Gordon Meyer

Problems with the IKEA Myggbett door/window sensor

I have previously written about the remarkably inexpensive Matter-enabled Myggbett door/window sensor. After living with it a while longer, my enthusiasm has diminished.

My Myggbett sensor is spewing false open/close messages at least once a day, sometimes more often. After asking people who follow IKEA more closely than I do, several problems have become arisen.

• Apparently, if the magnet is more than 3 mm away from the sensor, false signals can occur. I can't verify this, as my door's configuration doesn't allow a closer mounting due to the sensor's size. See my previous post for more detail about how I mounted it.
• IKEA has released a firmware update described as "reducing" the issue with false signals. If you were an early adopter — as I was — your sensor probably needs this update.
• This leads us to the biggest concern: The only way to update the firmware on IKEA Matter devices is to use an IKEA Dirigera Hub! If you don't have their hub, you're out of luck.

I was surprised to discover this limitation, as none of the glowing reviews of the IKEA line has mentioned this limitation. Given that the hub costs $110, the expense and hassle of IKEA's devices begin to outweigh their low cost. (I'd need to buy 15 Myggbett sensors just to break even on the Dirigera's cost.)

Moreover, adding a Dirigera Hub to an existing system is not a good idea because having multiple Matter hubs can cause confusion in the Thread network.

So I'm essentially stuck with a flawed Myggbett sensor. Fortunately, a friend suggested a workaround. In Apple Home, I created a shortcut‑based automation that waits two seconds before checking whether the sensor remains open. Because the false open/close signals occur less than a second apart, the automation can safely ignore them.