Schlage deadbolt battery drainage issue with Hubitat

Thanks. No point in me contacting them and getting the same response.

Will switch the lock back to SmartThings if the batteries still die quickly. Glad I didn't put my SmartThings hub on eBay!

There is a WiFi version of Schlage deadbolt available "Schlage Encode Smart WiFi", anyone tried this?

FWIW I can tell you I have 2 BE469 locks within 10 feet of my hub, both were installed at the same time in Sept of 2018. I've had them connected to Hubitat for 4 to 6 months now and my battery levels are still 87% for the Front door and 92% for the garage door. My firmware on both is 8.0.

Absolutely seeing the same problem with my three Schlage BE469 locks when I moved from SmartThings over to Hubitat. The battery drain was significant on Hubitat where I get about a month compared to about a year on ST.

About three weeks ago something changed drastically (it occurred after a hub update) and now the same poor Schlage battery life went from 1 month down to unacceptable life of about a week! So there is definitely something inferior in HE when comparing it to ST same installations and I haven't seen any help coming from HE support to address it since I reported it when I first got my HE.

Some people are not seeing the battery issue as bad so it appears to be a communication issue so I am changing drivers from the generic to the specific BE469 and going after the last-ditch effort to add some z-wave repeaters (see discussion here) Schlage BE469 extreme battery drain - #22 by stephack to attempt to stop the ridiculous battery drain issue. If this fixes it then it seems that the HE z-wave antenna product along with its driver and apps are just inferior implementation compared to SmartThings for battery life.

If that doesn't do it I will have to resort to firing up my SmartThings hub again and have faith that HE support will find it in their list of things to do to correct at some point. I have had my hub a year now and this has been one of the sore sticking points that have steadily gotten worse with HE over time not better. And it wouldn't be all bad to fire up SmartThings I guess because I could get back my Harmony functionality as well. I will update my results after my repeaters come in and I give it a good college try.

I am still getting lousy battery life from my Schlage deadbolt! No more than a month. To top the disappointment off - I have the lock status and the battery life displayed on a dashboard on our bedroom dresser, so see it a few times each day. It seems to report 100% life up until the moment it (accurately) reports zero life.

I almost bought two more of these locks but have abandoned that idea.

@silvermanstan

What's the firmware version? My Schlage BE469 is on an ancient firmware (MAIN_6.8), and the last set of batteries I put in are at 80% after ~130 days.

I don't believe the 80% - in the past when I used Wink, they'd drop from 80% to not working within a week.

These are the second set of batteries I've used in them since I moved to Hubitat. The first set lasted only 2 weeks. The difference between the two was adding a bunch of Aeotec Range Extenders.

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I brought my old SmartThings hub out of hibernation, unenrolled the lock from Hubitat and installed it on SmartThings because battery life wasn't an issue there. I'd like to have everything on Hubitat but the battery thing was really inconvenient.

I switched my Schlage lock to SmartThings over two months ago and have not had a battery problem since. It is reporting 93% right now. I would have been lucky to get two weeks on a set of batteries when it was connected to HE.

The lock is the only device on my ST hub, and I would like to get everything on HE.

If the battery issue on HE is ever solved, I hope someone posts a note!

There's nothing to solve, the lock is having communication issues with the hub, so its upping the transmit power, which causes excessive battery drain.

But the lock does not have a corresponding problem with the SmartThings hub? Right?

Two different zwave networks.

Sorry I'm so dense, Mike -

Both hubs are on same router. Lock is equidistant from both. No problem with SmartThings, but problem with Hubitat. Why is there nothing to solve?

Others have reported and solved the same problem by adding a zwave repeater to HE.

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I wouldn't say this "solves" the issue at all......It may "appear" better for a few days and then communication issues continue again.

And like the previous post, the adding repeaters isn't necessary on the other hub having the same setup.

I've added 5 range extenders to my existing 18 zwave repeating devices for 14 total battery devices 3 of which are locks. On an <1800sq. ft floor plan. How many "more" repeaters is needed @mike.maxwell?

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Thanks Mike. However I still don't get "nothing to solve".

BTW, the lock is exactly 11 feet from HE hub, 13 feet from ST hub. No walls or doors in between. And a repeater is needed on HE?

Have the same issue, a lock 11 feet away apparently has "communication" issues while a contact sensor over 120 feet away outside on a metal mailbox with a separate house partially blocking it.......never once misses an open/close "communication"

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I wonder if there's a "timing" or z-wave command "queue" issue here. I've noticed that occasionally my locks will not respond to a command.

I used to keep repeating that command via the device page. Then the entire z-wave network would slow down, and there was about a 20% chance one of the z-wave locks would fall of the network. And it wouldn't necessarily be the lock that initially wasn't responding.

For a little while now (1-1.5 months), if a lock doesn't respond to a command, I don't keep trying to send that command. Instead I just leave it alone and try again in 3-5 minutes. Usually, it works and everything stays paired.

I've been wondering if the network gets "really busy" with secure z-wave traffic and that's when weird things happen.

Because I know next to nothing about how z-wave works, this is just meretricious speculation.

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This is no longer the case for me, unfortunately.

To achieve Schlage stability similar to what I had with Wink I had to purchase a 2nd HE hub, place it next to my lock, add two Aeotec repeaters next to the lock, and ensure that there were only 5 total items tethered to that hub - all ZWave items. So far it’s been stable for 3 weeks.

So in order for the locks to function, in my case, was to add a 2nd hub that has no apps installed and only services the locks and repeaters. Is this a standard best practice, purchase $130 in extra equipment (2nd hub and repeaters) to make the locks work?

I know these locks have been a thorn in your side @mike.maxwell and they are equally frustrating for us. We all very much appreciate everything you have done to try to get them to work properly so far, including creating and tweaking specific drivers for them. I know you have spent many many hours on these finicky locks that arguably have terrible firmware from their creators which isn’t your fault. Unfortunately the locks still are funky on Hubitat for many of us :frowning:

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I'm in the same boat with these. Was a Vera, then SmartThings user and on either platform I could get about a year out of the batteries. With Hubitat, it is about a month. The worst is that they seem to drain all at once rather then slowly being consumed. Normally the lock gives you a warning when the batteries start to get low (extra beeps when you lock/unlock), but now I go from a normal battery state to a low battery / impossible to open state without any warning. I have a repeater about 5 ft from the lock, but still of no help.

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I'm afraid I'm getting the exact same problem as tjsawyer and all the above -- I switched from SmartThings to HE and my Schlage catestrophically dies after maybe a month. It is added in a secure pairing, and I just recently added an Aeotec repeater right next to it... the repeater is new, so I guess in a few weeks I'll see if it helped, but the problem is on my mind right now as my lock just died. Again.

I guess as a last resort I could go to a different lock (recommendations?), but it's an expensive resort. As a second to last resort, I could bail on HE, but I rather LIKE it so far.

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