So I’ve been running HA for almost 5 years. Frankly, I am amazed at how far this has come and how much we rely on it.
All of that time has been with the same Aeotec Zwave stick. How long before it suffers a stroke and keels over? Is there something I should be looking to replace it with?
I think Aeotec has a backup utility you can use to make a copy of your zwave config so you don’t need to re-pair things if it goes, so if you’re worried about it dying you could use that whenever you make a major change to your network.
Depending on the controller software you use, you could get a second zwave controller and include it in your network as a SUC/SIS controller. Then if your main controller dies, you can use the second controller to do a “replace failed node” on the main controller with a new zstick, and same result, you don’t have to pair everything again.
Given they’re pretty low power devices and they have no moving parts, I would imagine they’d last a while, as long as they aren’t kept anywhere too hot. The battery will eventually die but that shouldn’t stop it working plugged in. Anecdotal though, I could be completely wrong there