What’s up Smart Homers! In this article I’m going to compare 10 different water leak sensors that work with Home Assistant.

Water damage can be very costly for homeowners, and a source of annoyance for those who rent their living spaces. Often water leaks start out small, and can go undetected for a long time, and are only found when the damage is significant. Water leak sensors, sometimes called flood sensors, can be very useful for remotely detecting water leaks in suspected locations. They can be especially useful if you own a rental property, Air B&B, or vacation home that you aren’t always living in.

Water leak sensors basically work by using two or more conductive “electrodes” or “probes” that are exposed to water. Since most water (besides de-ionized or distilled water) is conductive, when it comes in contact with at least two of the “probes”, it closes the sensing circuit and tells the device that it has detected water. Even a damp paper towel has enough water in it to conduct!

Anyway, I bought a bunch of leak sensors from a few different brands and I’ll compare their prices and features, and I’ll also give you some ideas for how they can be used in your smart home. At the end of the article I’ll tell you my favorites and least favorites!

Requirements

The requirements for my sensor selection are:

1. They have to work with Home Assistant
2. They can’t require any other hub than a Zigbee or Z-Wave radio*
3. They have to cost less than $50. 

*Note that the “no hub” requirement assumes that you have Home Assistant set up and that you also have Zigbee and Z-Wave radios working with your Home Assistant instance.

I’ll be adding these devices to Home Assistant using ZHA and Z-Wave JS.

I didn’t see any WiFi devices that I wanted to look at beside the Shelly leak sensor, and that one was going to take too long to arrive.

For each sensor, I put them in a dish and tried to determine their sensitivity levels. This didn’t yield anything super informative.

Overview

Zigbee Water Sensors

Ok, so let’s look at some Zigbee sensors.

Aqara Water Leak Sensor

The first one is the Aqara Water Leak sensor. This one looks a bit different from the other Aqara products we’ve covered like the Aqara button and temperature sensor. Rather than the matte white body with gray accents, this one is all white with a glossy finish, and has a single water droplet in the middle.

On the back side it has a battery compartment that can be opened with a flathead and two hex screw heads. The two screw heads are actually the electrodes used for sensing water. You can see that they are raised up from the flat surface of the bottom of the sensor by a few thousandths of an inch. This makes it so that the sensor can be set on a flat metal surface without closing the sensing circuit, and requires a very small amount of water surrounding the sensor for it to reach the electrodes. You can also unscrew them a little bit and connect probe cables to them if you want to use them for remote sensing of water instead of directly with the device.

If you take the battery cover off, you’ll notice that it has a rubber seal under the cover, sealing off the inside of the device from water. I did find in the fine print of the manual that this device is supposed to be waterproof, so I put it to the test. I left it in a dish for 24 hours, and water didn’t even make its way to the seal under the battery.

To pair this sensor with Home Assistant, you need to press the hidden button that’s underneath the water droplet icon on the flexible shell on the top side of the sensor. If you press and hold it for 10 seconds, the device will go into pairing mode and is instantly picked up by ZHA. In Home Assistant you get the water sensor, a device temperature sensor, and a battery sensor. This is the internal device temperature, and will not accurately report the air temperature.

Since this device is waterproof, I might be useful in places where you want to check for leaks, but large volumes of water could also be present. Just remember that it floats, so you might need to secure it.

Linkind Water Leak Sensor

The next device we will look at is the Linkind Water Leak Sensor. Linkind makes a line of extremely cheap Zigbee devices, and this one is no exception. Once again, it’s the cheapest of all of the devices we’ll be looking at in this article. It’s much larger and heavier than the Aqara, and that’s mainly because it is powered by 3 triple A batteries. To replace these batteries, you’ll need to unscrew the four screws found on the back of the sensor. On the front you’ll notice the Linkind brand in large gray letters as usual, and while that has been a negative for some of the other Linkind devices, a leak sensor is probably not out in the open very often, so this probably doesn’t matter.

You can also see some holes on the front for the alarm speaker. This device has an 85 decibel alarm that is triggered when a leak is detected. On the back side you’ll see 4 electrodes, two on the top half, and two on the bottom. When at least one from each half come in contact with water, it causes the alarm to go off. In the middle of the back you’ll also see a rubber button. 

To pair the device with Home Assistant, triple-press the button to put it into pairing mode. If you hold the button down, the alarm will go off. In Home Assistant, you get water leak and battery level entities.

Centralite Water Sensor

The next one is the Centralite Water Sensor. This device has a similar look to the rest of the devices in Centralite’s line of Zigbee sensors, many of which have a set of holes on the face to allow ambient air to reach the temperature sensors inside them. This device has a series of indentations where the holes would typically be, but no actual holes! Despite the lack of holes, the device still does have a temperature sensor, and it does have a hole on the side which honest looks unintentional and bothers me a bit because it might allow water inside the device if the water gets a little too high. The device has a grey back, and a white cover with an icon of a water droplet falling into a pool of water. On the bottom you can see the two electrodes that are positioned very close to each other compared to the previous two sensors. This means that even a very small bit of water (just a few drops) could trigger this device if they come in contact with the metal electrodes. This one is definitely not waterproof, but does have IP20 touchproof rating.

To initiate pairing mode, pull the battery isolator tab, and it is immediately recognized by Home Assistant, giving you water, temperature, and battery entities. One thing I noticed during my testing was that, when I used a paper clip to bridge the electrodes and simulate a leak, the entity stayed “wet” until I pulled out the battery and then put it back in. Since then it has functioned normally with no issues.

Since the electrodes are nice and close to each other, this one is good for putting up against the base of your toilet. If there is a leak, they should pick it up before it is all over the floor.

SmartThings (Aeotec) Water Leak Sensor

The next one is the Aeotec Water Leak Sensor, formerly branded as SmartThings. I’m going to refer to this one as the SmartThings sensor for the rest of this review. The sensor has two sets of electrodes, one set on the top in the indented area, and one set on the bottom. The bottom of the sensor is gray with a rubberized texture to it, with little stand-offs in each corner. These “feet” keep the electrodes from contacting the surface the device it set on. You can slide the bottom of the device to open it up, where you’ll see the CR2 battery, and also the contacts that connect the top-side electrodes to the body of the sensor.

This sensor is only one of all of the sensors we’re looking at that has a drip sensor. What I’m calling a drip sensor is this shallow indentation on the top of the device that has two electrodes in it. This is meant to be placed under a slow or potential leak in order to catch a small amount of liquid the drips on to the sensor. Even if not directly under the leak, the drips would eventually fill the small indentation and trigger the leak alarm.

To add this device to Home Assistant, put it into pairing mode by pulling the battery isolator tab. If you want to pair it in the future, triple press the button on the bottom. In Home Assistant, you get water and battery sensors, but you also get a temperature sensor!

I use this device to watch for leaks in some plumbing behind my toilet. Since it has the drip sensor, I may be able to catch the leak before it does any damage to my walls. Since it has a temperature sensor, I also can monitor the temperature in that wall since it gets pretty cold.

Third Reality Water Leak Sensor

Next we have the Third Reality Water Leak Sensor. I’d say this one is the most unique of all of the sensors because of its unique wqater droplet shape. Instead of going for a minimalist approach, they shot for a unique shape that’s all their own. The sensor has a raised plateau on top with little holes around the edge, and underneath it is a speaker is that sends out a 120dB alarm when a leak is detected. On the bottom you can see three flathead screws that act as electrodes for sensing leaks. If any two of them come in contact with water or other conductive surface, the leak alarm is triggered. You’ll notice that the screw holes for these screws are recessed quite a bit, meaning that the screw heads are raised up a bit from the flat bottom of the sensor. This means that more water would need to accumulate for this sensor to be triggered than for the other ones that we looked at. If you’d like to make this more sensitive, you could add some spacers underneath the screws to make protrude past the bottom surface of the device. Shout out to Caleb Pryor, who created a spacer that can be 3D printed and used for this device.

The device I ordered also came with a “dripping detection” kit. This is pretty much two metal pieces that can be attached to the device with the screws to extend the conductive surface of two of the electrodes so that they are closer together. The makes it so that you can place it underneath a dripping faucet, and if the drip hits just right, it will contact both pieces of metal and trigger the alarm. This isn’t a true drip sensor like the SmartThings sensor, but it does bring the electrodes closer together, meaning a smaller accumulation of water may be needed than without the dripping kit.

