Best Magnetic Sensor For Smart Homes
When choosing a magnetic sensor or door and window sensor as it is also called, it may be useful to first find out what you are going to use it for. Some are better in low temperatures outdoors while others have a longer range. Also, do not forget to check that the magnetic sensor supports the protocol that your controller uses. Prices can vary quite a lot so consider how many you need before deciding on model. If you're going to have one in every window then the price can run away pretty fast.
What is a magnetic sensor?
A magnetic sensor always consists of two parts. A sensor and a magnet. When the magnet gets close enough to the sensor, it sends a signal to your control unit. The same applies when the magnet is removed from the sensor. This allows your controller to keep track of whether, for example, your door or window is open or closed. This can then be used as a trigger (Read more about how to get started with home automation), for example, to light a lamp. The possibilities are endless with these door and window sensors. Why not send a push notification to your phone when the postman delivers the mail?
Tips on areas of application
Some of these sensors come with more smart features such as temperature sensor, light sensor and tamper alarm. This makes the range of use of these door and window sensors much larger. You can automate your entire home based on the values you receive.
- Keep an eye on when the children open the cupboard to the candy store
- Start the home alarm and security cameras when a door or window opens and no one is home
- Get a push notification to your phone when you receive a letter in the mailbox
- Start the air purifier when a window opens
- Light the light on the first bridge for 1 minute if the entrance door opens and it is dark outside
- Get a push notification to your phone if you forgot to close a window
As you can see, the possibilities are endless and it is only creativity that puts an end to solutions.
Build your own home alarm
Many households buy expensive solutions from security companies today to increase security at home. Much of what these services offer you can easily set up yourself today using a controller, sensor, surveillance camera and siren. The advantage is that you can control what happens and how you want to build your smart solutions without any monthly cost.
Sabotage alarm
When a door and window sensor has a so-called tamper alarm built in, it means that if someone tries to mount the sensor down to avoid, for example, the alarm going off, the sensor sends a signal to your controller. This signal allows you to easily connect to an automation. In this way, you can be notified that the sensor is not located where you placed it.
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Aqara Door and Window Sensor P2
Step into the future with AQARA's new sensor that supports Matter over Thread. The Door and Window Sensor P2 does not need a hub to function, but can be connected directly to your smart home and use, for example, an AppleTV or HomePod as a border router. It is somewhat large but has an impressive response time. At the moment, it is not compatible with Aqara's own app.
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Aqara Window/Door Sensor
Aqara continues to deliver great products. Although this small sensor on paper does not last longer than many other magnetic connectors, it has the best battery life in our tests. If you put it against the price, this becomes our obvious choice in most cases. If you have your system based on Z-Wave, there are other good magnetic sensors to choose from.
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Sensative Strips Guard 700
The Swedish company Sensative's magnetic sensor Strips Guard 700 not only has the longest battery life, but also the thinnest design we've seen, only 3mm thin.
When we tried Sensative Strips Guard 700, they have not lasted 10 years, but rather 3-4 years. This obviously depends on how often you will activate your Sensatative Strip. If you choose to install in a window that opens once a week or in the main entrance where the whole family runs out and in several times a day, you will have a different lifespan.
According to Sensative, these magnetic sensors should have a range of 100m. This is not something that we have been able to test, however.
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Frient Entry Sensor Pro
Danish manufacturer Frient is sitting on several smart products for your smart home. One of them is the Frient Entry Sensor Pro. We do not have much pain to say about this product. Watch out for the price if you're going to buy a lot of them and make sure your smart home supports ZigBee. Works with Smartthings, Homey and Google Home. Also available as cheaper version with fewer functions.
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NEO Coolcam Door/Window Sensor
This small magnetic sensor from China comes at a relatively cheap price. If you do not care about a lot of functions such as temperature meters, light meters (LUX) or tamper alarms and perhaps need several sensors, this may be the right choice. Just watch out for the short battery life.
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Shelly Door/Window 2
Shelly usually makes fairly inexpensive devices that make use of Wi-Fi. This magnetic sensor is no exception. The sensor reacts and sends signals quickly, even “Lightning fast” according to the company itself. Their own app would need a design update but there's nothing wrong with the feature. The disadvantage of battery-powered devices that use Wi-Fi is that they eat up the batteries pretty quickly. All in all, this makes for a perfectly good magnetic sensor. If you're looking for Wi-Fi, this might be the right choice.
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Fibaro Door/Window Sensor 2
If it were not for the price and the short battery life, this magnetic sensor would have received a good much higher rating. If you are not going to buy so many sensors and attach great importance to support Apple HomeKit, then this may be a good choice. If you are on a Z-Wave network, this is almost the obvious choice. Of the magnetic sensors we have tested, this is the only one that comes in more colors. As many as seven.
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Aeotec Door/Window Sensor 7
The Aeotec Door Window Sensor 7 Pro is a sensor that detects whether your window is open, closed or tilted with an inclination angle of at least 5°. The sensor can be easily installed in existing systems. In addition, the Aeotec Door Window Sensor 7 Pro can integrate other sensors by connecting to other binary sensors such as NTC connectors, micro switches or flood sensors.
Thanks to its slim design, the Aeotec Door Window Sensor 7 Pro can be placed discreetly on each window. The sensor must be mounted on the window frame, and a narrow magnet must be placed near the sensor on the window frame.
With the potential-free input, the Aeotec Door Window Sensor 7 Pro can also include other sensors in your Z-Wave system. For this purpose, the binary sensor is connected to the potential-free input on the sensor. In addition to sensors, instantaneous switches can also be connected to control scenarios in your gateway.
Should your Aeotec Door Window Sensor 7 Pro fail, the core - the circuit board - can be easily replaced without having to remove the entire sensor. This makes it possible to attach the device to the window frame and change only the circuit board if necessary.
