Smart home companies have been selling you the worst battery format on purpose

My Ring alarm system covers 11 doors and windows. Every second-gen contact sensor runs on two CR2032 coin cells. The Ring Alarm Panic Button takes two more. The first-gen flood sensor uses a CR123A. The outdoor cameras run on Ring’s proprietary rechargeable pack. That’s four different battery formats inside one brand—and I haven’t even counted the Philips Hue motion sensors eating AA batteries in the upstairs hallway. This isn’t a coincidence or the result of engineers solving different problems independently. It’s a pattern, and it costs you money. Understanding why smart home reliability suffers starts with the hardware sitting in the wall right now.