Battery Life of Insteon Battery Powered Sensors - Door Open / Close Sensor, Water Leak Sensor, Hidden Door Sensor

I have a good number of sensors that have been running in my house for almost a year - 7 of the 2852-222 Water Leak Sensors, 5 of the 2845-222 Hidden Door Sensors, and 6 of the 2843-222 Wireless Open Close Sensors.

In my other posts I've detailed my difficulties with the failures and replacement of the 2412S / 2413S Insteon Power Line Modem which allows my ISY994i to communicate with my Insteon system. Last week I had to replace a defective PLM for the second time - and - in order to reinstall the new PLM in the system, you have to systematically relink all your battery powered Insteon sensors one at a time to the new PLM. So - I spent an evening doing so.

While doing the rounds relinking these sensors to the new PLM, I had to replace batteries in a a few cases. I have some Hidden Door Sensors whose original supplied AAA alkaline battery failed in about 8 months, I have some Wireless Open Close Sensors whose original supplied AA alkaline batteries failed in about 8 months, and I even have one of the Water Leak Sensor batteries fail in less than one year - and these are rated to last 5 years or more.

Battery from the Insteon Wireless Water Leak Detector - a 2700mAh 1.5V Lithium Battery

The batteries in the Wireless Water Leak Sensors are an "LFS" unbranded 1.5V 2700mAh battery. A little research on the interweb indicates that the LFS probably refers to Lithium/Iron Disulfide  (Li-FeS2) batteries. This is the same battery as the Energizer branded Ultimate Lithium batteries - link to the datasheet here. To get this sensor running again, I just installed a regular alkaline AA battery - I'll report how long that battery lasts. But - I also got onto eBay this morning and ordered up several packages of both the AA and AAA sizes of the Energizer Ultimate Lithium battery for future hidden door sensor and open close sensor battery replacements. There are also vendors selling unbranded versions of the Li-FeS2 battery - although I'm not sure how you can be assured you're getting a quality product.

Brother P-Touch Labelling - Installation Date on Batteries

Just because of the time it takes to replace a battery in one of these sensor - I'm going to do some tests on battery life using the Lithium batteries. My aim with this is to try to reduce and minimize the time it takes to maintain my Insteon system. Replacing batteries, relinking and restoring failed devices, replacing PLMs, are all "overhead" to owning and maintaining an Insteon installation. I'd rather be doing other things than tinkering with the system - so hopefully the lithium batteries will perform better - particularly on my deadbolt sensors which are subject to cold temperatures based on where they are installed.

Sources and Links

I hope you found this post useful. Feel free to ask questions in the comments section below. I answer all questions. If you're interested, you can help support this site by using the following links to Amazon.com in the United States. My go-to place in Canada for Insteon automation components is Aartech.ca.