You videos are so well done and you even put the results in the title. The fact you took that effort at the risk of people not watching it shows that your videos are above and beyond.
@@jacklewis100 Just don't use the Aqara sensor with the Aqara hub. I use it with my own local hub within Home Assistant, works perfectly. I agree with you about the Chinese cloud services...
@@TheHookUp @The Hook Up A second channel that shows more of the behind the scenes, setup, tools used, etc would be awesome. The how and why you did what you did... An example of a channel that does this is "BUILD2" which is the 2nd channel of "Quint BUILDs".
Update: So I got the Aqara D&W sensors, combined with the Sonoff USB Zigbee dongle, and I must say: wow. The delay is non-existent and I haven't lost a single update yet. I'm so glad I waited all those months for you to finish this test, absolutely worth it.
Do the have any compatibility issue with other sistem repeaters from different brands? Can you specify your sensor model as there are 3 of them? Thanks.
Hello, Not super familiar with these things, but you only needed the 1. Sonoff USB Zigbee and 2. Aqara sensor and you have a working system that notifies your phone when the sensor goes off?
Opposite results here. I bought a bunch of those Aqara sensors a while ago for my doors and windows and after some usage I noticed they are very unreliable, mostly when opening or closing the door/window very slowly, they won't update the state. I would say that about 50% of the time they don't update. It's not a defective unit because I bought 6 of them and they all failed similarly. Then I replaced them all with the ones from BlitzWolf and they work a lot more reliably. Not perfect, but they fail to update their state very rarely. If you hear the "click" of the magnet from both devices, the Aqara one sounds more "loose", like a spring and the BlitzWolf one sounds more "smooth", like a car's signals/blinkers sound. Also, the BlitzWolf one have a red LED that blinks once everytime it opens or closes, which gives us extra confidence that the magnet toggled. Anyway, I use them mostly for the alarm system, which requires all windows and doors to be closed. While I used the Aqara ones, I found myself going downstairs constantly just to go open and close a random window to make the sensor update its state. Like, almost everyday, sometimes for more than one sensor. Since I'm using the BlitzWolf ones, it doesn't happen for several weeks in a row! Huge difference. The battery life has been great aswell, I've installed them in march/april and they're still at 75%. Your workbench is very cool, but it has one flaw: the open/close movement is always the same, at the same angle and at the same speed, so the results are very limited to those factors.
I’ve been using Aqara contact sensors and motion sensors for about 3 years now. Never had to change the batteries in any of them so far. Super cheap and reliable
do you need to use their hub? or can use straight with home assisstant? how is integration with google/alexa? tossing up between these and yolink. Yolink seems easy to trigger an alarm or let me know a door is open with Alexa
@@mathiasconde6201 you need a hub for that. But dont worry, unlike other hub which only collecting dust. Aqara hub does give you additional purpose for examples, camera or IR blasters
@@mathiasconde6201 I use the Aqara hubs (one of the older versions), but I think you could integrate directly with Home Assistant by using something like Zigbee2MQTT on your server. I haven’t tried it yet since I use the hub lights as indicators for certain things
I already use ring and don't plan on changing sensors, but since you included the result in the title I sat through this entire video, subscribed to the channel, liked the video, and am now commenting. Hopefully that helps the channel metrics!
I just bought a Moes contact sensor from Amazon a few weeks ago. It appears similar to the Aqara. It is Zigbee and works with my new Amazon speaker. This replaces my Wyze Sense sensor which went belly up after 2.5 years. I have a plastic mailbox about 50 feet (16m) from my house. I didn't know what I was doing, but the Alexa app worked fine. When the mailbox is opened, my smart speaker announces that I have mail and two of my home lights change to red. I use my Google Home routine to reset the lights. I could have used Alexa for that too, but the Google Home was already set up. Nice review.