To put the device into pairing mode, remove the 3 flathead screws using the provided screwdriver and install the batteries. Honestly, this part was super annoying since flatheads are not fun to screw and unscrew. However, using my Wowstick made the job a lot easier. Shout out to these sweet little battery-powered drivers which make electronics jobs a lot easier.

The device also has a pairing button under the cover that can be used to pair the device in the future. In Home Assistant you get the water sensor, battery sensor, and an on/off sensor that doesn’t seem to have a function.

Sinope Sedna

The last Zigbee sensor we have here is the Sinope Sedna Water Leak Detector with Probe. This is the first one we’ve looked at so far that has a probe rather than electrodes on the body of the sensor. The body of the sensor houses two triple A batteries which can be seen if you remove the cover, which is magnetically secured to the body. You’ll also see a pairing button and some LEDs under the cover. The back of the device has a pre-installed adhesive pad for mounting the body of the sensor, and also some slotted screw holes for a screw mount. On one side of the device there is a 3.5mm jack which is used to connect the sensor probe. The probe has a nice quality cable that is about 48” long including the probe head, and the electrodes are set up in an interesting way. Both electrodes form an L shape, so that the sensor can then be mounted either to a wall near a horizontal surface, or to the horizontal surface itself. The probe head has screw holes for securing it to whatever surface you choose, and there are little rubber feet to keep it off of the surface by just a bit.

When a leak is detected an audible alarm will sound. I’m not sure of how loud it is exactly, but it is a fair bit quieter than the ThirdReality and Linkind sensors. This device also has a temperature sensor which is located in the body of the device, not in the probe head. The temperature sensor is within a half a degree of the Xiaomi sensor that I showed in my temperature sensor review.

To add the device to Home Assistant, pull the battery tab, and then press the “Link” button under the cover. In Home Assistant you get water, temperature, and battery entities.

One thing I noticed with this device was that the probe has to sense water for about 5 seconds before sends the alarm, which is a much longer wait time than any of the other sensors, which were almost instantaneous. This really isn’t a big deal to me, but it might be for you if you want instant feedback.

This device is good for when you want to put a leak sensor in location that is hard to reach. This way, if the batteries do need to be replaced, you can do it without having to disturb the probe.

Z-Wave Water Sensors

Ok, that’s it for the Zigbee sensors, now let’s take a look at the Z-Wave devices.

Zooz Water Leak XS Sensor

The first Z-Wave sensor is the Zooz Water Leak XS Sensor, also called the ZSE42. This one is actually the smallest of all of the devices we’re looking at today, and the first one that uses its electrodes as feet. What I mean by this is that the sensor has 4 conductive metal pads, one on each corner, and these sit directly on the horizontal surface where you set it. This means that it will be more sensitive than some of the others – it would theoretically trigger an alarm at a lower level of water than the other sensors, although the difference is probably miniscule. 

If you open cover you’ll see a PCB that looks extremely similar to the Zooz Temperature sensor and the Zooz Contact Sensor, all of which are part of their XS series. Pull the battery isolateor tab, and then triple-press the button on the PCB to put it into inclusion mode. When I first included this device in Z-Wave JS, I did it in S2 security mode, and some of the entities didn’t show up. Adding it insecurely fixed this issue, resulting in a water sensor, battery level sensor, and low battery sensor. The configuration options allow for setting the alarm clear delay.

One thing to note about the water detection with this sensor is that it doesn’t just require continuity between any two electrodes, but specifically between the top two, bottom two, or diagonally, but not between the top and bottom on the same side.

Ecolink Flood/Freeze Sensor

The next Z-Wave sensor is the Ecolink Flood Freeze Sensor. If you’ve seen my previous articles/videos, you may recognize this device because it looks very similar to Ecolink’s contact sensor. In fact, it has almost the exact same body as their contact sensor, but instead of a magnet, it has a probe-style water leak sensor with a length of about 85”! That’s the longest probe length in this article. It has an LED on the body that flashes when it senses water, and stays lit when the cover is removed. This is because it has a tamper sensor so that you can be alerted if someone is trying to bypass or disable it. It can be mounted with either the 3M adhesive or the screws provided, and a mounting plate is provided for the body of the sensor so that it can be clipped onto the plate once the plate is screw mounted. The plate is designed so that it clicks into place, and the cover has to be removed to release the plate.

Adding this device to Home Assistant is not too complicated. Put Z-Wave JS into inclusion mode, and then pull the battery isolator tab on the back of the device. As soon as you do this it instantly begins the interview process, the LED on the front turning solid green. In the future you can put it into inclusion or exclusion mode by pulling the battery and then putting it back in 

When first added, the only entities that showed up were a water sensor, battery sensor, and tamper sensor. When testing the water sensor, I found that it stayed wet after first trigger and never went back to dry. Also, no freeze sensor was available. I found 4 entities that were disabled by default. Enabling the water and freeze binary sensors, I tested them and they functioned properly, so I disabled the original one that wasn’t working. I tested the freeze sensor in my chest freezer, which worked great.

HomeSeer Leak Sensor

The next one is the HomeSeer Leak Sensor. This is my first HomeSeer device, because the previous ones I’ve looked at were a little expensive, but this one was under $50 so I gave it a shot. This device is different from the rest in one major way, it has electrodes on the body of the sensor that would sit directly on a horizontal surface, but it also has a probe with a 45” length that can be attached to the underside of the sensor magnetically. When aligned properly, the electrodes make contact with conductive pads on the magnet end of the probe. The magnet end of the probe has a slotted hole on it that can allow the sensor body to be mounted to the wall when you’re using it. While the underside of the sensor body has three electrodes, only two of them are actually used for sensing water. The third one is just a support, or a third foot.

The body of the sensor can be twisted to open the cover, revealing a PCB with an inclusion button and an ER14250 battery. The battery is wrapped in plastic, so you have to pull that off and re-install it, and then press the pairing button to put it into inclusion mode. In Home Assistant this thing comes packed with sensors, showing up with air temperature, freeze, heat, tamper, water, and water alarm sensors as well as battery level and low battery sensors. The water and water alarm sensors seem to do the same thing, so you could probably disable one or the other. I tested the Freeze sensor in my chest freezer and can confirm that it works, and the temperature sensor is within a degree of the Xiaomi sensor that I showed in my temperature sensor review. The configuration options have leak and temperature reporting intervals, enabling and disabling of the shock alarm, set-points for high and low temp sensors, and the low battery level threshold

Aeotec Water Sensor 7 Pro

The last device we’ll look at in this article is the Aeotec Water Sensor 7 Pro. Like the Ecolink, this sensor only has a probe option, and also just like the Ecolink, this one obviously has the same housing as the Aeotec door sensor. The probe has a cable length of 63”, and the head has a hole in it that can be used to screw it into place. If you open the cover, you’ll see an ER14250 battery. There’s a tamper switch inside as well as a temperature sensor. To pair the device, remove the battery isolator, and then triple tap the tamper sensor switch to put it into inclusion mode.

When I first added it to Home Assistant via Z-Wave JS, I added it in S2 security mode, and it only showed water and tamper sensors. However, when I removed it and added it without security, temperature and humidity sensors appeared as well. Along with air temp, humidity, tamper, and water sensors, you also get battery level, low battery, and replace battery sensors. The configuration page has LED indicator options as well as options for temp and humidity report change triggers, automatic reporting intervals, temperature units, and more.

Favorites Mentions

Anyway, thanks for sticking around to the end! Now let’s go over which ones I think are the best.

The cheapest non-probe style device is the Linkind sensor. Having 4 conductive pads makes it fairly sensitive to small volumes of water, and the two AAA batteries mean that it should last for a long time without having to worry about it. However, I’m not a fan of loud alarms, so the winner of this category is going to have to be the Aqara sensor. Not only is it priced just slightly higher than the Linkind, but it looks good so it’s ok if it’s out in the open. The screw electrodes on the bottom allow you to attach leads if you want, making this one even more versatile. If you want a non-probe-style Z-Wave device, I’d recommend the Zooz sensor. It’s very small and discreet, and the fact that the 4 electrodes sit directly on the ground make it very sensitive to moisture. However, the price is higher than the other two because it’s a Z-Wave device.

My favorite sensor for catching drips is the SmartThings sensor. The little indentation on the top is great for catching drips, and none of the other sensors have this capability. 

If you want one with a loud alarm, the Third Reality is gonna do it for you. It’s annoyingly loud, but if you need that audible alert, this one will do the trick. The fact that it has AAA batteries should mean that it has a decent battery life, but changing them will be a pain with those flat-head screws. However, many Home Assistant users have smart speakers, so the need for an on-board alarm is not strong.

