Sensor battery life

I think that they probably use the cheapest batteries possible.  I received 7 entry sensors at the end of November and four of them had low battery warnings right out of the box.  I'm hoping that the better, non-amazon-bulk type batteries I am now using will last longer, but only time will tell.

I went about a year and a half before the first battery reported low.  At that point I replaced them all.  Batteries once a year does not concern me at all.

The one thing that ADT did better than SS is battery life.  My system has been in place for almost six years and I have had to replace only one entry sensor battery.  Everything else is still going, including the smoke detector.

Of course the back up battery for the base failed a while ago and I never replaced it.  That would have run me somewhere around $30.  At least the back up batteries for the SS base can be as cheap or as expensive as you want them to be.  The ones that they come with are about as cheap as you can find.  I am going to replace them with expensive, higher capacity batteries.  Not that it matters because in the six years that I've lived here, the power has gone out once.  And that's because someone hit a power pole.

@usmaak, the base station AA NiMH backup batteries in my base exceeded specifications.

I bought a new SS2 system in August of 2019.  I forget if the backup batteries are 1000 or 1500 mAH, but I put then on my Cadex C7000 professional battery analyzer and they tested out at something like 110% of rated capacity.  So I disagree with your statement that the included batteries are "as cheap as you can find."

I would also advise against replacing the included batteries with significantly higher capacity.  The charging circuit was designed for the included capacity batteries and may not keep higher-cap batteries properly charged.  Possible net result:  WORSE performance than the "cheap" batteries.

Shouldn't any device that charges batteries charge them until full?  I've never seen a battery charger that struggled with different capacity batteries.  They charge until they are fully charged and then keep them charged.

Installed my SS system in December of 2018.. 5 door sensors, 2 motion, 1 smoke, 1 syren and of course the base and keypad..ALL batteries are still good. I'm happy with the battery life I'm getting