I think there are a few things that people are not understanding about the new Z-Wave JS implementation. How I summarize it, and others may have different input, is:
- All of your Z-Wave devices are stored on your Z-Wave controller, not in HA. HA simply stores the options discovered by Z-Wave start-up and stores the entity name you gave each device. This means switching from one to the other only changes what HA manages: entity name and device settings discovered. The actual Z-Wave device are on the Z-Wave controller, including (but not limited to) the node ID, the basic capabilities and the neighbors.
- Switching to Z-Wave JS doesn’t wipe your Z-Wave out in any way. The only caveat to this is if you completely delete the old Z-Wave integration you were using (rather than simply disabling it) and then you would lose whatever HA is storing only (entity name, etc). You can switch back and forth between the two systems so long as you disable one of them
- While HA is announcing, perhaps even promoting, the Z-Wave JS you are not required to use it, you can continue using whatever you have been using. If you want to wait until it is more mature, then wait. If you want to be on the literal bleeding edge, upgrade it now, but know that bleeding edge means this has been one month of development time and is still a work in progress.
- If you switch then you will have to rename all your Z-Wave devices, not go around and re-link them to your controller. Different implementation means a different way of storing the HA specifics about your Z-Wave network, but (again) the device data is still in your Z-Wave controller.
- As a work in progress, some devices may not yet be supported or all the various capabilities of some of your devices may not be implemented as entities like they were in previous Z-Wave implementations.
- Just because there are four different Z-Wave implementations doesn’t mean that HA is unsure, it is evolving to new and better ways. This is a better way (from all that I can see) but may need to mature a bit to be a full-blown replacement for what you have. The level of that maturity depends on your own needs from Z-Wave.
- If you are switching just to switch because it’s new, maybe you should wait a bit first. The old Z-Wave implementations are not going away. For me, the speed is the main reason I want the new system, but am willing to stick with what I have until a possible migration wizard saves me time in renaming everything. I have no other reason to switch to a product that has not matured.
- No matter what you do, be it an HA upgrade, changing your Z-Wave implementation or anything else, get a full backup so you can go back and always know that trying something new may break your system. Back things up and you can always go back to where you were.
My (way more than) $0.02 on the recurring questions that keep popping up.