‎Low Battery Warning (or lack of) | SimpliSafe Support Home
 
lewsterr's profile

Tuesday, January 28th, 2020 5:36 PM

Low Battery Warning (or lack of)

On the SS3 system, I was under the impression that a 'Low Batter Warning' is supposed to be sent from the base station when any of the devices' batteries on the system are low.  Recently, I had two entry sensor batteries and a water sensor battery die.  In each of those cases, all I got was a message on my phone indicating that the device lost communication with the system. This is not something that I want to happen when I'm away from home.  Is there a problem with my system or is this the way it's supposed to behave?

2.8K Messages

5 years ago

To my knowledge, and unfortunately, the base station only announces a low battery warning ONCE.  If you're not there to hear it, you won't know about it, but you could also check your keypad for the same message (I can't remember if the message appears in the keypad or not, I don't ever remember seeing it).  So, when you do get those sensor errors "not responding", it could be low or dead batteries, but it could also be something else, like a weak cellular signal, or too far away from the base station, or sometimes, they are defective and need to be replaced.  I would suggest keeping a log of when you change batteries in all of your sensors and make a habit of replacing them before you expect them to die.

43 Messages

Thanks, Coltmaster1.  I'll check the logs and keypad to see if I can find an instance of a 'low battery' warning.

1 Message

@coltmaster1​ Does the Simply Safe Base station announce low battery for the outdoor cameras or just the various indoor sensors???

Community Admin

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3.4K Messages

@Mermiatwd​ The Base Station should announce when a camera's battery is low. However, you can also always check the battery percentage of your cameras in the SimpliSafe mobile app. This Help Center article shows you how.

371 Messages

5 years ago

It appears on keypad. Had it there for my glass sensor

43 Messages

I went through the timeline to see if there was any mention in there about 'low battery'.  On the dates that I replaced the batteries in the entry sensors, the only postings in the timeline are 'device not responding'.  It sure would be nice to know of a low battery ahead of time so I can prevent the sensor from losing contact with the base.

2.8K Messages

5 years ago

Thanks, Dandy, I never remembered seeing it before, so good to know!

2.8K Messages

5 years ago

Lew, it won't show on the timeline of events, only the type of "error" (aka, "not responding", or sensor "offline", or something).

I too wish it would give an earlier warning, or at the very least, repeat base station announcements.  But if it helps, when you get those errors, the first thing to check is dead battery anyway, lol.  Fair warning, sometimes those warnings will come at 3 am or sometime in the wee hours of the morning when you're sleeping, so unless you check your keypad display or log in to your dashboard, you won't know the battery is dead, or, "not responding". (btw, if you get text alerts, you'll also get them for sensor errors). Just make a mental note/habit to check your keypad display every day.

43 Messages

Great advice, coltmaster.  Thanks!
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