My favorite probe-style sensor, and the one that I just love the look and feel of, is the Sinope Sedna Leak Sensor. The entire thing has a high-quality feel, and the magnetic cover makes changing the batteries a breeze, even though you shouldn’t have to very often. The audible alarm isn’t too loud, so it’s tolerable, and the extra temperature sensor is great. The only thing I would change is probably giving an option for longer probe cable length. However, this device is very pricey and the price has changed on Amazon since I bought it, so if that one doesn’t suit you, I’d say the runner-up is the HomeSeer sensor.

Least Favorites

Ok, so here are the ones I would NOT recommend.

The first one is the Centralite, and that’s really because it’s just kind of underwhelming. Beside the built-in temperature sensor, there isn’t much else positive to say about it, and the hole on the side very close to the bottom of the sensor has me worried that it could be damaged by water before you get the leak stopped.

Next, the Ecolink sensor. I love the fact that it has a super-long cable, but the fact that it doesn’t even have a temperature sensor, and only a freeze sensor means it doesn’t have much else to offer.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this article and it gives you a good idea on what leak sensor is right for your smart home.

What’s up Smart Homers! In this article I’m going to compare 10 different temperature and humidity sensors that work with Home Assistant.

Previously I’ve looked at smart buttons, contact sensors, motion sensors, and smart plugs, and in this review I’m doing the same thing, but with temperature and humidity sensors. I bought a bunch of temperature and humidity sensors from a few different brands and I’ll compare their prices and features, and I’ll also give you some ideas for how they can be used in your smart home. At the end I’ll tell you which ones I would and would not recommend!

Requirements

The requirements for my sensor selection are that they have to work with Home Assistant, they can’t require any other hub than a Zigbee, Z-Wave, or Bluetooth radio, and they have to cost less than $50.

I’ll be adding these devices to Home Assistant using ZHA, Z-Wave JS, and the Passive Bluetooth LE Monitor custom integration.

Note that the “no hub” requirement assumes that you have Home Assistant set up and accessible via WiFi, and that you also have Zigbee, Z-Wave, and Bluetooth radios working with your Home Assistant instance.

For each sensor, I subjected them to large temperature swings by placing them in my refrigerator and freezer.

Overview

Zigbee Devices

First, let’s look at some Zigbee devices.

Sonoff

The first one is the Sonoff Temperature and Humidity sensor. I asked on social media which devices you guys used, and this one was a popular one. You’d recognize the look anywhere – the same square, sharp look with the chamfered corners that we’ve seen with all of Sonoff’s devices. In fact, this sensor looks almost identical to the Sonoff smart button that we looked at previously – you actually couldn’t tell the difference from a distance unless you saw the thermometer icon on the front. It has a little button on the bottom for pairing, and on the top it has a few vent holes that allow the ambient air to reach the sensor. It comes with adhesive backing as the only mounting option.It’s a little tough to open, even with a screwdriver, but when you do you’ll see the battery. If you remove the battery isolator you can close it back up and then hold the pairing button down for a few seconds to put it into pairing mode.

In Home Assistant it shows up with temp and humidity sensors as well as a battery level entity. From my testing it seems to have decent reaction time to large temperature swings, like when I put it in my refrigerator. It has a refresh rate of 15 minutes and a threshold of 1 degree, meaning temperatures are recorded every 15 minutes, or every 1 degree change in temperature, whichever is sooner.

Aqara Temperature & Humidity Sensor

Next we have the Aqara Temperature & Humidity Sensor. This one is the smallest of all of the sensors by volume. It looks very similar in shape and size to the vibration sensor and smart button that they make. It has a clean modern look – a white body with gray accents, and has a thermometer symbol on the front that is very similar to the Sonoff. It comes with an adhesive ring that can be used to mount the sensor to a surface. Unfortunately, this makes accessing the battery a little more difficult since the cover is on the back. While it is mounted, you just need to twist the sensor counter-clockwise and it should open. The cover will stay mounted to the surface. The one thing I don’t like about this sensor is that it has holes for ambient air on the bottom of the sensor. This means that if you have it standing upright, the holes are covered. This hasn’t been a big deal for me since I have most of these mounted with adhesive, but it’s something to be aware of.

To put it into pairing mode, just pull the battery isolator tab and then hold the pairing button for a couple of seconds. In Home Assistant it shows up with temp and humidity sensors as well as a battery level entity. From my testing, this sensor has the best reaction time to large temperature swings of all the sensors in this article. I’ll show a little more about this in the testing results section of this article.

This sensor looks great aesthetically, so it’s a good choice to use in locations where it’s visible. I use one of these in my bathroom to sense the humidity and automatically turn the exhaust fan on when it reaches a certain level.

Aqara Air Quality Monitor

The next one is the Aqara air quality monitor. I guess this is more of a multisensor, so maybe I shouldn’t have included it, but I have been wanting to get my hands on it since they released it, so this was a good excuse. This device measures temperature, relative humidity, and the total volatile organic compounds in the air, or TVOC.

Probably my favorite feature about this device is the E-ink display. E-ink displays allow for high-contrast display of information without high battery drain. There are 3 different display configurations which you can cycle through by double-tapping the button on the top. In typical Aqara style, this device has a white body with a gray back which can be removed to expose the batteries. This device has two CR2450 batteries in it, so the battery life should be great. The vent holes that allow the ambient air to reach the sensors are on the sides, which I think is better than on the bottom. The device can be mounted either via adhesive, or magnetically. A magnet is provided with an adhesive

To pair the sensor, just pull the two battery isolator tabs and then hold the pairing button on the top for a few seconds. In Home Assistant, you get the temperature, humidity, and VOC level in parts-per-billion.

The high-contrast display makes this a nice sensor for using to quickly glance at the temperature. A good use for this could be a place like a baby’s room where you want to keep an eye on the temperature more than other rooms in the house. A quick glance can tell you if it’s too warm or cold, too dry, or if you need better ventilation in the room.

One problem I have with this device is that it displays the temperature in Celsius rather than freedom units, and there’s no way to switch between the two without the Aqara hub and setting up an Aqara account. To me this is an issue, and a step away from complete local control of a device toward cloud-locked features. This should probably be fine for literally everyone except people that live in the US.

The other problem I had was that this sensor dropped out multiple times, showing as unavailable in Home Assistant. Pressing the button would wake it up and it reconnected, but It shouldn’t be dropping out like that.

Centralite

Next we have the Centralite temperature and humidity sensor. This sensor is pretty hefty, much thicker than the Aqara sensor. At first I wondered why, because in a previous article I covered the Centralite contact sensor which was smaller than this, and the contact sensor had a temperature sensor inside it! Popping the cover open, you can see right away why it is so big – it has a big old CR2 battery inside. This should give the sensor very decent battery life, but it also could be a problem because CR2 batteries are not very common in smart devices, at least in my experience. IT’s too bad they couldn’t have used a CR123A instead, which is far more common.

Anyway, it has an array of ambient air holes on the front which gives it a distinctive Centralite look, and it has a grey thermometer icon on the front which apparently is a requirement for all temperature sensors. The sensor can be mounted with adhesive, but it also has a slotted hole on the back that can be used to mount it with a screw or nail.

To put the device into pairing mode, pull the battery isolator tab. In Home Assistant, you get temperature, humidity, and battery sensors.

Ok, so that’s it for the Zigbee sensors, now let’s take a look at some Z-Wave devices.

Z-Wave Devices

Now let’s take a look at some Z-Wave devices.

Aeotec aërQ

The first one is the Aeotec aërQ sensor. This sensor is quite small – maybe a little larger by volume than the Aqara. It has a round button in the center of its face, with an LED indicator behind it. It has a gap around the edges of the button which I assume allows the ambient air to reach the sensors. Inside, it has temp and humidity sensors, and it uses these sensor values to calculate the dew point. If you pop off the back cover, you see that this sensor uses a CR2477 battery, which is not very common in smart home sensors.

To pair the device, remove the battery isolator tab (which is a little hard to grab). I ended up taking the battery right out so that I could get the isolator out. Put the cover back on, and then triple press the button on the face of the device. So, here is where I ran into trouble. The device was taking an extremely long time to pair in secure S2 mode, and when it did, there were no configuration options! Conducted a bunch of testing with all of the sensors, and then later found that I had to pair it on non-secure mode, and then it seemed that it was properly included. It took me about 4 tries to finally get it paired properly, which was kind of annoying.

