Ring Alarm Contact Sensor 2-pack (1st Gen)

Update 5/27/2020I have now had my ring alarm for quite some time, I also own a ring pro doorbell camera. I can no longer recommend the ring alarm system. Anything that is designed to protect you, should be reliable and effective, the ring alarm is neither! I was given a motion sensor that was dead on arrival, which I now consider a bad omen! I just had a contact sensor slowly fail, and then eventually die. Well.. the light flashes when opening the device, but after removing it from my ring devices on the app, it will no longer even reconnect. These contact sensors are bulky, difficult to use with windows, and take expensive lithium batteries. I had to replace one of the batteries within 1 month of owning the ring alarm, and have had to replace the others probably multiple times, more often than seems necessary.The bottom line is that this system has many flaws that need to be worked out, which Ring must know as they now have gen 2 models of components. People buy alarms to keep their family and their property safe, an unreliable alarm jeopardizes that goal!----------------------------------------------------------Original review:The contact sensors work well and are very simple to install. I have 4 of these sensors and have never had a problem with them. In the ring app you can setup the sensor to chime when the door/window is open, and send an alert to your phone.The only negative is that these sensors seem to be much bigger than necessary.

These have been great so far. Any break in the connection between the 2 parts of the sensor is is quick to report in the app.Some have commented that the sensors are too big for double hung windows. The issue being that, for double hung windows, the bottom part slides up and the top part of the window slides down - meaning you would need 2 sensors to cover the entire window. You could feasible cover both the top and bottom panes by mounting the sensor in the middle - one on the lower pane and the other on the upper pane - so that movement of either would trip the sensor. However, the complaint is that the sensor is too large to do that. Not to worry, the smaller half of the sensor is just a magnet surrounded by plastic. You can easily open the plastic, remove the much smaller magnet and mount it with double sided tape. Then it's small enough to work for double hung windows.

These are pretty easy to install. I used the 3M adhesive that came with mine and they've held up. Only wish they came with something to use as a riser. We have crown moulding and that caused the magnet to not line up with the sensor, found some things around the house that worked in a pinch but if anyone from Ring is reading this- include something to help raise the magnet!Also, bare in mind that the Alexa support is great. I set a routine to alert me when the doors are opened in addition to the 'chirp' that comes from my Ring Base- and I set my routines up individually to alert me to which door is open. It is immediate too, no lag or anything. Great for peace of mind.

I was very impressed with how easy these sensors are to set up. The app pretty much does all the work! I have set up many devices over the years and this was by far the smoothest setup experience ever!I ordered additional contact sensors after I had already ordered the ring system. These arrived a couple days before the system arrived. I only had one issue and it was relatively minor. I had to reset a sensor because it was stuck on open. After a few factory resets, it has been just fine. That’s one out of 15 that had a minor glitch. I am very satisfied. The ring system was easy to set up and went really smooth. It was a much better experience than I have had with setting up other devices in the past.

Worked great for six years but sometimes when we opened the door it would pop the casing off the device

I expanded my Ring system with these sensors because I had already used up those in my starter box on doors and wanted additional protection on windows. Adding them to the system via the Ring app was easy and intuitive -- just scan the code and pull the tab. The only downside to using these on windows is the way they can get in the way of blinds. We installed ours at the bottom of our windows instead of higher up where the two pieces meet to minimize catching the blinds on them. Of course, if your windows have curtains only, then the inset of the windows, coupled with the extension of a rod, will keep fabric far enough away from the sensor. On doors, the sensors work seamlessly, although molding around the door can cause issues if you choose to install using the adhesive tape instead of the hardware.The sensors have such strong magnets that they can be separated by as much as a half-inch and still register as closed. They can be installed in a matter of minutes, especially if you choose the adhesive option over the hardware. Chances are, you'll want several of these 2-packs to make sure your home is completely secure.-- Debbie Lee Wesselmann

These are definitely larger than other Z-Wave sensors but my other Z-Wave sensors do not work with the ring alarm only these ones seem to. I'm actually going to take one of these and bury it in the top of my door so that I don't see it on the side of the door and then the other half of the sensor buried into the header of the jam so I don't have this big god-awful thing hanging off the back of my door.

First off Ring makes great products.I'll start off by saying the size of these door sensors (contact sensors) appears thicker than other non-ring versions but I feel that it may be to accommodate the larger long lasting battery inside the sensor. They utilize near field magnetic technology which is a mechanical method of operation and typically reliable for security purposes.I found the sensors to be highly reliable and instantly responsive with my phone notifications and the chime notification on the base station. They also give a visual notification on the sensor itself when a door or window is opened or closed and all these notifications happen simultaneously and fast.The installation was straight forward and the instructions are user friendly, I feel you will have no trouble applying these to your door or window and can feel confident in their abilities once installed.The wireless range is also quite good away from the base station and communicated quickly as I mentioned above, you can connect multiple wireless security devices and door sensors and everything works in tandem without resulting in laggy response time.All my door sensors came fully charged and have yet to show any measurable drop in charge after quite a long time I also believe the large batteries are easy to source when they eventually come to end of life so that's a bonus.The door sensor casing is also easy to open to get to the battery and provide a device tamper notification when you do so on an active device so if it wasn't you... you will be notified something isn't right.A handy feature also is that you can rename each of your devices to correlate to the zone or door they are attached to which can be very helpful in keeping tabs on what needs battery replacement etc.My overall impression is that you will be happy buying the Ring door sensor 1st generation sensors and honestly any Ring product. If you found my review helpful please let me know by pressing the helpful button below!Thank you for reading!

Well built, a little larger then necessary perhaps. But overall, I do like the design... (just a little smaller would be an improvement)Otherwise, I’m a fan of ring products. Looking to add to my existing smart ring products.

The contact sensors are easy to install and configure. We have installed sensors on every window and door in our home. The sensors cameras, control panel, motion detectors .... all work flawlessly.

These are well made and work as advertised. My main gripe is that they are damn pricey for what they are. In my opinion, they should only cost a few bucks each max. In fact, you can buy third-party Z-wave door sensors for dirt cheap that will work with the Ring alarm system. But, in a very Apple-esque move, Ring cripples functionality so that third-party sensors will not trigger the alarm--which is probably at least half the reason you would buy one in the first place.Of course, they say this is because they can't guarantee the "quality" of non-Ring sensors. But it's obviously so that they can rip you off on the price of a Ring branded sensor.Anyway, rant-aside, if you're already drinking Ring's kool-aid then these are the sensors you want. This 2-pack isn't any cheaper than buying them individually though so check your local kijiji/craigslist ads for used ones if you can. These are very simple devices that only require a battery change once in a blue moon.