Review: Xiaomi Aqara Temperature, Humidity and Pressure

Now for another Xiaomi Aqara review: The Xiaomi Aqara Humidty and Temperature Sensor.

Heads up:

• This product (and all the other Xiaomi Aqara products) are only availabile in China, if you want to buy them you have to import them via a site like Aliexpress or Gearbest.
• You need the Xiaomi Mi Gateway to use this device, but I read somewhere you can use these with SmartThings V2 (never tried it, so can’t promise). They also sell an Aqara Gateway but I don’t have any experience with this one.
• The gateway has a Chinese/Australian plug, if you have a different plug you need to buy an adapter. This is the one I use (beware, for European plugs only).

Now all that stuff is done, onto the real review!

What’s included:

• A small little manual (in Chinese ofcourse)
• An extra sticker that you use to mount it on the wall (this adhesive is like superglue)
• And of course, the actual sensor (with an already applied sticker on the back)!

The sensor itself is smaller than I expected, it’s 3,6 by 3.6 cm and 0.9 cm in depth. I really prefer this design over all those bulky z-wave sensors. The nice white matte finish combined with the thermostat icon make it look really slick. They were able to keep it so small by only using a CR2032 battery, there’s already one placed in the sensor so you don’t have to go out and buy one. I have one of these sensors for more than half a year and the battery is only at 60%, which is pretty impressive for tracking so much info and running 24/7. If you ever happen to run out of juice, you can pick up 8 of these batteries for under an euro at any local shop that sells batteries.

The sensor first has to be setup via the Gateway before you can connect it to any Third-Party software (Domoticz, Home Assistant etc.), this is pretty easy and can be done via the Mi Home app that is available on the Play Store and App Store.

I’ll show you how to pair the Sensor to the Gateway, all images are included in the gallery below (enable ‘info’ if not already enabled).

Click ‘Add device’

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If you’ve followed all these steps, it’ll be paired to the gateway and ready to be used!

After you’ve added it to the gateway you’ll be able to add it to software like Home Assistant and Domoticz.

Final verdict

For the sensor itself, I can’t think about anything I don’t like. The design is very ‘clean’ and it doesn’t look bulky, because of this you’ll be able to put it in any room without it looking out of place. The sensor is able to deliver so much for so little money. I was even able to grab a couple on sale for only 6 euro a piece, which is insane for a sensor that can detect temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure. The Mi Home app has a couple of small things that are still in Chinese but nothing of great importance and definitely still usable. It perfectly integrates with software like Home Assistant and Domoticz like every Aqara product and it uses Zigbee as protocol. So in conclusion, the sensor does every you expect from it for a absolutely insane price. If you’d ask me, at this price point you won’t find anything that comes even close to this.

You can buy the sensor here on Gearbest, I bought plenty of products from them and they seem to be the cheapest for Xiaomi products. The link is a referral but I will use (if any) money I get from it to buy more products to review for you guys 🙂