In Home Assistant, you get a temperature, dew point, humidity, overheat, underheat, and moisture sensors as well as battery level, low battery, and replace battery sensors. The configuration options when included properly give you a wide range of options including temp and humidity reporting thresholds, refresh rate, temperature units, and much more. It’s important to note that the dew point sensor is only  a calculated value that you could probably set up in Home Assistant with a template sensor.

Zooz XS Temperature & Humidity Sensor

The next Z-Wave sensor is the Zooz XS Temperature and Humidity sensor. This sensor is the most non-descript of any of the sensors in this article. It has a thin, rectangular body, with no marking of any kind on the front. The back has a bunch of information about the sensor, and the bottom has some ventilation slots for temperature sensing purposes. The back also shows that the sensor needs to be installed with the vents facing down. This could present a problem if you wanted to rest the bottom on a flat surface, but it does come with an adhesive pad for mounting purposes. If you pop off the cover, you’ll see a CR2450 battery with a battery isolator, and you’ll also see a pairing button on the PCB. Remove the isolator and then triple press the pairing button to put it into inclusion mode.

In Home Assistant you get Air temperature, Humidity, Overheat, Underheat, Moisture, Battery level, and Low battery level sensors. Similar to the aerQ, the Zooz sensor has a ton of configuration options including Report Thresholds for Battery, Temperature, and Humidity; Overheat and Underheat thresholds, Temperature Scale, Temperature and Humidity Offsets, and Temperature and Humidity reporting intervals.

This sensor has a slim profile which could make it very useful up against trim or other locations where it can be tucked away but still in sight. During my testing I did find that the device stopped communicating when I put it in the freezer. I’m not sure if it was the metal freezer or the cold that caused the issue, but it is a noteworthy occurrence.

Bluetooth Sensors

Ok, next we’ll look at the Bluetooth devices. Before I began researching for this review, I had not used Bluetooth devices with Home Assistant because I use a Home Assistant Blue for my main setup, and it doesn’t have a Bluetooth radio. However, someone on YouTube (The64BitKid) mentioned Bluetooth Low Energy devices to me, and mentioned that there are a lot of cheap BLE temperature sensors out there that work well. My test setup is a Pi4 with Bluetooth built in, so I decided to test some out. I also picked up a Bluetooth adapter and USB extender for my Home Assistant Blue so I can use these BLE sensors on my main setup. To connect these devices, I used the Passive BLE Monitor HACS integration, which I understand works better than the BLE Tracker integration native to Home Assistant.

Xiaomi Temperature and Humidity Sensor

The first of the Bluetooth sensors is the Xiaomi Temp and Humidity sensor. This sensor is the cheapest of all of the sensors in this article, and has become pretty popular among the DIYers of the smart home community. The devices has a very small footprint, only a little larger than the Aqara sensor, and it comes with a digital display. The display has both temp and humidity readings on it, and although it seems pretty cheap, it is readable from a short distance away without issue. It comes with a small adhesive pad for mounting purposes, but can also stand on edge.

Connecting this sensor to Home Assistant is not as straightforward as the other BLE sensors we’ll cover because you actually have to connect this one to the Xiaomi Mi Home app first. There you can change the temperature scale if you want to. Once you do that, you have to use a special web program to obtain a device key, and then enter that key in Home Assistant in the setup. Then, you’ll have to wait about 10 or 15 minutes for the device to show up. In Home Assistant you get the temp, humidity, and battery sensors as well as RSSI and voltage entities.

From my testing, both at ambient temps and in my freezer, the Xiaomi remained within 1 degree of the Aqara at all times. The only major difference was the reporting frequency – the Xiaomi reported much less often than the Aqara, and more erratically. As I understand it, the Xiaomi can be flashed with custom firmware to change the reporting frequency, but the only time this reporting frequency would be a problem for me would be if I was trying to track large and immediate temperature swings.

Govee HS5174 Lanyard

The next one is the Govee HS5174. Govee has  staggering number of Bluetooth temperature sensors, many of which work with HA, but I’m just going to cover this one and one other. This one has a really unique look to it, being the largest sensor we’ve covered so far. It has a glossy finish on the front, and a matte finish on the rest of the body. It really has a quality feel to it, with a nice weight when you hold it in your hand. The sensor has a thermometer symbol on the front, but this symbol has an LED indicator behind it that flashes blue when the sensor is communicating. It also has a hole in it that allows the ambient air to reach the inside. If you pop the back cover off, you can see that it is powered by three AAA batteries, which is why the sensor body is so big. It also comes with a lanyard that can be installed with a bit of difficulty so that the device can be hung by it. This might come in handy if you have a greenhouse or something and you want to monitor the temperature during certain times of the year. You could hang it on a nail or hook with the lanyard, and remove it when you don’t need it anymore.

To add the device to Home Assistant, you’ll need to pull the battery isolator tab and then find it in the Passive BLE Monitor integration. In Home Assistant you get the temp, humidity, and battery sensors as well as an RSSI entity.

From my testing, the Govee Lanyard was typically between 1 and 2 degrees higher than the Aqara, but I also noticed that it took longer to adjust to abrupt and large swings in temperature. I’ll show more of that data in my testing section.

Govee Digital H5075

The next one is the Govee H5075, which is a larger device with a digital display that shows the temp and humidity as well as the min and max values. The screen isn’t the greatest, but it’s pretty big so you can get a look at temperature from some distance away. The top of the sensor has a button that you can press to change the temperature scale if you want to, and the back has a little kickstand that can be pulled out so that it can stand up on a flat surface. It also has a slotted hole for a nail or screw so it can be mounted to a wall. If you open up the battery hatch you’ll see that it takes two AAA batteries.

To add the device to Home Assistant, install the batteries and then find it in the Passive BLE Monitor integration. In Home Assistant you get the temp, humidity, and battery sensors as well as an RSSI entity.

The standout feature of this device to me is the price. You get a large display, and a decent working temperature range, and it’s the cheapest of all of the devices we’re looking at today! The device performed in line with the Aqara as well as most of the other devices at room temperature, but in my freezer test, it reported temperatures consistently about 2 degrees F lower than the other sensors.

Inkbird

The last one is the Inkbird IBS-TH2 Temp and Humidity sensor. Inkbird has a line of Bluetooth temperature sensors, at least two of which work with Home Assistant. Of all of the sensors, I really think this one is the best looking. I has a clean matte white finish with a distinctive hole in the upper right corner that goes all the way through the body of the device. You could put a lanyard through it, or hang it on a nail with this hole. It also has a magnetic back, so it can attach to a magnetic surface. In the upper left corner it has a hole that allows the air to reach the sensor inside. It has the brand name written on the front, and on the back you can see a battery hatch. Using the provided screwdriver, you can open the battery hatch, and then install two AAA batteries. 

To add the device to Home Assistant, once again you need to find it in the Passive BLE Monitor integration. In Home Assistant you get the temp, humidity, and battery sensors as well as an RSSI entity.

What makes this sensor special is its operating temperature range, which is the widest of all the sensors’ ranges in this review. This makes it an excellent choice for putting in your refrigerator or freezer to monitor the temperature. The magnetic mounting option also can be useful if you’re looking for something to attach to your refrigerator door.

Testing

One thing that I noticed when testing these are that, when active scanning is enabled for the Bluetooth devices, they have a higher refresh rate than any of the Zigbee devices.

Another thing I noticed was that generally the Inkbird reads the higher than the other sensors by a degree or two.

Refrigerator Test

The first test I did was placing all of the sensors in the refrigerator.

I noticed that the Aqara sensor had the fastest response time to the sudden swing in temperature. I’m thinking that this is because of how small it is. The more mass the device’s body has, the more heat it holds, and the longer it takes for that heat to dissipate and for the sensor to sense a reduced temperature. The Zooz was the next most responsive here, and I think it also has to do with the mass of the device. The rest of the devices took a little longer to reach steady state temperature in the fridge.

Another thing I noticed in this test was that the Aeotec and Xiaomi devices both have pretty large refresh rates, and it shows with the sudden change in temperature. The Aeotec rate can be changed in the configuration settings, but unfortunately the Xiaomi can’t – at least not without flashing new firmware.

Again, when warming back up to room temperature, the Aqara and Zooz responded the quickest.

While in the fridge, the temperature readings were all within 2 degrees of each other, the Inkbird being the highest, and the Aqara being the lowest.

