My mailbox is about 154 feet away from my house. My mail delivery times vary, it can be anywhere from 3 pm -10 pm. I used to check it when I got home from work and found nothing, but I know I have mail due to the USPS Informed Delivery I signed up for. So I would need to keep checking the mailbox until either I got the mail or just went to bed and I would get the mail the following day.

So I wanted something that would alert us when the mail was delivered. I did an internet search and I found this YoLink LoRa Smart Outdoor Contact Sensor. I read reviews and watched YouTube video reviews of it. As I was reading a review and saw that someone decided to go a slightly different route and went with the YoLink LoRa 1/4 Mile Wireless Range Smart Motion Detector. They placed the motion detector inside and on the back of the mailbox. I was going to follow because I liked the idea of the lack of any wires but then discovered the motion sensor does not work in cold weather (32 degrees is the lowest operating temperature and I live where it is colder during the winter months). So I went back to the idea of this, YoLink LoRa Smart Outdoor Contact Sensor.

I bought the YoLink LoRa Smart Outdoor Contact Sensor with Hub. It was easy to set up. I downloaded the app first and created an account. Then I plugged in the hub and connected it to my router (via ethernet cable, it can be connected wirelessly but I like the wired connection, less chance of any issues), and then I added the contact sensor to the app. I tested the sensor first before installing it on the mailbox.

When I was planning my installation on the mailbox, I saw that some installed the sensor inside the mailbox, but I did not want the sensor to get bumped by any mail or packages, so I decided to place the sensor on the outside. I also wanted to have easy access to the battery box. I wanted to easily remove the battery box from the mailbox, so I did not want to tape the box to the mailbox (underneath the mailbox). So I used the double-sided tape that came with the sensor and taped the battery box to an 11 lb round magnet (it takes 11 lbs of force to remove the magnet, the magnet does not weigh 11 lbs). With the magnet on the battery box, I can place the battery box anywhere on my metal mailbox and it is secure enough that it will not fall or detach itself. It is a solid connection. I placed the battery box underneath the mailbox where it is not too noticeable. I installed the sensors in the door area of the mailbox with double-sided tape after I wiped the area with rubbing alcohol for a clean surface.

Once the sensor and box were installed, I then went into the app setting and set up the alerts. I wanted app alerts when the mailbox sensor was opened. At first, I did not get alerts, but then I realized I had to go into my phone app settings and give permission for the YoLink app to give me alerts. Once I did that, it was working great. I work in a different city and I will get notified via app alert that my mailbox has been opened.

This system was easy to install and use. It is easy to add more sensors and devices. A hub can have more than 200+ devices connected to it, plenty if you want to add more devices for home security.

The only critical thing I can say about this is this has an option to get text alerts if the the sensor is opened, but you only get so many texts a month and you will need to pay to subscribe to get more text alerts. But with the app alerts, it is limitless and it alerts me. What else can you ask for? You can get email alerts as well, but the app alerts work great for my needs.

Works great, room for error as can have a large gap in between sensors upon install. The smaller sensors have to be very tight to work properly, too tight Batteries last a long time, and very well built. A good value as this should last a long time. Also, I love that they allow us to replace the batteries in virtually every one of their products, this is so cool not to have to charge each one and then replace the whole unit due to a dead rechargeable sealed battery that cant be accessed. Issues with Yolink: first their app would send push notifications and worked great on my old Samsung phone for a few years but the s25 phone upgrade works some weeks and others not intermittently for no apparent reason, so not ideal for security. Ive contacted them about this with no solution. I have spent over 1000 dollars on yolink for house automation and security so not a good thing to have intermittent notifications. Also, Yolink should make both a carbon monoxide detector and smoke detector, I have heard others mention this.. Lastly, we should be able to organize our devices in the app to keep all the same categories together. For instance sensors together, cameras in another area etc... It would be much more efficient. It should be easy enough to program a way to move the icons around in the app to group them together or a auto list by name, date downloaded or type. I would be happy to be a product tester for YoLink as I think they are a great company with great forward thinking products.

