Aqara sensors

… maintenance. My top3 would be: \- Ecobee thermostat (I have v3, never saw the need for Alexa) \- Lutron light switches (Caseta) and shades (Serena) \- Aqara sensors (water, motion, door etc.) I also wrote a blog post with few more ideas: https://homeautomation.academy/reviews/three-best-value-homekit-devices-in-my-home/

Excerpt saved from the Arctic Shift Reddit archive on 2026-10-23.

The 20+ Aqara door-window and motion sensors I have all work really well in HA. Battery life is great too. I have IKEA plugs, these are great, but they don’t have an on off button. It’s really frustrating when you want to quickly turn the plug on and have to pull out your phone. I use them for security lights, Zigbee repeaters etc now and swapped the others of Philips. I want to try the IKEA button, I remember reading somewhere it ignores button presses once in a while in Conbee. If you want some fun, I use the Aqara cube rather than buttons. Once the novelty rubs off and you use it regularly …

Excerpt saved from the Arctic Shift Reddit archive on 2026-10-23.

They are zigbee devices. I'm controlling all of them with the ZBdongle-E (the blue box in the center), but you can control them with any other ZigBee coordinator like SkyConnect ZBT-1

Excerpt saved from the Arctic Shift Reddit archive on 2026-10-23.