can withstand Minus 17 degrees for 2 days straight with no problems.

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I need to check if the garden door is open so it has to be contact sensor.

If rain is killing the signal it sounds like it might be starting with a weak signal. Rain can degrade RF signals. I used to experience this on a wifi bridge that went between 2 buildings. I ended up moving the hardware to better locations and fixed it permanently. Maybe you just need a repeater some place to help it out?

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I didnt know that.
It looks like the rain can be a problem.
Is it possible to check the signal strenght on zigbee mesh?

Goto settings, then zigbee, then click logging. Youll get a blank page but after a couple mins your devices will start showing up with a number next to each one. Its a negative number, so the lower numbers are stronger levels.

What do you mean with an "outdoor contact sensor"? The SNZB-04 is not technically rated for outdoor use. Are you weatherizing these somehow, or are they reasonably protected from the elements such that pretty much any sensor would work and you're just wondering about temperature?

Sensative Strips Guard is one I know of that is rated for outdoor use and also does temperature. I'm not sure what its minimum temperature readings are per spec, and I haven't had mine outside during winter yet to share personal experience. Most devices I've used outside don't give me funny readings until double-digits below zero Fahrenheit, though, aside from a driver/parsing issue I had with some device a while back (but it was still technically accurate enough when interpreted correctly). There are probably others.

I also know I've seen people weatherize "indoor" sensors with either silicone or by enclosing them in a weatherproof box. In my experience, the former makes battery changes hard (I did this with a cheap Sonoff motion sensor once), though this probably depends on the device and how careful you are. The latter probably will affect temperature readings (which I've also given up on with outdoor sensors in favor of a weather station, but most devices I used were still within a few degrees of that).

OT but what weather station do you use?

I use an AmbientWeather WS-2000 (not sure if that's just the indoor console model number or the entire system; it was a gift, so I don't know how the whole set was marketed). I wrote a driver for its new local API here that I use to get data pushed to my hub from it: Hubitat/drivers/ambientweather-ecowitt at master ยท RMoRobert/Hubitat ยท GitHub. Its cloud API is more documented and still seems to be more popular, and lots of other integrations (Home Assistant even, last time I checked) still use it.

I like it for reliable outdoor temps and lux readings--no more awkward readings based on other sensors I'd been trying to use for this purpose instead. :slight_smile: (Probably overkill if that's all you need...)

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I am not weatherizing it. I just covered the small hole which is placed on the top of the box.
When I open the box even after the rain the inside of the box is dry so I don't think it is the problem.
I dont need the temperature readings - it is just a door contact.

I will try to check whats the zigbee signal strength and maybe place a repeater between HE and the sensor. If it doesn't help I will try to weatherize it somehow.