So I purchased these bad boys about a year ago (6/27/22). They use CR-2450 Button Batteries. About half of them went at the same time (16 out of 37 sensors so far). I would say a year on constant battery ain't bad. The OEM batteries are panasonic. I replaced them with LICB's as they are $8.00 for a 10 pack vs $16.99 for a 10 pack of the Panasonic. We'll see how the LICB fare. Just wanted to throw this out there for anyone who has these or plans on getting them. They are fantastic wee beasties.
I have several. I'm trying to get one to work at the edge of its range. Sometimes it'll refresh, configure, report temp, but not report open closed. Weird.
Probably should get a repeater near it.
As many of us have noticed, if you have a good repeater nearby, it definitely improves the battery life.
There are many good zigbee 3.0 repeaters - the theory is that the sensor doesn't have to work as hard if the repeater is very close to it.
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It's on a gate at the end of the driveway.
I'm going to try a z-wave contact sensor.
Actually, I think I'm going to run some signal wire from the open/close sensor and the gate controller to the house and a Zen17. Unless the wire gets broken, and that's a definite possibility, it should be more reliable.
Use a shovel. Angle at 30 degress, press into the earth and rock back. Do this all the way to the house, it will create about a 10" trench. Using a plastic spatula and your fingers, tuck the wire all the way down.... When done use foot to re stomp the earth...
Note: Best use outdoor rated wire as less chance of the casing breaking down. Or do same thing and ruin 1/2" pvc
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I've had low voltage landscape wire powering my old gate for 10+ years. I used that approach and buried it under the lawn, and kind of mostly laid it on the ground in the woods. It's very rocky here. It would've been a lot of work. I'll probably do the same for the signal (thermostat) wire. My thought is it'll be less work to replace it every 5 years, or whatever, than try to bury it all the way. The casing is UV rated, but I'm not expecting miracles. Sprinkler wire is crazy expensive.
Anyway, that'll probably be my lazy approach. Ultimate lazy would be to use the Zen16/17 in the gate control box, but I don't think there's room, I'd have to make it waterproof, and it didn't perform consistently in the old setup anyway.
Just curious what that distance is and through what kinda vege-obstruction density.
I was range challenging the above mentioned sensor (a Visonic derivation) and then sought out it's "long range" sister sensor. I will see if I can find the sheet on it for you.
- manufacturer: Visonic
- model: MCT-370 SMA
As far a these sipping battery, the theme of this thread.... Visonic spent a whole lotta effort in this vein starting back in their wireless alarm system development. I have Visonic alarm system sensors that i haven't touched the battery in years (oh, and by the way the system will tell me when the battery is dead, gasp).
Wow. I didn't realize it existed.
You never got one, did you?
Does it really work better, I wonder?
As I said, I have a Zooz contact sensor coming but will probably pull cable anyway for home operation of the gate control, and I bought some 5 conductor wire, so will probably use a wired contact sensor.
Zigbee battery life is longer than Z-wave, and I see that sensor uses the 1/3 size lithium battery, correct?
edit: I haven't quantified distance, but yesterday I dragged a surveyors tape (nomenclature?) through the woods for the wire purchase and came up with 225'.
Here's a pic. You can just about see the end of the driveway over the left shoulder of the Japanese Maple, lol.
Oh, yeah, definitely range-challenged-line-of-no-sight. 
Especially after a rain.
I have Zigbee stuff making that distance, just not through that kinda canopy. I DO have the MCA-370 and it DID solve connectivity issues into a small structure, but at only half your distance and I haven't tried it further. I bet it would be worth a try, if it fails to make that hop it's still a good sensor to use elsewhere on your property where you have distance but less vege in the way.
Here's the battery spec for the MCA-370, I'm a fan of the Panasonics due to quality control and buy in mini-bulk from places like Mouser.
- Battery Type: 3V Lithium CR2; Panasonic or Duracell Ultra only
- Nominal Battery Capacity: 850 mAh
- Battery Life: 5.9 years for typical use;
EDIT: Actually, one note to add...one of the problems with the previous sensor I had in place before the 370 was (besides connectivity issues) the battery had to be replaced way more often than other such sensors in my mesh. This underlines findings that pushing the range on Zigbee battery devices drains them prematurely. Haven't had that problem since putting in the 370.
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I've put Zooz ZSE18's in my mail box and package bin, replacing the Hue motions which suffered when it rained mostly. So far so good. I do believe they'll eat (more expensive) batteries at a greater rate than the Hue's, but those notifications are so convenient, it's worth it.
Of course, on a side note SendMail text notifications have stopped working for me. The thinking is AT&T. Pushover and Email (not to a text address) are what I'm using now. Covered in the SendMail thread.
Yep, the mailbox is worth it. Here's what's in my STEEL mailbox, still astounded how reliable it is from single digits all the way up to 125+F in that box. And why it's working over 50' through the walls of that box...only thing I can figure is there's some antenna effect being against the wall?
- manufacturer: Visonic
- model: MCT-340 E
As for text notifications I finally relented and use the HE Notifications. (Not as universally handy as putting my neighbor's cell in for texting when I wanted them to pickup the mail)
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I may have a solution for me.
I drilled a small hole on the side of the control box, snaked through the wires from a waterproof contact sensor, and hooked them up to the terminals of an Ecolink contact sensor. Stuffed the contact sensor into the box-it fit perfectly.
I used a paint stirrer taped to the gate (yes, not "pro") to mount the magnet and mounted the contact sensor on the wood post.
Anyway, the Ecolink has good range and has been dependable so far; we'll see when it rains.
I made a couple rules to light up the toggles on a couple of switches-one by the front door and one in the garage-when the gate is open.
The remotes have great range, so I'll likely hang one in those locations with the switches that light up when the gate is open.
I'm not doing any more automation this time, just maybe notifications that the gate has been open for 5 minutes, or whatever.
900mhz stuff I assume, great range.
Nope, 433 I believe.
Great=better than I've experienced, lol.
Ah, right 433....even better for punching holes through those woods. You can solder a single solid core wire for a dipole antenna to that if necessary to increase range. Just have to get the length right.
EDIT: Not what I was looking for but might give you even more ideas:
YouTube on making an antenna for 433mhz
If you do something like this be sure not to miss this comment about half wavelength efficiency:
But we're really derailing this thread. 
As I said, I'm trying not to get too excited about it until it works during/after a good rain.
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