Freezer Test

The next test I did was to put all of the sensors that were rated for low temperatures into the chest freezer in my garage. This includes the Aqara T&H, the two Govee devices, and the Inkbird. Once again the Aqara responded the quickest, an this time there was a bout 3 degrees difference between them. The Govee with the digital display reported the lowest temperature, while the Inkbird reported the highest.

Next, at a risk of damaging them, I tried putting all of the sensors in the freezer. Right away you can see that the Zooz and the Xiaomi had trouble communicating. The Zooz must have been having trouble because it is a metal chest freezer, but it’s interesting that the Aeotec, which is also a Z-Wave device, didn’t have this problem. At steady state in the freezer, there is a temperature cycling that occurs approx. every 25 minutes or so. I confirmed this matches up with the power usage cycles with a power monitoring plug. Because of the temp sampling thresholds and the sampling rate, the Zigbee devices weren’t really able to capture this cycling except for the Aqara T&H.

Weirdly, after the freezer test I noticed that the Inkbird temp sensor was a bit higher than it had been before relative to the others. I then realized I had laid it on its back rather than stood it on end – and when I stood it back up, the temperature came back down like it had been before. I suppose that the desk top it was laying on must have been affecting the temperature slightly.

True Temp Test

During some of these tests, I used a mineral spirit Acurite thermometer to validate the temperature measurements, and it seemed like the thermometer agreed most with the Centralite sensor. This information isn’t something I’d rely heavily on since it didn’t use any calibrated instruments of any kind.

Multisensor Comparison

Lastly, I included a few of the different sensors I’ve reviewed in the past to give you a little comparison of how they perform. In particular I chose the Zooz Q Sensor, the Philips Hue Motion Sensor, the Aqara Motion Sensor, the SmartThings Button, and the SwitchBot Meter.

Based on my comparisons, the SwitchBot Meter and SmartThings Button perform well, with measurements that fall in line with all of the other sensors.

The Aqara Motion sensor’s temperature swings all over the place, and doesn’t really give an accurate representation of the air temperature at that time. In its defense, the temperature sensor is really called the “device temperature” and is listed in the diagnostics section of the device page in HA, as there is no way for the ambient air to reach the sensor on this one like we have seen with the temperature sensors.

The Zooz Q Sensor was likewise pretty inaccurate, typically about 3 degrees below the average of the other sensors, and even though it is a Z-Wave device, none of the configuration options allow for a temperature offset.

The Philips Hue Motion Sensor was by far the most inaccurate, reading 5 degrees below the actual room temperature. It’s a good thing I found out about this because I had it set up in my kid’s room to monitor the temperature, but now I think I’ll just use a solo temperature sensor.

Favorites & Honorable Mentions

Anyway, that’s all the testing I did. Thanks for sticking around to the end! Now let’s go over which ones I think are the best.

Favorites:

I really like the Bluetooth Low Energy devices because of their high sample rate, and also because of their cost. My favorite of all of the BLE sensors we looked at would have to be the Inkbird sensor because of how good it looks, and also because it has that magnetic mounting option. Although I did find the weird temperature reading when it was lying on the desk, I still feel like this sensor was pretty consistent otherwise.

The best Zigbee sensor, and the one that was the most responsive to large temperature swings would be the Aqara Temperature and Humidity sensor. I have a bunch of these throughout my house and they have not disappointed.

If you’re looking for a Z-Wave sensor, it’s a close call, but I’d have to choose the Zooz sensor. Even though the Zooz sensor failed to communicate from inside the freezer, it has a few advantages including the ability to set a temperature offset and also to set the reporting frequency lower than the Aeotec is able to. I also just think the Zooz looks better.

If you’re looking for a sensor to put in your freezer, I’d recommend the Govee Lanyard or the Inkbird, since both are rated for freezer temperatures and both have 2xAAA batteries so they should last for quite a while.

Lastly, if you’re looking for a sensor with a screen, the Xiaomi’s looks pretty good, but fair warning, it’s a bit of a pain to set up. This is actually the reason it is going on my list of least favorites as well.

Least Favorites:

Here are the ones I would NOT recommend.

The first is the Xiaomi Bluetooth sensor. As much as I loved the device, the setup process was pretty painful. Yes, the price was low, but I’m not sure it justifies the other issues it has. Not only is the sample rate fairly low, but if you want to change the temperature units on the display, you have to do it in the Mi app. If you remove the battery, it goes back to the default, degrees C. That’s a deal-breaker for me, because that means having to pair it with the Mi app, change the units, and then re-pair it with HA every time you change the battery.

The next one that I would not recommend is the Aqara Air Quality Monitor. Despite its amazing E-Ink screen, in the month that I used it, it disconnected 3 or 4 times and I had to re-pair it with ZHA. That’s far too unstable in my opinion, and the price doesn’t justify it if you’re just looking for a temperature sensor.

Thanks for Reading!

Anyway, I hope this article helps you choose the temperature sensor that’s right for your situation. There were so many other Bluetooth options that I really couldn’t cover them all, but hopefully you can at least get an idea of they might perform.

What’s up Smart Homers! There are a TON of different motion sensors out there, but things like overall value, sensing distance, trigger time, and others make a big difference in which one you choose. In previous articles I did comparisons of different smart buttons and contact sensors that are compatible with Home Assistant, and in this article I’m doing the same with motion sensors. I bought a bunch from a few different brands and I’m going to compare their prices and features, and I’ll also give you some ideas for how you can use them.

At the end I’ll give my recommendations.

Requirements

I had a few basic requirements when choosing these sensors:

1. They had to work with Home Assistant
2. They had to be available on Amazon or the Smartest House
3. They couldn’t require any other hub than a Zigbee or Z-Wave dongle (no other manufacturer’s hub)
4. They need to cost less than $50 (US). (Note: This price limit removed the Aeotec Multisensor from the list.)

There may be some motion sensors that you like that are not in this article, and if so, drop a comment in the comment section or hit me up on Twitter, maybe I can cover it in a future article!

Note about WiFi Devices…

I purposely did not choose any WiFi devices, simply because most of the WiFi ones I saw were Tuya powered which I want to stay away from if I can, and also a lot of them are big and clunky because of the large batteries required to keep connected to WiFi. The one WiFi device that someone mentioned I should check out was the Shelly motion sensor, but it was a little expensive for me to add it to the huge list I already have. For these reasons, we’ll only be looking at Zigbee and Z-Wave devices, and I’ll be adding them to Home Assistant using ZHA and Z-Wave JS.

Also note that all of these sensors are reported to work with Smart Things.

Overview

Here are some of the technical specs of the different sensors I tried. Because prices vary, I rated them from 1 to 4 dollar signs (“$”), where “$” is 0 to $20, “$$” is $20 to $30, etc. all the way up to $50.

Zigbee Motion Sensors

Let’s start by looking at Zigbee motion sensors.

Aqara Motion Sensor

The first one I want to look at is the Aqara Motion Sensor. This is one of the most popular motion sensors for Smart Homers, and especially Home Assistant users. It’s compact size and low price point makes it an easy buy for beginners and veteran smart homers alike. In fact, this sensor is the 2^nd cheapest of all the sensors in this article, and I think one of the best looking. It has a cylindrical body, with a rubber ring on the underside, which gives it a little grip if you want to set it on a horizontal surface without an adhesive. As with all Aqara devices, it has a grey and white look that looks very sleek and modern, without drawing too much attention.

It comes with an adhesive pad for the body of the sensor, as well as a mount that can be attached to the sensor and the wall with adhesive pads. The mount allows you to set the proper angle, and is sturdy enough to support the lightweight body. No matter which way it’s mounted, a twist of the sensor body will open it up, exposing the battery if it needs to be replaced.

As usual, the Aqara hub is not required for this device to be paired with Home Assistant using ZHA. Pressing the small reset button located on one side of the sensor repeatedly allowed me to pair it with no trouble. In Home Assistant it shows up with 4 sensors: a motion sensor, occupancy sensor, illuminance sensor, and battery level sensor.

I currently have 3 of these motion sensors in my house, one in the garage for turning on the lights and keeping them on while I’m working in there, one in the basement play area on a bookshelf, and one in the living room. In the living room I installed it on the underside of the bookshelf’s top shelf where it’s out of sight, but still picks up motion in the room.

Linkind PIR Motion Sensor

This next one has the lowest price of all of the sensors in today’s article– that’s the Linkind Door Window sensor. Linkind has a line of Zigbee smart home products that are often extremely cheap on Amazon, and this sensor is no different. In the contact sensor comparison article, I reviewed a Linkind device which worked very well. I was pleasantly surprised by the performance for the price. This sensor was a bit difficult for me, and when I released my video, I had given up hope of it ever working. However, some helpful commenters pointed me in the right direction of figuring out what was wrong.

