I have seen talk in the past where some people say they have this problem… nothing recent.
I have 2 Everspring SM-103 sensors. They get very little use, replaced batteries in both a month ago. One is still showing almost full level. The other started dropping within a week and now shows dead. (Sensors are in a vacation rental, will be there this weekend to do some work as well as look at sensors). I would buy the story that I had a bad battery in the mix, but this is not the first time this has happened to the exact same sensor. Any one else see this problem these days? For the moment, I have a spare sensor I am going to just swap in and see what happens. And… no I never tweaked with any of the settings on wakeup etc.
Are there any other alternatives besides the Aeon with the weird batteries?
I have the SM103 on the main door of the house so its activated several times a day, every day for almost two years now and I’ve only replaced the batteries once after about 18 months and the new set are still at 100%. Since your other sensor seems to be ok the obvious conclusion is that the sensor has a fault.
As a long shot it might be worth investigating if the tamper is properly closed: I remember when fitting mine I had to bend the switch arm slightly to ensure it closed reliably when mounted as the sensor didn’t quite lie flush along its length on the frame. I’m not sure if when the tamper is not closed whether it may stay awake for 10mins everytime the door sensor is activated - though that may not be enough to drain the batteries so fast if the sensor is rarely activated. I’ve also increased the default wakeup interval from 1800 to 7200 to extend the battery life on all my Everspring devices as I generally just need them to wakeup if activated.
I have two SM103s. One is on the front door (activated maybe once a day) and the garage door (activated several times per day). The wakeup interval is 1800 and the polling interval is 60 for both units. I’ve had them for about three months, and they’re still showing ~70% battery life.
In both units, I used brand new, fully-charged Eneloop batteries. When I got the units, I used the batteries included in the package. One of the included batteries must have been faulty–it swelled up and got extremely hot, frying the SM103 and causing me to get a replacement. The moral of this story is that the batteries included with the SM103s are junk. Use high-quality rechargeable and you should have much better luck.
Update:
Funny thing… brand new batteries duracell… one was leaking acid when I pulled sensor down. As previously suggested by Frasier I looked closely at how flat the unit was mounted and it was ‘cocked a bit’ so the tamper sensor may well have been out. This thing has killed batteries since day one. Replaced it anyway, made sure this time that tamper sensor was flat. Will take old one home and find a good retirement location for it to see how it performs. Easier to swap it out now and play with suspect unit at home… Thanks everyone!
Les,
This has happened to me several times with the identical Hawking’s HRDS-1 sensor. I think that when they start to eat batteries, it is time to replace them. My vacation home is close to the ocean so I probably go through these faster than those who don’t use them in a salty air environment.
Also check to see what your polling interval is set to for the battery operated device. On my Vera3 on UI6, Vera was polling my locks every 2 minutes before I reset it (ate the battery lock within a month).
There are some that beleive that not polling a battery device is wrong, but since battery operated devices are instant status devices, I choose to disable polling entirely for them. Extends the battery life.
They seem to be behaving now… (still on ui5)… I may really push the poll interval out some more, they report just fine when tripped so why poll too often to find out nothing has changed. Might play with disabling polling like you did to see how well that works.
Les, if these keep giving you fits, try the Schlage guys. They take an easily available battery. I replaced my SM-103s with those over a year ago, and all of them still show 100% battery. And they will take external dry-contact (important to me).
I actually have one of the Schlage models laying here. Bought it, just never used it yet. The 103s are behaving, getting maybe 6-8 months out of them (light use).
Best Home Automation shopping experience. Shop at Ezlo!