Sensor question

I am new to the Hubitat platform and would like to expand by adding sensors to all of my doors. I have 2 standard doors and 1 sliding glass door I would like to get standard open/close sensors for. Does anyone have recommendations?

TIA

First question are you looking for zigbee or Z-Wave?
If your looking for Z-Wave I used these for my Daughter’s sliding glass door and standard door.
Pro: uses standard AAA batteries.
Con: it’s on the larger size.

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=24259

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z-wave, thanks for the suggestion, I will check it out

I use ecolink.

But check out the iris 2 contact sensors off of eBay. There zigbee.

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I’ve got some Dome and Fibaro sensors which work great.
The Dome were super easy to pair and use whereas the Fibaro ones were a little trickier BUT the Fibaro ones have the option to add temperature sensors which I also use.

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All of my door and window sensors are Ring branded and joined to a Ring Alarm and then integrated into Hubitat via a community integration. I've been happy with the sensors and their battery life so far.

If @SmartHomePrimer finds this thread (of course he will now that I've tagged him) he will tell you this is the way to go. He prefers to keep security offloaded from automation and just have the automation be aware of what's going on with the security system with each system having a purpose and being very good at it.

Whatever. :stuck_out_tongue: I did it for a different reason... I got most of the Ring sensors on the really cheap. I've had some success joining some of the Ring devices directly to HE but I haven't tried the contact sensors or motion devices yet. I think others have and you should be able to find evidence of whether or not it works on these forums.

Anyway... Assuming you can find that the Ring sensors are compatible directly connected to HE you can use them that way. Then later you have the option of pairing them directly to a Ring Alarm. The Ring Alarm is one of the view Ring devices/systems that I am satisfied with so it's not a bad option to have.

If you give me a day or two (and pester me if I forget) I can try pairing a contact sensor and a motion sensor to let you know how it goes. I bought an extra of each just for this reason but I haven't gotten around to messing with them yet. I paired and wrote a driver for the Ring extender direct connected to the HE hub though.

Long story short... the Ring Z-Wave sensors are well-made, efficient and responsive. They also include good mounting hardware and are readily available locally or online. Working with Ring for warranty on devices is also very easy.

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Yes. :wink: Consider that your hub will slow each day at around 2am as the system goes into mandatory database backup and maintenance. Is that when you want your security system to be unresponsive? As much as it's cool that we can do so much with a single hub, allowing us to add so many built-in and custom integrations for a fantastic home automation experience, most will tell you here that it doesn't always go to plan and the hub runs into trouble occasionally. Maybe that unexpected event is when you want your security system to fail? :grinning:

Now consider that manufacturers of an alarm system have one job. Make the alarm system work perfectly 100% of the time. They can do other things, but if they fail at that, so be it. As long as they work as an alarm system, they pass. It's not at all as complicated a task as most of us are foolishly expecting the Hubitat Elevation to do perfectly 100% of the time (which for most of us is EVERYTHING) :upside_down_face:

I think I've made my point. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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I use Xiaomi Aqara contact and motion sensors (zigbee) and they've been excellent so far. Good price and nice and small design. Although some people have had issues with them dropping off the mesh, I've had no issues. I prefer zigbee over z-wave for a few reasons - the mesh will auto-heal, arguably faster, cheaper typically, one global standard so no concern about incompatibility, etc.

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Visonic mct-340 zigbee. Very reliable, very small, uses 2032 coin cell, lasts about 1 year. Also reports temperature. Goes on sale 2-3/year for 10 bucks.

The monoprice are okay, but larger and no temp reporting.

Hi, and welcome to this wonderful HE (Hubitat Elevation) forum and congratulations on choosing HE Hub, good choice! (Biased, hehe)

I use the Xiaomi Aqara door/window sensor like @Angus_M too.
Works like a charm and has never fallen off. But be sure to have a good zigbee mesh. It’s very tiny and has a small footprint, and it’s superfast. I get a warning within 3 seconds on my HE app on my android when it is triggered, and that is superfast! Happy chap with this sensor:

Good luck, and happy HE automation!
RogerThat

Inside doors I use Aqara zigbee, outside doors and windows are all Neo Coolcam Z-wave. Aqara works great but the Z-wave network is a different story.

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