This sensor has a lot going for it; not only is it cheap, but it looks nice (besides the large branding on the side), and while the Aqara sensor only comes with adhesive as a mounting option, this one comes with a plastic bracket that the sensor body clips onto. The bracket has screw holes, and can also be mounted with adhesive. I did find that the bracket was a big flimsy because there are two little arms that go inside of the sensor body, and they can break easily.

Pairing with ZHA was pretty straightforward – there is a pairing button under the battery cover, but when you first remove the battery isolator tab, it’s automatically put into pairing mode and fairly quickly connects. In Home Assistant the device shows up with two entities, a motion sensor and a power sensor the reports the battery life.

When it first connected it seemed to be picking up motion, but not long after it got stuck in the motion “Detected”, and never went away. I tried deleting the device and reconnecting it, and I also tried pulling the battery, but nothing worked. I actually returned and got a spare… still nothing. This happened before I could do any further testing with. It wasn’t until after I had finished my testing and the video that I found out that it is angled downward, and so doesn’t like to be set on a flat surface. Once I put it on the edge of my doorframe, it cooled down and then began working great! My bad.

Sonoff ZigBee Motion Sensor

The next one I want to look at is the Sonoff ZigBee Motion Sensor. This device has recognizable Sonoff look, very square with sharp corners.

This one is actually one of the smallest of all of the sensors we’re looking at today (about the same size as the Aqara), which is nice if you’re trying to keep it discreet. It comes with adhesive backing, but you’re still able to pop the sensor open to change the battery while it’s stuck to a surface. It has a cooldown time of just over a minute, meaning you’ll need to wait a minute after it detects motion before it can trigger again

Pairing this device in ZHA was pretty straightforward. All you have to do is press and hold the reset button with a sim card tool for 5 seconds until the LED indicator flashes three times. The sensor is then recognized immediately. I do wish a sim card tool was provided with the sensor, but I have a ton of them. The device shows up with two entities, a binary sensor for motion detection, and a power sensor the reports the battery life.

Long term use showed that this sensor was not always reliable – many times it seemed to miss detecting some motion, and in general was a little finicky.

ThirdReality Zigbee Contact Sensor

This next sensor is pretty unique because of its shape. It’s long and thin, which really makes it stand out from the others; and like the ThirdReality contact sensor, this sensor is powered by 2 triple a batteries. It can be mounted with adhesive or screws – to mount with screws, the cover of the sensor’s body has to be opened, and then the provided screws can be run through the screw holes and into whatever you’re mounting it to. The shape of the sensor makes it a nice fit up against trim or other raised edges. It gives it the ability to hide, while still housing those big ol’ batteries. The sensor should be mounted in a vertical direction about 7 feet from the floor, with the lens at the top. When mounted this way, it will not pick up motion approx. 2 feet above the floor and below. This allows it to ignore pet motion and only be triggered by humans.

This sensor can easily be added to Home Assistant by installing the batteries, since doing this for the first time puts the sensor into pairing mode, and a blue LED begins flashing. There is also a pairing button under the cover on the PCB that you can press to put it into pairing mode in the future. Once it’s added, you’ll see motion sensor and battery percentage sensor entities in HA.

AduroSmart ERIA Smart Motion Sensor

My first thought when I opened up the AduroSmart ERIA motion sensor was, “woah, that’s big”, because although it’s shaped like the Aqara sensor, it is MUCH bigger. AduroSmart products definitely have their own unique style. Like their contact sensor, the motion sensor also has a square indicator on the front with a green LED behind it. There are a couple features that make it really unique. Like the previous device, this one also takes two triple a batteries, which you can put in via the hatch on the bottom. It comes with a mount that can be attached to a vertical surface with screws, and the mount has a ball joint for positioning it correctly. The green indicator blinks when the sensor is triggered, but as far as I know there’s no way to turn it off.

Once the batteries are in, the device is automatically put into pairing mode, and adding the device to Home Assistant is instantaneous. There’s a pinhole on the side of the sensor that gives access to the pairing button if you need it in the future. This sensor only has two entities in Home Assistant, a motion sensor and a battery level sensor. It’s kind of surprising to me that this sensor doesn’t have more features for its size, and for the $10 step-up in price from the previous two sensors. For how big this can is, you’d think they’d at least be able to throw in a temperature sensor or something!

Centralite Micro Door Sensor

Next up is the Centralite Micro Motion Sensor. It is our first motion sensor that also has a temperature sensor in it! The device has holes on the front that allow ambient air to reach a temperature sensor inside, and also allow you to see the LED indicator behind them. It has a reset button on one edge, and on the bottom edge it has a battery hatch release button that pops the battery tray out the side when you press it. This makes it easy to change out the battery while it’s mounted to the wall.

This sensor can only be mounted with the supplied adhesive strips, but it has an interesting option. The back side of the sensor has two edges that are chamfered at 45 degrees. The adhesive strips fit on these chamfers so that the sensor can be mounted in a corner where two walls meet.

To add the device to Home Assistant, you pull the battery isolator out by the tab and it goes directly into pairing mode. You’ll see the flashing LED through the holes on the front, and it gets picked up by ZHA straight away. Pairing in the future requires opening the battery tray, holding down the reset button, and then closing the tray. Four entities show up in Home Assistant; a motion sensor, occupancy sensor, temperature sensor, and a battery level sensor.

AGSHOME Motion Sensor

The AGSHOME sensor is a generic one, a brand you’ve probably never heard of before. It’s comes in such a nondescript box that I had to write the name on it so I could easily identify it. But its blandness goes beyond just the box – this Zigbee sensor has nothing really special about it except that it’s too big and it isn’t that great looking. Comparing it with the Sonoff you can see just how big it is with a bubble that’s just about the same size. Fun fact, almost NO ONE wants the name of the sensor printed on the front, especially AGSHOME.

It comes with a plate that can be mounted to the wall, and then the sensor can be clipped onto that. On the back of the sensor there’s an on/off switch, a reset button, and the battery hatch. This sensor takes 3 triple A batteries. That’s a lot of battery!

To pair the sensor, just press and hold the reset button using the provided sim card tool and it gets picked up pretty quickly. You’ll see a red light under the lens flashing, telling you that it’s in pairing mode. It’ll stop flashing once it’s paired. In Home Assistant you’ll see two entities, a motion sensor and a battery level sensor. If you look over at the Device info for this sensor, you’ll see that the manufacturer is TUYATEC… very interesting. It seems this is a Tuya Zigbee device.

In my opinion this sensor is just too big and noticeable to be used in the house, but it has been a very reliable sensor so far.

Philips Hue Indoor Motion Sensor

The next one is the Philips Hue Indoor Motion Sensor, the most expensive device we’ll be review, and the last of the Zigbee sensors in this video. It’s actually the first Philips Hue device I’ve ever purchased, and I have to say, it has a nice quality feel.

The front of the sensor has the lens and a small circular transparent window, which I assume allows the light in for the lux sensor. This device also has a temperature sensor built in!

It has a magnetic mounting method is kind of cool – it has a small, rubberized, magnetic cylinder that has a hole in it. A screw can be used to secure the cylinder to a surface, and then the sensor attaches to the cylinder magnetically. The back of the sensor has a sort of semispherical shape so you can angle the sensor a bit. You could also mount it to your fridge without any screws at all. Removing a single screw on the back allows you to take off the back cover, exposing the battery compartment. Inside you’ll see that it’s powered by 2 triple A batteries. From what I’ve read, these last for 2+ years, which is pretty awesome!

To add it in Home Assistant for the first time, just pull out the battery isolator tab. In the future you can pair it by pressing the setup button on the back using a sim card tool. I’m very impressed by the number of sensors that this device has! In Home Assistant there are five entities that show up – a motion sensor, occupancy sensor, illuminance sensor, temperature sensor, and a battery level sensor. Once strange thing I found with this sensor is that the motion sensor entity remains “clear” and never seems to change when motion is detected. However, the Occupancy sensor changes to detected as soon as it senses movement. I’m not sure why this is the case, and it might be different if it was connected to the hue hub first and then integrated with Home Assistant, but this is how it seems to work in ZHA.

This device has one of the shortest sensing distances, at around 16ft, and also one of the shortest cooldown times, which I measured at 13 seconds.

