Door Sensor High Battery Usage...

Products Ring Alarm
#1

I have a Ring Security System (installed last March) and have experienced HIGH battery (CR123A) usage on some Contact Sensors. I’ve replaced the batteries in a couple of my door sensors after only 3 months or so (as opposed to the three YEARS the lithium batteries should last). I see comments about the batteries in the doorbells running down quickly, but can’t understand why these contact switches are consuming batteries so quickly. They are draining the battery to nothing (.3 volts on the multimeter). They have a clear run to the base unit (50 feet).

Has anyone seen this type of behavior elsewhere? Any suggestions will be appreciated.

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#2

How often are they triggered?
I assume power usage correlates to the sensor being tripped.

#3

Actually, door activity is fairly minimal (maybe 3 or 4 cycles a day). Others in system see more traffic, yet don’t run down battery so quickly.

#4

Only other variable I could think of is distance from base station or range extender. Its possible it uses more battery to communicate if farther away from these. This is just speculation since I dont know technically how Zwave functions.

#5

Thank you for all the great help you have offered this and other fellow neighbors @CrazyCat. Could you please reach out to the Community Team at community@ring.com? We would love to ask you some questions and get your feedback directly as a valued member of the Community.

#6

@Riley More than happy to talk with you. I sent you an email. Thx

#7

I have a brand new Ring Alarm system, installed just 12 days ago. Today one of my contact sensors started sending low battery warnings every few minutes. When I check in the app, the device page shows an empty red battery icon and warns me of a very low battery. I’m pretty sure when first installed the battery icon was full, I would have noticed in the app otherwise as I did study each sensor setup page in detail during installation.

The particular contact sensor was purchased in a 6-pack of contact sensors - the other 5 sensors from the same pack all still show full battery status. The door where this contact is installed has never been opened again after the initial installation and testing of the sensor 12 days ago, so it’s not in a high usage area. It is also the closest sensor to the base station, perhaps only 8ft away.

I deactivated the sensor from my system and removed the battery so it wouldn’t keep constantly sending the error message. If I measure the no-load voltage of the battery with a multimeter, it shows about 2.75V. The date code on the battery itself is “01-2029”

I’m wondering if I got a defective contact sensor that is either draining the battery excessively, or perhaps just mis-reporting the actual voltage and incorrectly thinks the battery is low. Other than just installing a new battery (unfortunately I don’t have a new one handy), is there something else that can be done to check the sensor? or is this perhaps a known defect with some sensors?

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#8

Hi @abc, thank you for reporting this! It does sound like you either have a bad battery, or possibly something is amiss with the sensor itself. To test this, you could grab another battery (any of the batteries from your other sensors or a new one from the store) and put this in this sensor. You will have to add the sensor in question back to your system in the meantime to do this testing and see if it drains the battery quickly. If you notice it quickly draining your battery again, please reach out to our support team here to report this. If it seems to remain stable, then you’re good to go and it was just a bad battery!

Additionally, before you re-add the sensor in question back to your system, feel free to do a reset of the sensor to give it a fresh do-over as this might help. You can learn more about how to do a factory reset in our Ring Help Center Article here.

#9

thanks @Chelsea_Ring for the suggestion. Ok so I found another battery to try with this sensor. I did a factory reset of the sensor, then reinstalled the sensor to my system and with the other battery in it seems to be working now, after a couple days the battery icon in the app is still full green. I will see how it goes, checking the battery status over the next while.

however one strange thing I just noticed this evening. While sitting here at my desktop computer, I can see the contact sensor which had the battery problem. The door on which it is mounted is fully closed, and the app reports the door is closed.

But just now I saw the blue LED on the contact sensor flash quickly a number of times (maybe around 6-10 times in rapid succession). I thought that strange, as the door is still closed solidly shut. Then a few minutes later, it happened again - the blue LED flashed rapidly a number of times then stopped. No door chime, no change in status in the app - nothing to indicate the door was opened or sensor status changed. I’ve not noticed this blinking before (maybe just obvious now since it’s night time and I happen to be sitting near the sensor). I wonder if the contact sensor is acting up and causing unexpected drain on the battery?

is there some normal reason to see the blue LED on a contact sensor blink rapidly when the sensor is closed and not moving?? What does that blinking mean?

