Last fall I installed two of the newer ZSE42 XS 800-series Water Leak Sensors in the basement of our home in New England to complement a single, original ZSE42 700-series Flood Sensor already in service for over a year. The newer devices use the CR2450 battery, whereas the older units use the common CR2032 battery found in so many devices.
Installation of the new sensors was done October 2nd and I replaced the CR2032 battery in the older sensor at the same time.
Today, April 5th, the two newer sensors with the CR2450 battery are still showing 100% battery, after being in service all winter while we were away from that home. The older sensor with the CR2032 battery stands at 17%. Iâm impressed with the experience to date with the 800-series ZSE42âway to go, Zooz!
Now, if the ZSE41 Open/Close Sensor were updated to use the CR2450 battery, would it stand a chance of lasting the winter in an unheated garage? The ZSE41 sensor I installed there to replace an older, original Z-Wave door sensor about the same time last fall is down to 21% batteryânow that outside temperatures have gotten above freezing, that is. (While the temperatures up there were below freezing, it consistently resulted in notifications from the Z-Box Hub about low battery.)
Although I havenât researched the temperature coefficients of the CR2450, perhaps it is better in lower temperatures? At minimum, it âlasts longerâ due to its increased capacity.
Once the Z-Box Hub implements LR functionality, it could possibly improve battery life on these cool, little sensor devices in our home, as LR adjusts transmit power to be gentler on batteriesâŚ
I got the open/close on my mailbox in Norway (frezzing cold)
Installed in september I think (ordered in august)
It reports low battery when it is -5 and below during winter to. But when it is above +5 again it reports higher values again.
And it is still working on the battery that it came with
But it is now at low battery life even when we got 10+ now
But also hope the LR soon will come to zooz hub and nice home senters some how(maybe with a slave with 700 chip)
Hey @Barkis and @Brors94 , great news for you both Beta firmware is now available for the Z-Box hub (5.172.18) with Z-Wave Long Range enabled! Please let us know if you have any feedback on the new firmware and LR implementation. Weâll be officially announcing it shortly, but the update is already available on your hub as a beta release.
After installing the beta firmware that enables LR support on the hub, do LR devices have to be excluded and re-included to benefit from LR?
Is there a way to tell if a device is in LR mode in the hub UI?
Update from my testing: I think the answer to both these is âYes.â You have to pick LR vs regular when including the device, so exclude and re-include is needed. You can tell something is LR by it having a device id of 256 or greater.
@zoozer correct on both counts! If you include a device in the mesh, the hub establishes the necessary route of communication during the inclusion process. Since ZWLR is direct hub-to-device, you would need to exclude and re-include the device as a LR device. The node ID is also correct here as well.
@Brors94 not sure if it works with hc3l. Official support for the Z-Wave Long Range protocol in Europe is scheduled for April of 2025. However, devices that are currently available in Long Range in EU frequency will still need a complete SDK update due to a shift in the EU frequency specifically for Z-Wave Long Range.
We will be updating our EU devices to support the long range protocol in Europe, but it will take time due to the required SDK update for the frequency shift.
Updating current devices via OTA to support Z-Wave Long Range for EU is a possibility at this time, though we have not yet confirmed this detail.
This is excellent news, @Sara! Iâm looking forward to trying this feature when we get back north! (Weâve been in Florida for the winter and I havenât even loaded the latest release that came out for Z-Box, as it canât be done remotely. Probably will load that release first, then follow up with the Z-Wave LR support a few days later.) Thank you for the update!
Several devices migrated and one new device running ZWLR on my hub since loading the Beta Release for the Z-Box Hub.
Migration means excluding and re-including a deviceâbut it was pretty painless. When adding the device, after scanning the QR code with the mobile app, it gives you a choice to use LR or the mesh. Adding an LR device is very quick!
One device migrated so far is the ZSE41 800LR open/close sensor on our side garage door. It will be interesting to see how the battery life holds up, particularly next winter when cold weather sets in againâŚ
Is there an advantage to using the LR over the mesh? All my devices at this point are still mesh, but most could be LR. From what Iâve read as long as you have good signal it seems like LR is the superior method?