Z-Wave Motion Sensors

Now let’s look at a few Z-Wave sensors. One of the advantages with using Z-Wave sensors is that, a lot of times they have more configuration options than the Zigbee sensors. With certain devices you can change motion sensitivity, cooldown time, LED settings, and much more.

Zooz 4-in-1 Sensor (ZSE40)

The first one is the Zooz 4-in-1 sensor. As the name implies it has 4 sensors: a motion sensor, illuminance sensor, temperature sensor, and humidity sensor. Fun fact, this device was the first Z-Wave device I ever purchased, back when I was using SmartThings.

The device has a typical square look, with the lens and an LED on the front. It really isn’t too big for all of the sensors it’s packing. It comes with an adjustable mount that can be mounted to a horizontal surface or a corner, and the device can easily be detached from it if the battery needs to be changed. The case can be opened if needed, revealing the battery and internal PCB. When you open the case, you’ll see a little tamper switch on the board that is depressed when the cover is in place.

To pair this device for the first time, just remove the battery isolator and it will go into inclusion mode. I’m not showing that here, because this is the one I originally bought, but that’s how you do it. If you want to pair it in the future, there is a pairing button on the bottom accessible via a sim card tool.

Once added to Z-Wave JS, you’ll see a motion sensor, Temperature sensor, humidity sensor, and illuminance sensor. You’ll also see a battery level sensor, low battery sensor, and a tamper sensor. Removing the cover will change the tamper sensor to an “on” status.

As I mentioned before, Z-wave sensors often have some pretty cool configuration options. With this sensor, you can change temperature units, reporting thresholds for temp, humidity, and brightness, the trigger interval (cooldown time), sensitivity of the motion sensor, and when the LED behind the lens flashes. If you change any of these settings, you need to wake the device up after the change for it to take effect. Pressing the Z-Wave inclusion button with a sim card too once will wake the device up.

The battery lasted about 1 year on this device with a cooldown time of 15 seconds, and the flashing LED off. Keep in mind that this was in my kitchen, the room with the most activity in a typical day than any other room. In addition to motion, it was also reporting humidity, temp, and lux! – I’d say that’s pretty impressive.

Ecolink Z-Wave Plus PIR Motion Detector

The next Z-Wave sensor is the Ecolink PIR motion detector. So, I thought the AduroSmart sensor was big until I opened this bad boy. This thing feels like a grenade in your hand! We’ve seen some pretty unique features in Ecolink products in the past, but the question is, do the features of this sensor make up for its massive size?

This device comes with a bracket that clips onto the back of it, and it can only be removed by opening the body of the sensor. When you open it up, you’ll see that there’s a little swtich on the PCB – that’s a tamper switch that lets you know if the cover has been opened. The bracket has screw holes so that it can be mounted to a horizontal surface or in a corner.

There’s also a little jumper that can be moved to change the sensitivity of the sensor to account for small and medium sized pets. I never messed with this because I don’t have any pets. The jumper can also be configured to change the cooldown time. This sensor has the longest advertised range of all of the sensors, but unfortunately it has the longest cooldown time. I found that this sensor has a cooldown time of 3 minutes and 17 seconds. The jumper can be completely removed to change the cooldown time to 4 minutes, and it can be moved to the “TEST” position to bring the time down to 5 seconds.

To add this device to Home Assistant you just remove the battery isolator tab. In the future you need to remove and reinstall the battery to put it in inclusion or exclusion mode.

In Z-Wave JS, the device shows up with 5 entities, Motion, Battery level, Low battery level, Replace battery, and a Tamper sensor.

Overall, this device is REALLY big, and is going to be very noticeable, pretty much no matter where you mount it.

Zooz Z-Wave Plus Q Motion Sensor

The Zooz Q Sensor is another Z-wave device that has a unique look. This one is has a puck-shaped body, with a ball mount. The mount allows the sensor to be mounted to a flat surface and then angled to satisfaction. It’s quite a bit larger than the Sonoff, but it’s still smaller than the AGSHOME, and in my opinion has a clean look to it. One of the really cool features about this device is that it has the ability to be powered by micro USB, not just battery. If you look at the back you can see the USB port, and also the slot where the mount clips into place. The mount can be secured to the mounting surface with the provided adhesive or screws. This device also has a temperature sensor, humidity sensor, illuminance sensor, and a tamper sensor in addition to the motion sensor!

Before pairing this device, you need to decide whether you want it to be battery powered or USB powered. If you choose to power it via battery, then you can always power it with USB later, but if you choose to power it via USB, your hub will recognize it as a Z-Wave repeater. This means that if you decide to power it via battery later, the battery will drain extremely quickly. I think this is SO cool that they give the option for the device to act as a repeater – I wish more ZigBee devices would do that! Anyway, to pair it you twist the back cover counter-clockwise to open it, and then pull the battery isolator tab. It should automatically go into inclusion mode and the LED on the front will start blinking. In my case, I accidentally pulled the batteries out when pulling the tab, so putting them back in starts the inclusion. If you are using USB power, powering via USB starts the inclusion mode. In the future, you can quickly triple-press the button under the cover to initiate inclusion mode.

In Home Assistant this device shows up with temperature, humidity, illuminance, motion, battery level, low battery level, and tamper sensors.

When I first added the sensor, it was not registering motion, but Zooz has some setup docs that mention that you need to go into the device configuration and change parameter 16, so that instead of binary motion reports, it will send notification reports to Home Assistant. I’ll show that in a second.

I also found that the temperature of the sensor suddenly jumped up about 80 degrees to around 157 degrees F. Then I had a big brain moment, and realized that it was possible that the sensor was reading in Fahrenheit, but Home Assistant was taking it as Celsius and converting it to Fahrenheit. Sure enough, the room the current temp based on the other sensors was about 69 degrees F, and 69 degrees C is approximately 155 degrees F. I went into the device configuration page and change the units from F to C, and that seemed to correct the issue! I have no explanation for why it jumped up, unless I changed that setting without knowing it. Anyway, speaking of configuration, this device has a lot of configuration options. You can change the sensitivity of the sensor, cooldown time (The cooldown time has a minimum of 10 seconds and a maximum of 3600 seconds, but it is set at 30 seconds default), LED options, when it should alert you of low battery, minimum reporting frequency for all sensors, and how much the sensor values need to change to send reports. As I mentioned a few seconds ago, parameter 16, needs to be disabled so that the motion detection will be functional. There’s a little bit of setup to this one, but I think it’s a pretty great sensor, especially when you compare it to some of the other sensors.

Zooz Motion and Vibration Sensor

Ok, so the third one from Zooz is the Zooz Motion and Vibration sensor. This one is a medium sized sensor that has a unique spherical shape. Beside the lens, a single hole on the face allows you to see an LED indicator beneath. The sensor body can magnetically attach to the provided mount, allowing you to easily angle the sensor once the mount is attached to a surface. The mount can be attached to a flat surface using a single screw, adhesive, or you can put it on something that is magnetic like your refrigerator. Like the Q Sensor, this one can also be powered with a battery or a micro USB cable, and when powered via USB, it can act as a Z-Wave repeater.

If you twist the body of the sensor, you expose the battery and Z-Wave pairing button. You can also see on the inside of the back cover that there is some sort of magnetic material that makes the sensor body magnetic.

To put the sensor into inclusion mode for the first time, pull the battery isolator tab, and you should see the LED on the front light up solid blue.

So, this is where I ran into problems with this sensor. In Home Assistant, I see entities for Motion, Battery Level, and Low Battery Level. Vibration is missing! The device configuration allows for the vibration sensor to be turn off, but it’s on for me and still I can’t see vibration. I tried all sorts of things, including and excluding it, and even enabling the disabled entities, with no luck. I’ve been in contact with Zooz support, and they say that “there are issues with JS implementation outside of MQTT” and that they can only confirm it will work with zwaveJS2MQTT. I’m not planning to switch over to zwaveJS2MQTT, so I’ll have to live without the vibration sensor.

In the device configuration, you get a few different options, including adjusting the motion sensitivity, turning on and off the vibration sensor, adjusting the cooldown time (which can go from 6 seconds to 18 hours), enabling or disabling the LED, and even adjusting the low battery threshold.

One thing I noticed with this device is that it was over-sensitive to motion. I was so sensitive that it was triggering when no one was in the room, and nothing was moving. All of the other sensors were clear, but that one kept going off. I reduced the sensitivity by one in the configuration page, and that seemed to fix the issue, making it as sensitive as the other devices. My testing for this device showed that, when the cooldown time was set for 30 seconds, it average about 33. That’s pretty close.