Thank you Rob, great video as always. Just to let you know I am disabled and have trouble with legs. you have changed my life, with credit to Paul and Brian. I came close to not being here and if it wasn't for your ideas that has made my life so much easier and given me purpose again. Thank you so much for everything you done for everyone. Just amazing how you can change somebodies life This is more than home automation, to some people its a life line. God bless x
Man, I dropped some serious money on a houseful of 5800MINIs (SDR to receive signal) because I thought they were the smallest around. Any future openings are getting the Aqaras! Small, easy to pair/use (ConBee dongle -> hass -> Node-RED)... thanks for going through all this testing labor for our benefit! You're so concise with your videos... much appreciated.
I have like 20 of these sensors (not aqara, original xiaomi) for two years now. Have not changed a single battery and they all report above 50%. There is zero lag, my automations are immediate and I can't recall a single issue over the time. Paid like $8 each.
I also have them for like 2 years and the battery is still solid. Somtimes the motions sensors I have don't detect motion accurately again right after they stop detecting motion, and the contact sensor sometimes remains as open even though it was closed, but these are small issues. Probably changing the batteries will help
Thanks for sharing that! I have bought one of these sensors so far to test, and I was worried about the tiny battery in it. Great to know it won't be an issue!
Can confirm! Was in the market about 2 months ago for 20+ sensors for my new home and was looking for the most affordable Zigbee-compatible contact sensor. Bought an Aqara sensor to test, and at the time Amazon had them for 15 dollars. I already had a few z wave sensors and these came out to be half the size at half the price. I ended up purchasing all Aqara sensors after that.
Mr Yamaha. How is it going over 1 year? Do the sensors somehow report battery life? I am in the same boat. Want to put a contact on every window. Have circa 20 openings in the house. Need a solution that will last! And are you using HA by any chance? Thanks
like the features, setup was difficult for some of my devices (August Door lock, ru-vid.comUgkxhB5YOMNj04GuoAosExygP4cH-dKeb4aB Bose speaker)... but all switches and outlets (5), thermostat, tankless water heater. Unfortunately all I can do is turn on/off Bose. It doesn't support volume or changing channels, but I believe that is due to the particular speaker I have.... Worth getting if you already have other devices to use it with... I don't sit around and ask Alexa questions much so that doesn't really matter to me....
I'm almost done switching out all my Wifi sensors and switches to Yo-link. It's been super dependable and could not be easier to setup. And my internet "fiber" has only went out twice in 5 years, so I don't sweat the "lost internet" issue. All the serious sensors like "water leak detectors" are D2D with the water shut off valve and don't need internet or grid power to operate, its all automated.
I’ve been using a couple of the Aqara sensors for almost a year now. They haven’t missed a beat. I have one on my sons bedroom door and if he opens the door after 9pm, it turns on the lamp in our bedroom. That way we know he’s up and he has a clear path to our room. The other one is on a baby gate at the top of the stairs. If the sensor breaks contact (gate open) a light at the top of the stairs comes on as a reminder to close the gate. Once it’s closed the light turns back off.
So much time went into making this video. Incredible! I really like your setup for thoroughly testing these sensors and loved the battery power over time animation. Thanks so much! 😃
GREAT Video. Aqara has been my device of choice as I liked the combination of size, cost and reliability with HomeAssistant. It is good to know how well it stacks up against the competiion. The only other one I have used is the Sonoff device and whilst slightly larger it is lower in cost. I think people underestimate the utility of these devices if you are prepared to do a little surgery on them by removing the magnetic reed switch and extending the terminals outside of the device using wires I have turning my devices into rain monitors, liquid level sensors and door lock sensors.
your videos never seize to amaze me. the selfless act of purchasing a series of products to test and recommend is not only generous, but extremely knowledegable. and though i don't have a zigbee network myself because i've been on the fence about it.. i am definitely going to move that to the top of the list because accurate affordable contact sensors have been something i've been wanting to add to my home assistant network. thanks again for an amazingly helpful video review!
Been using these for over a year now and have to second the recommendation. Lowest battery is at 44% because it is in my garage in the cold. They are also small enough to put on some mouse traps! Alexa announces a successful kill and I get a push notification to my phone...got the @#!%&
I agree. I have been using all of the Aqara sensors (PIRs, contact, leak, button) for 3 years now and most of them are on the same battery. They are incredible.
