I began building out my HA system in the last year. I chose Z-Wave as the protocol of choice partly because I already had a couple of devices from a previous system but also because Z-Wave appeared to have more options in the US. I have installed a Z-Wave switch pretty much everywhere in my home, as well as a few other battery-powered devices for locks, door sensors, and motion sensors.
My home is rather small, 1,100 square feet above grade, and has a finished basement with a detached garage. The home is brick with lapboard and plaster walls, and the garage is constructed of basic wood and paneling without any insulation. The entire lot the house sits on is less than 4,700 sq ft.
My Z-Wave devices are either series 700 or 800 and a Zooz ZST39 LR 800 Series Long Range USB Controller. I have not touched any of the settings on the controller other than setting the RF Region to “USA (Long Range).” The Normal power level is set to 0 dBm and the Measured output power 0 dBm (I was told not to mess with those settings). The system started with the Aeotec 700 series stick and was even worse. There was a slight improvement with the Zooz 800 series stick. There are presently 53 devices in the network (besides the controller).
HA is presently running in Docker and Z-Wave JS is on the same computer also running in Docker on an Intel NUC.
My problem is that all except one of the Z-Wave devices are incredibly slow to respond and sometimes do not respond at all. However, all devices will respond to a ping from the controller. It is not unusual for a door that has opened and closed to show as still open. One of the doors is less than 10 feet from the controller (with a wall between them). The one reliable and instantaneously responsive device (one of the furthest from the controller) is in the garage and works flawlessly and immediately every time.
Being that the collection of Z-Wave devices has easily been the largest investment in my system, this has become incredibly frustrating. I kept thinking adding more devices so the Z-Wave mesh network could be expanded would help, but it did not.
Does anyone have any advice on improving the reliability of my Z-Wave system (or advice on a better system)? The SmartHome is not that useful if it doesn’t work reliably or is so delayed that lights that should be automatic take too long to activate.
If you used Z-wave-JS UI, there are quite a few troubleshooting tools in the add-on web UI.
I’m not sure setting the RF region to USA (Long Range) was a great idea, if that setting changes everything to long range. The LR standard is point-to-point from all devices to the controller. Personally, I don’t know why you would change any settings on the controller.
I am using Z-Wave-JS-UI. Where are these tools? I’ve been through the UI and have not found these tools?
When setting the controller up the first time, I had to choose an option here to get started. It was either USA or USA Long Range. There was little documentation or guidance between the two nor have I found much online. Not knowing any better, I just assumed the long-range option would be better. Are you saying the LR standard IS point to point from ALL devices, or just from the long-range devices? Looking at the network graph, most devices are direct to the controller but there are a few that hop through other devices.
Some devices aren’t friendly to the faster Z-Wave protocols. I use a Aeotec Gen 5 (500 series) and it works flawlessly. I intentionally didn’t update to a 700 because I read about so many compatibility issues. I’m sure many have been worked out but this has been plug-and-play and my Z-Wave network is always fairly instant on a much larger floorplan than yours.
@CO_4X4, do you mean compatibility between product generations, i.e., 500, 700, 800? The interesting thing is that the most reliable device is series 500.
That’s simply my experience, others mileage may vary. I’ve replaced my Z-Stick in February and there wasn’t a direct migration path to a 700 or 800 so I’ve kept with what I have so I didn’t have to re-pair anything. It’s been rock solid.
I’ve also been curious if it’s an interference problem. My SONOS has had interference problems according to their tech support and I’m in a pretty dense neighborhood in Denver.
I think 700/800 is more prone to that than 500 is, but I’m not positive. If you were down the street I could loan you my spare Z-Stick 500 and you could try it out, but they aren’t particularly expensive on Amazon and returnable.
You’d only need to include 2-3 and test to see if things get reliable. Then again, this isn’t a bad diagnostics anyway because you could have a chatty device that’s the culprit. The few times that I had bad Z-Wave was a chatty device, I systematically tested with just a small handful on the network to see how it acted and tracked it down to, of course, a no-name Chinese piece of crap and once it was removed my Z-Wave was fantastic. I’ve only gotten name brand since.
I think I’ve learned my lesson on the device brands as well and have stuck with major brands; GE/Jasco/Enbrighten, Aeotec, HomeSeer, Zooz, and recently Minoston (which has been pretty solid). Is there a way to check for the “chatty” devices?
There is no problem setting the region to USA (Long Range). It supports both mesh and LR devices. A future version of Z-Wave JS may automatically set this for you anyways, if your region is 1) USA and 2) the controller supports Long Range. Long Range configuration is per-device.
If you want to add LR devices later, then setting it now will avoid issues in the future.
I hate all those brands! GE works fine but just is crap Z-Wave in my opinion. Home Depot? That’s where I got a lot in those brands when I was in need.
That was my primary crap chatty Chinese junk, I ditched them all and I had quite a few. They are also thieves, they were making chips for Inovelli (my favorite by far) and stole their plans on three devices and released them. They are still out there today - the dual outdoor plug is the big one.
Perhaps this is the problem? This is how just about every Node that is not in the same room as the controller turns out–with 1/5 of the tests being bad/low.
HA! Do you mean you hate ALL the brands I’ve listed, or just the GE/Jasco/Enbrighten? To my knowledge those 3 (GE/Jasco/Enbrighten) are all the same and they just can’t figure out their marketing strategy. I’ve had pretty good luck with them.
I did forget to mention NewOne, which is a cheap Chinese brand. I only have their plugs & plugs with dimmers because I couldn’t find another brand I liked (especially with a dimmer). I tried the Minoston plug/dimmer and it sucked. Sent it back immediately. The Minoston I have are remote switches and so far, so ok.
What other brands have you had success with? Do you have any plugs/dimmer-plugs for lamp control?
Inovelli by far is my favorite, they are well designed, extremely powerful, a US company and have outstanding support. Zoos is also good, as is Aeotec (but sometimes a crap shoot on new stuff). I use several Aeotec Wallmotes and really like those.
Fibraro is really quite good, but pricey. I’ve migrated most of those to my Zigbee network and use a lot of Third Reality for that. I still have some old Dome’s for this too but they have gone mostly the way of the dodo.
If I want outlet control I throw a Shelly in the wall, I use warts just to extend my Zigbee network mostly and for “hey I don’t have a spare Shelly right now” because I like a clean look. I used to buy Leviton Z-Wave outlets but they ended up being total garbage too.
I feel your pain, I’ve been there and it’s super frustrating! Strategically throw some fuses and/or unplug those things that can be unplugged and see what happens. You might find your gremlin.