Fibaro Door Motion Sensor

Lastly, we have the Fibaro Motion Sensor. Surprisingly, it isn’t the most expensive of all of the sensors we’re looking at today, Philips Hue being a few cents more. The first thing I thought when I saw this device, is that it looks like an eyeball, and that has to be on purpose! It’s has a spherical shape, which a lens that’s flush with the spherical curve, looking an awful lot like an iris. Since it’s shaped like a ball, it can easily roll around, so it comes with a mount that can also be used like a stand. The mount actually acts like a socket, clipping around the spherical body of the sensor. It can be secured to a flat surface using a single screw or adhesive, and it’s loose enough that the eyeball – I mean sensor – can be tilted to whatever angle is necessary.

Twisting the body allows you to remove the back cover, exposing the battery and the inclusion button.

To put it into inclusion mode, pull the battery isolator tabs, and it should be picked up by Z-Wave JS right away. When it begins inclusion, you should see the LED inside the lens on the front light up blue. If you saw my contact sensor video, the Fibaro had a ton of different entities in HA, and this is no different. This guy has an accelerometer, so it has entities for X, Y, and Z direction acceleration. It also has a temperature sensor, illuminance sensor, motion sensor, and a seismic intensity sensor – that’s right, apparently it has an earthquake sensor. It also has a battery level, low battery level, and tamper sensors. Note that the tamper sensor doesn’t get triggered when the cover is taken off, but rather when vibration is detected.

There are a TON of configuration options for this sensor, including motion detection sensitivity, cooldown time, pulse counter, the ability to only have the sensor on at night, tamper sensitivity, reporting intervals and thresholds for the auxiliary sensors, and tons more. You can also set the color and brightness of the LED so you can make it look like the eye of Sauron. There’s even a temperature offset, so if it is reading a few degrees off from a calibrated thermometer, you can make that adjustment. Pretty cool! There are so many features that this sensor has, that you could probably make a whole video just dedicated to its setup and use. When I tested the cooldown time, I found that it averaged about 33 seconds when configured at 30 seconds.

Testing

Temp Sensor Comparison

I compared the temperature readings of all of the sensors at the same time and same place on multiple occasions, and they were all fairly consistent. The Hue sensor read the lowest of all of them, and the Fibaro read the highest – over 5 degrees higher than the average of the other sensors. However, the Fibaro does have a configuration option to offset the temp, so this can be remedied.

Lux Sensor Comparison

I tried comparing the illuminance sensors, but they were so wildily different from each other that I wasn’t able to come to a conclusion.

Range Comparison

I made little chart of sorts that shows the range of each sensor, and the shapes on the chart show the FOV angle of each sensor. You can see that the Ecolink has the longest range of all of them, followed by the Zooz 4-in-1. Notice that the Hue sensor has one of the shortest ranges, but it is one of the most popular! Bigger isn’t always better!

I tried to test the range of the sensors outdoors, and for some reason the sensors didn’t seem to pick me up until I was very close. I’m not sure if the cold affected the sensors, or the sun reflecting off of the snow, or me wearing a coat, or maybe a combination of all three, but the only sensor that seemed to pick me up at a decent distance was the Zooz 4-in-1 sensor, and the rest only detected me when I got fairly close. Next I tried indoors, but I don’t really have a spot where I can mount them at the recommended height but still get a fairly long distance. This resulted in quite a few of the sensors not detecting me until I was fairly close. Results are non-conclusive.

Favorites and Least Favorites

So guess what? That’s it! Thanks for sticking around to the end, and it’s ok if you used the chapters to skip to the conclusion.

It’s kind of hard to compare the Zigbee devices with the Z-wave ones, because, although the Z-Wave devices cost more typically, they are far more configurable.

Favorites

The best basic motion sensor that performs well above its price range is the Aqara motion sensor. Its 170 degree field of view gives it the ability to cover large areas, and its sensible cooldown time of 1 minute 10 seconds gives is the ability to conserve a lot of battery life. Aqara has done it again in my opinion – I have yet to see a device of theirs that doesn’t perform well for the price. However, it is somewhat noticeable because of its unique look, so if you’re looking for something a little more subtle, the Sonoff is a good choice.

My next favorite is the Zooz Q Motion sensor. If you’re looking for a Z-Wave motion sensor with a decent sensing distance, quick response time, and a temperature sensor, this is the one for you. This sensor looks really good in my opinion, and it’s cheaper than the Hue! The fact that it allows you to adjust the motion sensitivity as well as the cooldown time makes it stand out from many of the others, and one of the coolest features is that it can be USB powered and act as a Z-Wave repeater. Zooz makes a ton of awesome Z-Wave devices, and this one is no exception.

One other favorite of mine is, surprisingly, the Philips Hue sensor. It is definitely a bit pricey, but if you’re looking for a Zigbee device that looks really good, has a temperature sensor, and price isn’t a big factor, then the Philips Hue is actually a pretty good choice. I’ve heard the battery life is great, but that’s highly dependent on where you use it. The magnetic mounting feature is the icing on the cake in my opinion. If you’re looking for a Z-wave sensor that has this magnetic mount style, the Zooz Motion and vibration sensor might be right for you. Just remember that the vibration sensor doesn’t seem to work with Z-Wave JS.

Least Favorites

Here are the ones I would NOT recommend.

First, the AGSHOME motion sensor. It really looks ugly in my opinion, and has no features that make up for it. It’s large and bulky, and doesn’t have any special mounting options.

Second, the Ecolink sensor. This massive sensor looks like it comes from the 90s. It’s big, obvious, and that cooldown time is WAY too long. There may be some applications where you might find this device useful, but it really isn’t worth the price in my opinion.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for you in this article. I hope you found the information in this article useful, and if you have any suggestions for other devices I didn’t look at, or other comparisons you’d like to see, feel free to drop a comment!

Thanks for reading! See ya.

THIRDREALITY Zigbee Motion Sensor, Zigbee Hub Required, Pet Friendly, Works with Home Assistant, SmartThings, Aeotec, Homey, Hubitat or Echo Devices with Built-in Zigbee hub

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$19.99 (as of July 27, 2024 01:12 GMT -04:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)

ZIGBEE STANDARD COMPATIBLE MOTION SENSOR: Works with compatible Zigbee hubs or Echo devices with Zigbee hub built-in, such as Echo (4th Gen), Echo Plus (1st Gen and 2nd Gen), Echo Studio, Eero 6, Eero Pro 6, Home Assistant, SmartThings 2015/2018, Aeo... read more

Aqara Motion Sensor P1, Requires AQARA HUB, 5-Year Battery Life, Configurable Detection Timeout, for Alert System and Automations, Compatible with HomeKit, Alexa, IFTTT

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$24.99 (as of July 27, 2024 01:12 GMT -04:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)

[NOTES] Requires Aqara Zigbee 3.0 hub (Not compatible with other Zigbee hubs). Requires a secured 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi for Hub M2/M1S/E1/M1S Gen2 and Camera Hub G2H Pro/G2H, and 2.4/5 GHz Wi-Fi for Camera Hub G3.(Wired connection via Ethernet RJ45 for Hub M... read more

Sengled Zigbee Motion Sensor, Zigbee Hub Required, Pet Friendly, Works with SmartThings, Echo 4t'h, Hubitat or Echo Devices with Build-in Zigbee hub, 4 Pack

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Simple Set Up: Pair the sensor directly to the Sengled Smart Hub using the Sengled Home app (iOS/Android). A compatible hub is required for use. Simple Installation: Use the app to activate your sensor. Then, place it directly or alternatively screw ... read more

Aeotec SmartThings Motion Sensor, Zigbee, Magnetic Mounting, Works with Smart Home Hub and Compatible Zigbee Hubs

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24/7 Monitoring: Receive alerts when there’s unexpected movement in your home Home Automation: Set devices to automatically turn on or off as people come and go to minimize energy usage Detection Ready: Adjust the sensor with the quick tilt magnetic ... read more

SONOFF SNZB-03 ZigBee Motion Sensor, 2-Pack Wireless Motion Detector Get Alerts or Trigger Lights to Turn on, SONOFF Zigbee Bridge Required

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✔ The ZigBee motion sensor will send an instant alert notification to your mobile phone whenever the motion is detected. ✔ SONOFF ZigBee Bridge is required. You can connect the sensor to the hub to activate WiFi devices, not merely ZigBee devices. Fo... read more

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