How to find good and stable devices for HA?

[fahlsen (Zin)]

I’m looking for a method to find the hardware devices to buy that will work without problems in Home Assistant and make my life easier. I do really like home assistant, but some times I waste a lot of time messing around with poorly integrated hardware.

For example I have been messing around a lot with Thermostats, and it has so far cast me more headache than anything else. I have tried Heatit and Tuya for my electric floor heating. But I`m not happy.

I simply want a thermostat that will do the basics. Let me set the temperature, from HA or with automations, show the temp/status and work with energy usage in HA.

How can I check that a device works well with ZHA / zigpy?
It`s a jungle out there, and I just want something that works. Like Hue for lighting, its just works.

So what methods can I use to find good and stable hardware that is well integrated in HA?

[FriedCheese (Ryan)]

Best bet is to narrow down a list of devices that meet your use-case/requirements and then do a forum search for it…both by model and brand.

Or, make a post specifying your requirements and see if folks have a recommendation.

On working well with the Z integrations, there’s a bit of nuance. If you don’t have a robust Zigbee network, then it almost doesn’t matter what product you select.

[Didgeridrew]

@fahlsen

How can I check that a device works well with ZHA / zigpy?

Zigbee #1: where can I find a list of supported devices?

There are two main Zigbee integrations - Zigbee Home Automation (ZHA) and Zigbee2MQTT (Z2M). There is no list for ZHA because it aims to support all compliant devices out of the box - a list would be impossible to compile. “Compliant” means: No bugs No extra features not in the specification (manufacturers are allowed to add these) Instead you have to look for a list of devices known not to be supported by ZHA. There’s one here: As issues are resolved by the addition of custom device han…

But make sure to follow Ryan’s advice above… do whatever is within your power to create a strong and interference-free mesh.

[tom_l]

For other integrations look at the known issues link to the left of all the documentation pages. e.g.

.

Likewise check the issues on github for 3rd party integration repositories before committing to purchasing anything that relies on them.

How many issues are open?

How responsive is the developer/code owner?

[TH3xR34P3R (Robert Koganov)]

To add to this also look at reviews from multiple people for the device or devices that you are wanting to setup especially long term reviews if they are available.

[schimmi]

In the ZHA / Zigbee area, my first look is at this page: Database of Zigbee devices compatible with ZHA, Tasmota, Zigbee2MQTT, deCONZ, ZiGate and ioBroker

Then check for known issues by googling the selected device with HA.

[fahlsen (Zin)]

Thank you for all the replies.

I currently use ZHA with home assistant yellow.

What would you recommend as the starting point ti find a good thermostat for my electric floor heating? When I have a few devices on my list I will look it up like described above here.

[TRS-80]

Above posters covered many ways to investigate devices (some which were even new to me, thanks!)

I just wanted to point out that there will always be some amount of dorking around and ‘wasting’ time in this hobby. I think that’s just the nature of the beast. Whether it’s quirky devices, learning skills you didn’t have before, troubleshooting, etc. There is just no getting around that, to some extent.

@fahlsen

starting point

Go to search page at Blakadder Zigbee database (linked above) and enter ‘thermostat’.

[ShadowFist]

One additional resource you could check is | Zigbee2MQTT.
I know you don’t currently use it, but know what the device is actually capable of before committing to buy might be just enough to nudge you to switch to Z2MQTT if you ever feel the need to.