Hello! I have been using Home Assistant for a number of years and have always benefited from the community’s hard work reporting and tracking down issues on my behalf. Unfortunately I seem to have come across something that is frustrating and I haven’t been able to track down meaningful information. I bought a Yale Assure Lock 2 with z-wave to replace an aging Kwikset lock I had. The lock was easy to pair with Home Assistant and seems to function correctly when locking/unlocking, but Home Assistant doesn’t report the correct lock status (locked/unlocked) when used manually.
I found the below post, but its a bit old and I wasn’t able to figure out how I could use this information in my situation.
I initially created an automation (z-wave: refresh values) to refresh the lock entity. This works, but drains the battery substantially. I don’t think the batteries made it a full month with this automation enabled and running every 20 minutes. I disabled this automation to improve battery life. I am hoping I won’t have to choose between accurate lock status in home assistant or reasonable battery life.
Home Assistant core version: 2024.9.1
Yale lock model: YRD430-ZW2-OBP
Yale lock communication model: YRMZW2-US (z-wave plus)
I use 4 Yale YRD 226 locks via ZWAVE with HA. Way back in the SmartThings days I had communications issues with the lock not reporting status and not accepting codes on the first attempt. I read a lot and I needed range extender/buffering repeater. So, I bought 4 Aeotec ZW189 buffering Repeater/Extenders. It worked like a charm! So much so I overkilled with the Aeotec Repeaters and some ZWAVE outlets that are, everything works so well now.
My locks are actually 25 feet away from the HA machine, you would assume there’s no problem, but once the repeater was added, I never had the problem again. The locks are 10 feet away from the repeater, 5 feet away from the zwave outlet (overkill, you don’t have to do that), the repeater is 15 feet away from the HA box.
There are many posts on the Internet or Smartthings forums on why you need a buffering repeater with a ZWAVE lock.
Ther repeaters/extenders/powered nodes, in between a battery powered devices and the hub\HA works so well, I’ve done it for my Zigbee network also.
You don’t need to buy a range extender or repeater, any AC powered device will work as a buffering repeater.
Thanks @Rodrick ! I really appreciate the feedback.
Thankfully I already have an Aeotec range extender, but it’s being used on the opposite side of the house to cover backyard lighting. I temporarily moved it to the front of the house to test the Yale lock. I moved it and didn’t see any difference initially. I didn’t rebuild the network, but I did re-run the interview. Once I did this it started working well which is awesome! I moved the Aeotec back to the rear of the house (far from the lock) and the lock kept working initially, but then started missing status changes and then it didn’t catch any changes so I am guessing this has to do with what you mentioned.
I have another Aeotec range extender on the way to better cover the front of the house. I will report back once its setup and I have a chance to test. Thanks so much for the feedback!
It will be a week or so until I receive the range extender and have an opportunity to test it out. I will set your response as the solution and revisit this thread if anything unusual happens. Thanks again!