Ii was using a Ring mailbox sensor which goes through lithium batteries every week, has very poor range and is unreliable. Not anymore. Thank God for this YoLink outdoor sensor. Easy to setup, can cut off the included magnetic reed sensor and use any normally closed switch such as a momentary pin switch, mercury switch, tilt switch, etc.

I love that it integrates with Alexa so it announces mail arrival. Plus I have it integrated with a YoLink pan and tilt camera so it records video when the mailbox door is opened. In short, this, as well as all YoLink devices are first class and work reliably and have tremendous range. Wish I had known about this company sooner.

Just installed a hub and gate sensor for the back gate on our privacy fence and it was super easy. We want to get notifications sent to our phones that will alert us when the gate is opened, partly to be notified when our child comes home from school, but also in case of unauthorized entry. It will also alert us if our child does not close the gate, which is handy because we have a dog that will escape the yard if the gate is left open. I see that other reviewers say that to get long term text and email alerts you have to sign up for monthly subscription, which we have no interest in doing. The app alerts are fine for us and work within a second or two of the gate being opened. By looking at the time in the history record of the app I can review our security cameras at that time to see what the gate activity was. We like it so much that I just ordered 2 more gate sensors for our side gates and 6 door sensors for the house, shed and workshop doors. I'm hoping they will eventually have a way to integrate camera triggering and power outage sensing into the modules.

The product worked for a while, but now the batteries go dead within a week of being replaced. I suspect the housing is not watertight, leading to shorts which drain the battery.

What is worse is that the YoLink products do not communicate reliably with the app anymore. More than half the time, attempts to close the gate or garage door (another YoLink product) come back with communication failure messages, making the system unreliable and frustrating.

Amazing!!! Got this to be able to monitor a double gate to make sure it is closed at night. This was by far the easiest device of this type with a hub that I have ever installed!!! One thing I love this does not use wifi it is hard wired ethernet connection and truly plug and play! Once I downloaded the app and plugged this in and scanned the bar code on the hub it installed immediately no problem at all, no playing around with wifi for 20 minutes! Next the sensor it self same procedure scan the bar code from inside the yolink app and added the sensor immediately in fact as soon as it added it, it reported it open woohoo! So easy to integrate with my Alexa as well. Linking the accounts was just as easy and setting up a custom routine was pretty simple. I don't think you actually have to set up a routine once your account is linked and you name your sensor I think you can just ask alexa is my back door gate closed or open and it will report it open or closed. What I wanted to do was ask are all my gates closed since ultimately I was so impressed I got sensors for my other two gates so I have a total of 3. I was so impressed I bought one of the door locks which is amazing and just as easy to install and set up too, I want to get a couple more of those. I included a picture of my alexa app set up should be easy to follow. I you want to check more than one gate or something else from yolink just keep adding actions and it will report back. My routine now checks each gate for me at night when I ask.

This worked so well I ordered three more for my other Gates. One is 300 ft from the house and it works fine. Very easy to install . I have a metal gate so I got a larger magnet and stuck it to the gate for the opposite side of the sensor. No tape or Fastener needed. I now have Alexa announce when the gate has been opened. It's supposed to have a long battery life up to 5 years but we'll see

The sensor works well but....there is a catch. A subscription is required for SMS msgs and email notifications if their baseline, 10 SMS 300 email, is exceeded. The gate I planned on attaching this unit to would consume the complimentary data in a couple of weeks.

Good simple tech and easy to setup. When the outdoor contact sensor contacts are broken the alert to the app is immediate. If buying the sensor for security reasons a limitation worth noting is if the sensor goes offline (e.g. batteries are removed or other tampering) it takes over 12 hours for the hub to notify you that the device is offline due to polling intervals). A model with tamper alerting has been suggested.