Longer Range, of course. But it is my understanding the device will use only enough power to talk to the hubârather than full power talking to the meshâthus prolonging device battery life. (Is that a correct assumption, @BartekZooz or @Sara?)
Correct @Barkis! @OhioYJ ZWLR devices automatically adjust and optimize the radio output power at every transmission, which gives a much greater battery life for battery-powered units. ZWLR currently has two power levels; this allows for matching the RF transmit power to the typical power supply of the intended application. +14dBm is often utilized in battery-powered devices, where even the 41mA current can strain low-cost batteries. On the other hand, the +20dBm is better suited for mains-powered devices, maximizing the range potential. ZWLR employs dynamic RF power, meaning that for nodes situated close enough to the hub, only sufficient RF power is utilized to reliably communicate with the controller, thereby extending battery life. This dynamic power algorithm is integrated into the Z-Wave protocol, which entirely eliminates the need for manual management.
We cover more information in our blog post here.
You can also check out more info from Silicon Labs here.
Back to the battery life question on the ZSE41 800LR Open/Close Sensor. As I mentioned earlier, I have one on the side door to in an unheated garage configured as an LR device.
About six weeks ago, I put in a new batteryâwhich reported 100%âand now that the temperature here in New England has dropped, it is again reporting low battery. To that end, I have been looking at alternatives.
Has anyone had experience with the BR2032 battery? Same form factor, different chemistry, but according to what Iâve found to date, it has better performance at lower temperatures that its cousin, the CR2032.
In the meantime, I switched out the Panasonic CR2032 that was installed six weeks ago (it was just past halfway through its supposed shelf life, noted on the package as 2019-2029) for a new Everready CR2032 I had on hand. From what I read in the above reference, it may be a better choice anyway. Once the sensor wakes up with its battery status, Iâll start tracking its performanceâŚ
Hey @barkis you can safely replace most CR2032 coin cell batteries with a BR2032 type lithium battery; however, there are some important factors to consider.
While the BR is longer lasting, it has a slightly lower voltage.
The BR will also discharge voltage rapidly at the end of life. For example, once the CR2032 reports âlow battery levelâ, it can maintain at this status of low battery for weeks. Meanwhile, the BR2023 may report âlow batteryâ for one day and then ceases working.
The BR2032 is recommended more for extreme working temperatures; please note that with lower voltage in normal temperature, the BR may have a shorter life expectancy than the CR (remember, the Z-Wave chip requires a minimum of 2.5V to work, so only a 15% drop (from 2.9/2.8 to 2.5V) would mean the battery is considered dead for Z-Wave purposes. Any battery reaching 2.5V is considered as 0% battery for Z-Wave.
Thatâs what Iâve been seeing here. The ZSE41 800LR Open/Close Sensor in our unheated garage has been reliably reporting Open/Closed states for weeksâyet the battery level shown on the Z-Box Hub is zero. But itâs been very cold until today, when it was up in the 50s. Still working, still 0%. lâm tempted to bring it indoors and see if it is a temperature compensation issue with the chipset measuring voltage or if it is simply the scaling of the voltage reading. Iâm aware these batteries fall off the cliff rapidly toward their end-of-life, so thereâs going to be some ambiguity with the voltage reading vs. battery life anyway.
Any thoughts of changing the battery for these classes of devices (ZSE41, ZSE44, et. al.) to use the CR2450 battery that seems to hold up very well in the ZSE42 XS Water Leak Sensor? That might be a winâŚ
The ZSE41 sensor I installed there to replace an older, original Z-Wave door sensor about the same time last fall is down to 21% batteryânow that outside temperatures have gotten above freezing, that is. 
(While the temperatures up there were below freezing, it consistently resulted in notifications from the Z-Box Hub about low battery.)
(frezzing cold)
Once the sensor wakes up with its battery status, Iâll start tracking its performanceâŚ