I have a C7 hub and have several fence gates in my back yard that I was never able to get zwave contact sensors to reliably work on (too far away). A few weeks ago I bought some of the new ZSE41 800 series open/close sensors and to my surprise all 4 gates are reporting perfectly. The farthest gate is about 125 feet from the house.
This got me thinking. I've always wanted a mailbox door sensor, but my mailbox is about 300 feet (almost direct line of sight) from the house. I'm sure it wont work by itself, but do you think that if I add a Zooz ZAC38 800 series range extender, plugged into an outlet on my front porch, the contact sensor will be able to use the better 800 antenna on the extender and actually work?
I know. I should just try and find out for myself. But I'm looking for some guesses in therory if 800>800>700 routing might work in this case.
Z-Wave is forwards and backwards compatible in all generations. An 800-series device won't have any problem routing for a 700-series device (or vice versa). You'd be able to take advantage of the theoretically better range of 800-series, though in your case likely mostly on the side that matters less (the sensor will mostly just be sending things back to the hub), but 700 isn't that different.
(Do note that while Zooz advertises these as LR [Long Range], you'll still be in classic "mesh" mode on pretty much any hub, including Hubitat. While Z-Wave 800 does offer some improvements, it's not going to literally use LR at this moment. [EDIT: This was true as of my writing, but Hubitat introduced LR support in 2024. It is still the case that you can add as only a mesh or LR device, LR devices are separate from mesh, and the "range extender" in particular will only work as such in traditional mesh mode.])
That being said, if you have a robust Z-Wave mesh inside your home, you could also just try the sensor as-is and see if it works. That's about the theoretical max for a single hop of Z-Wave, but with what sounds like open air for most of the path, you might have better luck. (As you may know, you don't need literal "range extenders"; that's what most powered devices in your Z-Wave network already are. But a strategically placed one can help in some cases, and maybe this would be one.)
Makes sense. My thought is that the 800 series plug-in range extender might have a better antenna to communicate with the 800 series contact sensor so far away, versus the almost exclusively 700 seies mesh i have in the house, including the radio on the c7.
their page says "400 feet" but that's clear air, idealized too. I don't think it's outdoor rated but theoretically plugging it into an outdoor outlet would give that 400' foot range. (It's idealized because it assumes no interference, not just physically, but from other RF sources and refections too.)
In a more practical use, putting it in a room, closest to the mailbox on an outside wall socket, you might get 300 feet. That one wall will attenuate the signal quite noticeably.
However, you might want to wait for LR to be available since then you'd just need one LR Contact Sensor out there on the Mailbox. Of course that assumes that there is a LR Contact Sensor available
