I am needing some Motion Sensors. I only need Motion, not temp., etc. I am currently using several Aeotec Trisensors. These work fine, but the battery life is horrible. I want a Motion Sensor that has very good battery life, probably by using much bigger batteries than the Aeotec Trisensors.
What is a good Z-Wave Plus Motion Sensor with good battery life?
The ecolink ones last forever.
The Ring ones should also have super long battery life.
That said, is there a reason you want to stick with Z-wave? Zigbee motion sensors are always hugely faster than z-wave. Makes for a much better user experience.
I know nothing about Zigbee. I have been fighting with Z-Wave devices for years, and generally hate them. But since I have no existing Zigbee devices or Zigbee mesh, I am reluctant to try to build a Zigbee mesh in my home to reliably support the Zigbee devices.
The Hue motion sensors are excellent.
I am using ~30 of them, for several years.
They are accurate temp sensors, variable reporting, and last 2 years on 2 AAA batteries.
Also the reported battery level is very accurate.
To get a good zigbee mesh up and running, buy 4 IKEA zigbee repeaters (£8 ea) and place them half way between HE and the max range you need.
Once up add the Hue Motion Sensors.
I find the Hue sensors the most reliable, battery efficient sensors, so much so, I use the temp from them for controlling zone heating.
I own the 2 following motion (multisensors).
Dome Home Motion Sensor bought Aug 27th 2017 and have only replaced the battery once.
Aeotec TriSensor bought May 21 2020 and have yet to have to replace the battery
Apparently the Dome sensor is no longer available on Amazon but the TriSensor is. I have had no issues other than trying to find the sweet spot when it comes to the sensitivity.. Since the Dome is no longer available I will be buying another TriSensor (or the newer model if available) for a new area in my home. I like the TriSensor because it not only gives you motion and lux level like the dome but it also gives you temperature all combined in a tiny package.
I'm not sure why you're battery life on your TriSensor is so bad could you have a setting off on your sensor? I'd be happy to share my sensor settings if you would like.
Just thought I'd share my 2 cents on what I use.
Battery life remaining is generally based on the battery voltage. Standard AA alkaline batteries have a gentle decrease in battery voltage over the life of the battery.
Many sensors use lithium (single use) batteries. These batteries have a long life; the voltage remains pretty constant until they are at about 20% of their useful life. Then it drops quickly.
Rechargeable NiMH batteries maintain a relatively stable voltage over about 90% of their useful life. Then the voltage plummets.
These varying discharge voltage behaviors is one reason why it is so difficult to measure remaining battery life accurately. This is especially the case if the device was designed using one type of battery (AA alkaline for example) but you decide to substitute an AA lithium or AA NiMH rechargeable.
Most of my devices use coin cells or small photo type batteries for which no rechargeable batteries are available. I do tend to use rechargeable batteries in things like my atomic clocks and gaming controllers.
There are many individuals on this forum who know a lot more than I do about lithium batteries. However, one thing I do know is that the bigger the battery, the longer the charge seems to last. Although the coin cell batteries are very good (Cr2045, CR2032, etc.) they don't seem to last as long as a CR2 or a CR123.
I purchased some time ago, (on eBay), the Centralite (Iris) V2. Great motion sensor, which uses the CR2 battery.
I have been looking for a replacement, because there there are no more Iris Motion sensors to be had.
I have found on eBay a type of Tuya PIR motion sensor. I shall report back on this sensor when I know how it pairs, and how long it lasts. It uses a CR2 battery.
+1 For the Hue Motion Sensor over 2 years and have never changed the battery
Most of the time, Zigbee is pretty painless to manage, and you don't have to do the same kind of careful mesh management to get things working reliably. If the motion sensor isn't too far from the hub, you could probably have it work just fine as the only Zigbee device on your hub. Zigbee devices also tend to be cheaper than Z-wave devices, so it's not expensive to throw a couple zigbee outlets around the house to have some repeaters. My go-tos these days are these centralite plugs.
If you want to try zigbee motion sensors, I'd suggest buying some of these Iris motion sensors off of eBay. Dirt cheap and bulletproof.
Ring V2 Motion Sensors are looking very good in terms of battery life, and are the fastest zwave motion sensors I've owned.
2AA battery powered and zwave 700, so should last a bit. $30.
The ring sensors are one of your best Z-wave options.
Wish they were a bit smaller, but then you couldn't fit 2xAA batteries in them either I guess...
Still much smaller than my old hardwired alarm motion sensors.
Agreed. I have Lutron Caseta Clear Connect, Hue, Z wave and Zigbee devices in my home. Of these four, I find the Lutron and Zigbee devices to be more user friendly.
The key to a stable Zigbee network is to have a few inexpensive Zigbee smart plugs around the house. They act as Zigbee repeaters.
I have heard that Securify Peanut and Innr plugs are not great repeaters. In order to make the design highly compact, I think they may have skimped on some components.
Although I have not tried them, the Ikea Tradfri plugs are often recommended.
I have used the Centralite smartplugs and they seem to work well. Centralite used to make the plugs for Iris and for Smartthings; now they sell under their own brand. I have a plug in the kitchen, a plug in the garage, and a plug in the basement. That has kept my Zigbee network stable.
If you are looking for a Zigbee repeater, be sure you do not end up with a WiFI or Z-wave device as many of the devices look nearly identical.
I will thrown in for the Ring Motion Sensor Gen 2. It is fairly compact for what it is. Seems very responsive for all of my use case and uses standard AAA batteries for easy replacement. As long as you have a C-7 hub it should pair easily with SmartStart and just work. That was my experience. The ring devices report battery level's fairly regularly so they are easy to use something to monitor battery level and for inactivity to know when the devices dies from low battery.
I got mine to replace Smarttings ADT Dual Branded motion sensors and they worked great with good range. The Ring sensors have shown to have similar range to those sensors, and I can tell you with 100% certainty that the Aeotec Multisensor 6 was a joke next to it. When I say good range I am talking probably 30-40 ft which the Aeotec sensors could never do. Now I do suspect the that range probably isn't uncommon in decent motion sensors, I am just saying you will see a huge improvement over the Aeotec stuff most likely. You may find you don't need as many of the Aeotec sensors.
Weather it is Zigbee or Zwave make sure you have repeaters if they will be a fair distance from the Hub and that they are good ones. The more the better for both of them. I have a few in wall Zwave Plus switches, but I also have a Aeotec Siren 6. Most of my stuff ends up routing through the Aeotec Siren if not direct. The more routes the better.
Could you link these IKEA ZigBee repeaters. I have got SHELLY motion sensors and I don't think Hubitat can see them. I'm only a week into this so very new
I have been searching for a Zigbee motion sensor with a long life.
In general, the common Zigbee motion sensors use CR2032 or CR2450 - which don't have a long life, but are very compact.
The Iris V2 sensors us a CR2 battery, but you can't get them anymore.
However, I did find on eBay a Zigbee sensor (the standard Tuya) that was powered by a CR2.
The following picture shows a CR2 powered one, next to a standard one.
I will let you know how long the battery lasts.
The Shelly motion sensors are WiFi... IKEA repeaters are zigbee, as you noted. You'll need to make sure that they have sufficient wifi signal and are connected to your router.
Too bad you're looking for zibee. The new Ring V2 Motions have 2xAA, but are zwave 700. 
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