As I mentioned, the door is solidly closed and app doesn’t report the contact has ever opened since I re-installed it (and yes, I tested that it works correctly when I re-installed it, and the magnet is mounted well within the specified mounting distance).

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#10

@abc That’s great to hear that it’s working again as it should! For the contact sensor’s LED flashing, this will happen occasionally when the device is “checking in.” Now, if the device is having to “check in” multiple times, this could be due to the signal where it’s at being weak, or other devices are “checking in” as well, making it try again.

To be on the safe side, you can reach out to our support team to verify this information, the sensor’s signal, and make sure that the contact sensor isn’t having any abnormal behavior, missing check-in’s, and overall seems to be working as expected! Otherwise, I would just observe it, and as long as there is still no excessive battery drain, it should be all good to go. :slight_smile:

#11

Thanks again @Chelsea_Ring for your reply and explanation about the sensor “checking in”. Strangely I’ve never noticed any of my other 6 contact sensors blinking like this. Meanwhile on two separate days in a row now I’ve seen this particular sensor do so - each time twice within perhaps 5 minutes, repeated on two separate days now. This sensor is the closest to the base station of all my sensors, BTW so I can’t imagine signal strength is an issue. Battery icon is still solid green, though it’s only been 4 days on this 2nd battery.

Today when I happened to observe the sensor blinking, I watched a little more closely and noticed it blinked rapidly then went solid blue for a moment, just like described in this other thread I just found. I wonder if my sensor is defective, like that other person’s?

re: contacting support - I actually did email support earlier around the same time I originally posted here in the forum. I got a response from Advanced Support asking for further information. I see from the thread I mentioned above that it’s possible to do some sort of remote diagnostic on a sensor, so hopefully they can do that.

However the only return address on their reply was “noreply@ring.com”, and so when I replied to them my email of course bounced. I resent my reply to help@ring.com several days ago but did not hear back again. Is there a better email address to follow up with Advanced Support?

#12

@abc You make a good point and it is very possible that it might be! In order to see if this is the case fully, you will actually need to call into our support team here. You may also chat in about it if you would like if it’s easier, but I do recommend calling as it is faster!

Normally you could email in before about concerns, but since we have been closely monitoring the situation with COVID-19 and out of an abundance of caution, and in order to protect our team and their families, we’ve had to temporarily reduce the staffing in our support centers. As a result, we are no longer accepting new support requests via email.

Therefore, that is why you keep getting it bouncing back to you, as it is under a noreply@ring.com email address you are replying to. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you but I can assure you they will be able to address this right away for you through the other options. Please let us know how this goes! :slight_smile:

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#13

ok thanks Chelsea, understood. I’ll try giving support a call instead

btw I kept an eye on the sensor for a longer period of time and I notice that every ~5 minutes it does the same thing: rapidly blinks for about 8 seconds then is on solid blue for about an additional 2 seconds. Repeat again 5 min later. It’s no wonder it’s wearing down the battery so quickly.

Update:

I just called Ring support and they confirmed they could see remotely that the sensor is abnormally checking in every 5 minutes. Since I’ve already tried removing/reinstalling the sensor to the system and also factory reset and new battery, he decided the sensor must be defective and is going to send me a replacement.

you were right @Chelsea_Ring that calling in gets a quick response. thanks!

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#14

@abc Good to note that this does seem to be a reason for a replacement, and glad to hear you were able to get that sorted out quickly! :slight_smile:

#15

quick follow up. I received a replacement contact sensor via FedEx a few days after talking to phone support.

I confirm the replacement sensor appears to be acting normally, no more “checking in” and blinking unnecessarily every 5 minutes. So original sensor must have been defective - returned using the enclosed return label - easy.

thanks again Ring for the prompt support.

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