Insteon 2852-222 Leak Sensor - 10 year battery?!?

[Teken]

A few days ago the system reported via SMS, email, Julie U.S. that one of the leak sensors in the media room did not report in its 24 hour heart beat.

 

Upon checking the leak sensor it was quite dead.

[Brian H]

You may want to look at the cell and see if a production date or use by date is stamped somewhere on it.

[larryllix]

Battery life claims are shelf life.

 

OTOH a Leak detectors is probably about as close to shelf life as any usage could be.

 

OTOH, OTOH, when we are talking about years of life, even microamperes of draw may be paramount.

[stusviews]

Several leak sensor installed when they were first introduced. One battery died within months (same blue batter as imaged in post #1). SH replaced the sensor. No dead batteries nor problems since.

[Teken]

You may want to look at the cell and see if a production date or use by date is stamped somewhere on it.

 

No other dates or data besides what's shown in the image.

 

Several leak sensor installed when they were first introduced. One battery died within months (same blue batter as imaged in post #1). SH replaced the sensor. No dead batteries nor problems since.

 

This specific sensor was a third batch I received back in the day. The first generation one's I have on site now are hardware revision 1.XX. I don't believe the sensor is faulty so much as I was expecting at least five years worth of operating time. Given these batteries are stated to offer 2700 mAh a ten year service life is reasonable to expect even if its a little optimistic.

 

My expectation is that five years is more realistic but needless to say I didn't even get three plus . . . Also, I have no clue what kind of cheap aszz plastic they use but all of the antenna's even brand new out of the box were yellow?!?!? I checked all the sensors in place now and they all have a slow progression of yellowing??

[larryllix]

2700 mAh / 24  hr / 365 days / 5 years  =   61.6 uAmperes average drain. That's pretty low for any circuit, especially that RFs in once per day.

I guess that would only be a high consumption for a few seconds, so the power may be high, but the energy isn't.

[matt.york]

Teken,

 

I just purchase 4 Insteon Leak Sensors.

How do I run the wet to dry test?

 

I see 3 new entries Dry, Heartbeat and Wet.

 

Dry and Heartbeat current states are both Off

Wet is On

 

When I place the leak sensor on a wet sponge or in 1/8" of water, nothing changes

 

 

 

 

Matt

[Teken]

Teken,

 

I just purchase 4 Insteon Leak Sensors.

How do I run the wet to dry test?

 

I see 3 new entries Dry, Heartbeat and Wet.

 

Dry and Heartbeat current states are both Off

Wet is On

 

When I place the leak sensor on a wet sponge or in 1/8" of water, nothing changes

 

 

 

 

Matt

 

Hello Matt,

 

You have a couple options you can simply press the white set button to toggle from wet to dry. Confirm the Admin Console reflects this change of state and if so you can move forward.

 

Also keep in mind once you press the white set button it will issue a heart beat so you will see it change from off to on. To complete the wet to dry test using plate with water or wet sponge all newer (firmware) requires you to dry the two silver contacts. Once done you need to press the button to change it back from wet to dry. In the past the firmware would allow the sensor to revert back from wet to dry by itself.

 

I see the benefit for both use cases because in the latest iteration it forces the user to go down and inspect and reset. While the other if there was just a damp / quick flow that dried up you would never know unless you set up an email notification.