I have installed four (of the 12 I have purchased) Wyze Sense Contact Sensors so far. Last night I installed one on my back door (see picture #1) and what I noticed this morning is that the magnet is so strong (as it should be) and the adhesive is so spongy, that the magnet actually pulled itself over to the sensor and made contact (see picture #2…picture was actually taken after I pulled them apart and tried to re-stick) which now makes it impossible to close the door. The adhesive on the magnet on my attic door performed similarly (picture #4), but adding Scotch Mounting Tape (pictures #4 and #5) probably fixed this problem.
I love these things, and I plan to buy more, but my impression is that the adhesive strip is way too thick, which makes it too spongy, so much so that there is too much wiggle on the thin magnet. Not a deal breaker, because I purchased a roll of Scotch double-sided indoor Mounting Tape, and was able to attach a small strip to the other side of the magnet (opposite the sensor unit), and it now holds in place just fine (see pictures #3 and #5)). My recommendation to Wyze, however, is to replace the thick, spongy adhesive on both the magnet and the sensor unit with a thinner adhesive similar to Scotch Mounting Tape. Hope this helps others!
During alpha and beta testing, Wyze determined there were issues with metal doors interfering with the communication with the bridge when using thinner adhesive strips. They improved signal with the thicker strips. I personally use 3M Command Strips to mount mine.
Lol I am sure you can show her how much better it would look. Also I am working on another bracket that would make things even easier. You would just have to drill about a 3/4 inch hole and slide the sensor in.
Very good topic!
I also had this problem in my garage for my garage door!
The small piece gets pulled over to the sensor, because of the spongy tape. Even worse, is that it remained “flexed” inward, so when the garage door went up, it blocked the bracket that I mounted the sensor on, from moving. This caused it to act like the garage door was always closed!
To fix the problem, I took off the spongy tape, and put 3M command strip on it instead. And instead of putting the command strip on the smaller side of the magnet, I turned the small piece 90 degrees, and put it on the flat surface there.
Doing both these things really locked the small piece in place, and will not allow any flex towards the sensor part.
This has completely solved the issue for me.
This is awesome! How is the signal strength with the sensor jammed a bit inside the wood door?
That would be my only worry about doing this, otherwise, your idea here is awesome, and truly hides the sensor properly!
I have installed these sensors on my Windows too, but I keep coming back to the fact that you can “see” them through the window.
If a “bad guy” can see them on the window, they will just smash the window to get in, (defeating the sensors easily), rather then try to open the window without smashing it, which would trigger the sensor.
Using your method here in the Window frame may solve that problem, because it would hide the sensors. Of course, I am not sure it would be possible to do this in a Window, without ruining the Window itself…
As for the signal strength issue i haven’t seen any decrease in strength with the 2 that i have installed so far and i can’t see it making too much of a difference. In some cases the signal is going through the whole wall anyways. In the case of the one i have going into my garage it would have been on the other side of the wall from the bridge it is connected to. So i would say in that case i cut the material the signal had to penetrate in half. The one condition that i can think of that would cause problems is if the door or door jam was metal. You may have signal issues with that anyways.
btw I have made another design that i will be posting on thingiverse soon that makes installing easier. However, It is a little more technical because it requires removing the circuit board from the original housing and placing it in a new one. Recessed wyze sense I will update this when i get it done.
I have one taped on a metal door The magnet side is on the door , Sensor side is on the wood molding works Just fine .We will see what happens when I Mortise The sensor into the door jam , I don’t think it’s going to make any difference With the Magnet in the door edge .
If you have a steel door frame Or steel reinforcement it probably won’t work
Bought a Sensor Kit and one stopped working. I have them attached to each garage door and at first was having issues because my garage doors don’t line up perfectly but I solved it with using different tape. Also my garage doors are medal so it at first was an issue. Now one of them doesn’t work at all, not on a hard reset or no lights at all. What do I do???
Thanks for the tips. I’ve had to go back and re-mount my door sensors.
BTW - where the heck do you buy more door/window and motions sensors to add to your Wyze Sense kit? Elusive, can’t seem to find out how to buy more w/o buying another Sense kit,.
It’s disheartening to come here and read that many, MANY people are having problems with the adhesive mounting tape on the Sense… even more so that the tape was DESIGNED to be this way due to interference with the sensors from metal objects they might be attached to. That is what I call a product design fail. The product doesn’t work if it, A: can’t reliable stick to an object, and B: MUST use this tape that fails to hold the product to an object because the product may not work without it.
4 out of 4 sensors mounted to wood frames and metal doors both have failed to stay attached. I find the small part connected to the larger part or on the floor after a day or two. So I can’t rely on these sensors unfortunately. And it seems I’m forced to roll my own solution now if I want them to work? Not a good business model.
I love my Wyze cams. And I want to love the Sense system. But so far, I can’t even keep them mounted long enough to rely on them or do anything cool with them. Common’ Wyze! Fix this!
I just rip their adhesive off, and put on 3M command strips.
Works perfectly, and very strong hold.
The beauty is, the way the command strips are, with the velcro on it, they stick out far enough to accomplish the same thing as what they were trying to do with their own adhesive.
PS: But yes, I had the same problem with the small piece. It didn’t fall off, but it ended up “flexing/bending” over towards the main sensor part, thus causing it to not trigger when it should.
Clearly they know enough now, to know that their adhesive isn’t going to work on the small piece. I would not be surprised to see them revamp that piece to get a Command Strip, or something similar.
I had similar issues with some of the narrow magnetic parts bending toward, and eventually connecting to, the sensor part. To remedy this, I added a small strip of 9 lb Scotch (by 3M) Indoor Mounting Tape to the side of the magnetic portion, which holds it very securely away from the sensor part. My Wyze Sense Contact Sensors are sturdy now; however, I do agree that R&D should have caught and corrected this issue before going into production. The best part is that I didn’t spend an arm and a leg on my Contact Sensors AND have to purchase additional tape. All in all, still a great deal—and I’m confident that Wyze will take all the feedback to heart and eventually ship v2.0s.
Oh, I know I can fix it myself. And I appreciate the suggestions! But I just can’t believe Wyze didn’t test it more and released it like this.
Their products have been aimed to make it simple for non-techie consumers to enter the WiFi camera and home security market without too much fuss. Not being able to keep the sensors mounted out of the box defeats all the work that went into making these affordable and simple to setup and use. A crappy 3¢ piece of adhesive is ruining everything good about them. Don’t understand how they missed that.
Well, I would agree that the adhesive strip issue should have been caught during the testing phase; however, it would have been MUCH worse had I not been able to so easily and affordably rectify the problem myself. I’m not telling you what you should be upset over, but I’m choosing to see the glass half full.
Lastly, I do not believe that the adhesive “is ruining everything good about them” There is so much good about the Wyze products…this was only a minor hiccup…and there are more urgent things in the world to be upset about…this isn’t one of them.
Excited to be getting my new Wyze Sense bulbs later this month too—and the outdoor Cams when they’re released.
What a great—YOUNG—company! My advice is to give ‘em a break as they continue to get their R&D and manufacturing steam up to speed. Have a great day!!