Your videos are really the best smart home videos out there! I also own and use more than 10 Aqara door and window sensors across my house for over 2 years now and I can absolutely second your opinion on those sensors. They are very reliable and have a great battery life. Thanks for the video! BTW: The Aqara temperature, humidity and pressure sensor is also very good!
I really love the Aeotec sensor, as it detects vibrations and I saw in some tests that it has one of the biggest range (between the sensor and the magnet). More expensive but worth it IMO.
The key reason that the Aqara contact sensor is so battery efficient is because it does NOT broadcast a Zigbee message at the standard Zigbee intervals. A custom device driver (like the one in Home Assistant) takes this into account. However, a standard Zigbee device driver will NOT. Therefore, these devices constantly "fall off" a standard Zigbee mesh. Buyer Beware.
On home assistant this is only an issue with certain routers. If you direct connect to the USB stick or you research and are careful which routers it connects to then these are solid.
I have been pleased with all of the Aqara equipment that I have. They haven't steered me wrong yet. I just wish they had outdoor versions of the motion sensors, although I might be able to get my Reolink cameras to fill that duty once I get the wires run.
Great review and thank you for putting in the time and effort to make these videos! Just picked up a few of these using your link. Would love to see a similar one for motion sensors.
Phew I have only these ones in my house so glad they are the best ones haha. Great video as always. The amount of effort you put in is amazing and so well done. 👍
Great, I made the right choice about a month ago :) Only the built in temperature sensors are completely useless showing 26 and 27C on a pair that are sitting on my desk in a
I could not agree more. Been using these for at least a year. My home is mainly zwave, wifi and insteon so I didn’t have much Zigbee. I added a Conbee stick to Home Assistant to use with these. I have to say that initially I was disappointed with their performance. But after adding three strategically placed Zigbee plugs around my house, these have become one of my most reliable components. And I have not had to replace any batteries yet. Similar great experience with Aqara motion sensors too.
I've got several of the aqara contact sensors embedded behind the strike plate for each of my doors, with a magnets added into the end of the deadbolt, so I get a nightly notification it's any of my doors are not locked, or if they open after 10pm. Batteries going on 2 years now on all of them.
I'd love to see a video on how you did that and what you learned. Like how you drilled/chiseled out the space, how you change batteries (eventually!), did you just glue a magnet at the end or drill a hole in the deadbolt and insert a cylinder magnet, magnetic orientation, etc. Just knowing that a door or window is closed (or nearly closed) does not tell us whether the lock is set - and your approach would!
It would have been great to see a Thread based sensor like the one from Eve in this comparison. Love the rig, who would’ve thought it could use an automatic lubricator!
Nice work, I had purchased 4 of the Aqaras and was quite happy with them. I’m using these with HA and love that there’s also a temperature entity presented from them.
I personally use the Aeotec Door/Window sensor pro. I already had low voltage power runs where I needed them so there's no battery cost and instant response on zwave.
I have several Aqara sensors, the battery is still at 40% after 2 years. With a small mod, I hooked it up to a pressure mat, place it under my bedsheets and Wa-La, a Zigbee bed occupancy sensor.
Thank you for this video, I've been patiently waiting for it after seeing you were testing these. Thanks to you, now I'll also have the option to use Zigbee devices from now on ;).
Never heard of or considered Aqara but I’m definitely interested now, as I currently use Smarthings! Thanks for a well put together comparison and breakdown!🙌🏾
Got 9 of them around the house and haven't had any issues with them. All original batteries over 3 years later. Looks like the prices have jumped up a bit but still good value.
I've been using a ring door sensor for some time, but this week I got an Ecolink ZWave sensor. The cool thing about is it has two terminals, when closed will report. So I added it to a dry contact relay to monitor my power outlet Sump Pump, which has a separate circuit breaker, and recently I found out it was out of power.
