Wiser TRVs draining batteries

[jjmaestro]

Hi,

The TRVs are going through batteries like there's no tomorrow. They barely last 4-6 months and they report extreme drops in battery like this TRV, where I replaced batteries ~2 months ago? and it's dropped to 40%, with a 50% drop in 3 DAYS (see graph).

The TRV has also reported signal issues and I had to buy TWO PLUGS!!! (remember, that's £90) to cover less than 20-25 meters to the Hub.

Regardless, the signal should be good enough IMHO and even if there's issues, I'm willing to bet the firmware is quite buggy and eating through batteries when there's connectivity problems...

TRV Firmware: 0.62.0
HUB Firmware: 3.18.3

[BrianT58]

Obviously I can only speak from my own experience, but if all the batteries are running down too quickly then it's more likely to be the batteries you are using rather than the TRV's. I use the Energiser ultimate lithium batteries and whilst they are not cheap they do last much longer than normal alkaline batteries. Rechargables can be used but are not recommeded as they are onlly 1.2v
As I believe you are using HA you could also add the wiser zigbee card which wil show you the signal strength  from each device and where each device is connected. This may help solve your connectivity issues.

[jjmaestro]

You mean this batteries?

Yeah, it's not the batteries.

First, not all TRVs have this problem and the drop is IN ONE DAY and only in that TRV. So, regardless of the battery type, that's an immense drop that IMHO clearly points to an issue.

Re. the the signal strength for each device, I do monitor it, I already show it in the graph I attached. Also, in that graph, it oscillates between VERY GOOD and NO SIGNAL, so that's another LOL especially when, as I said, there's a Wiser plug 4 meters away (and another one in the corridor to the kitchen). This is the Zigbee network:

So yeah... it's not the signal. Or rather, "it is" because it shouldn't have "NO SIGNAL ever.

The graph shows the massive battery drop when there's been issues with the signal and that "makes sense" because I guess it was re-transmitting like crazy. But again, there's a Wiser plug right there so it shouldn't have any issues.

Here's another graph that shows the signals for all devices (TRVs and the two plugs) and the batteries for all TRVs:

 

and yeah... that also shows problems in e.g. the living room, which is 5-7m away from the hub and 1 wall in-between. So, again, there's clearly issues with the hardware AND the software.

So, summing it up, I'm pretty sure there's an issue here, both with the TRV in question and the Zigbee signal that should never be "NO SIGNAL".

 

 

[BrianT58]

Hey only trying to help sorry your having issues.

[David_SE · Accepted solution]

Hi, 

Thanks for your post, i closed it as no info to share on that old topic.

Please create a new one if you need help.

BR

David