This video has convinced me to switch to ZigBee. I've been using wifi and tuya (plus some Shellies) since forever. How've tuya sucks (keeps becoming unresponsive and some devices randomly require me to start them) even though I live in an apt and thus the distances aren't large. And forget anything with a battery, things eating batteries left and right.
Slowly changing my sensors over to Ring (from Samsung multipurpose). What I like about Ring is how easily it is to remove the sensor to replace the batteries. For your next updated video on this subject, maybe add the distance to register the change event as windows and doors are seldom flush. I'm sure the Ring sensor's battery life can be improved by changing the heartbeat interval but this video is about the OOB experience.
I just installed an aqara contact sensor a few weeks ago - glad I made the right choice 🤠 ….but that eco link zwave tilt sensor (I know not contact) has been using the same battery for 3+ years and still at 99%
Brilliant, I was looking for new sensors and considering the aqara, and you've given me the push I needed. I'm going to use a sonoff zigbee bridge to connect to my node red setup! Thanks
Did you use all new batteries from a reputable brand when testing? I run into extremely varying battery life based on what battery brand, distance from hub, etc. Just curious, and great review!
Hmm, nice video, but Sonoff SNZB-04 is notably missing and is half the price of Aqara. Also, Aqara zigbee devices tend to "stick" to a single zigbee router or coordinator, so there might be connection issues if you move devices around the house.
this is exactly what i needed, thanks! My Wyze contact sensors are great but lately have been starting to fail, plus they discontinued the ones i have so it’s only a matter of time before they all stop working. These Aqara sensors look like they’ll fit nicely into my Home Assistant setup!
I have more than 10 GS-WDS07 (EV1527 chip)from Aliexpress those cost like 7 USD now. If paierd with a 433MHZ hub (i have a tasmotized Sonoff RF), is the best deal imo. Cheap and reliable, and also pretty. I use them everywhere ( on a dumb AC unit to know if is on, on windows/doors, hooked on a pressure sensor in my sofa to detect sitting there etc. They work with a standard AAA battery and they work a pretty damn long time.
Excellent channel- you get right to the point, and your prep and production quality is perfect. I think battery life is important, but for someone with an existing system, the compatibility factor may win out over outright battery performance and price. Please keep the comparison videos coming, especially about home automation products.
Rob - Great video. I have played with the Sonoff Zigbee and the Shelly WiFi contact sensors, with rather poor results... I have had good luck with the one aqara contact sensor I bough; seeing your video gave me the confidence to order a bunch more for a whole slew of automations I have planned. Keep up the great work!
@@DanielSchoonover Totally agree. I was really disappointed. I'd rather pay 2X for the Aqara sensors and get something that is more solidly built, and works reliably.
@@audreywy1743 I guess it’s purpose is up to you. You can use it as a measure of the temperature in the room. You could use it to see if the temperature is dropping or increasing while the window or door is open. It may be useful for battery compensation too. If the temp is low, the battery voltage can be lower too… just a couple of ideas.
The original Wyze sensors were incredible using their own 900 MHz RF but since Wyze abandoned them, the Aquara look like the next best thing. Would be interesting to see a head to head on motion sensors, since motion sensors are the real deal for true automation of the home.
This is amazing. Please do something like this for Motion Sensors, presence sensors, and any other sensors you can think of. I would also be very interested in a test of the new Ikea sensors that just came out, and the new Aqara Matter-enabled Thread sensors that are much more expensive.
Can confirm - have all my windows and doors, bed occupancy sensors and more equipped with these Aqara/Xiaomi sensors and I did't change any batteries in almost 3 years. Shelly Door/Window 2, on the other hand, has been a disappointment. All 3 of them I bought died within a month. And CR123A batteries are more expensive than CR1632
Great video! I love how you get right to it and don't bury the results way down in the video. I'm looking for something for an outdoor gate but really don't want to go with anything cloud only. Did you try any methods of waterproofing the aqara by any chance? I'm curious if you might be able to get away just plastidipping one or something like that.
