No, more like the way they adopted ESPHome. Eventually to create inexpensive hardware like the ESP series.
Promote the lower cost electronics as an alternative to ESPHome where longer range and wall penetration matters. Zwave is a good protocol, but cost is still an issue.
Half my house is z-wave, but I stopped buying it in favor of ZigBee (and ESP) some time ago as ZigBee device offerings improved. I haven’t moved onto thread yet, just not much going on there yet to make it worth the effort for me. It’s the price point that’s killing z-wave. While its certainly not dead and has a long life in front of it, it’s definitely in the assisted living home.
I have about 5 different zwave brand devices on my 80 device network and the only device issues I ever had were zooz devices just like you. Got rid of them and now I don’t have any issues. Just like any brand there are good brands and bad brands so there is that 
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I have 62 Zwave devices and also several brands, including Zooz, Inovelli, Jasco and more. Personally I have not have had any issues with my (approx 15) Zooz devices.
Heck, I would like to get one for US frequencies. LOL
Zwave controllers with external antenna are few and far between.
FYI, not sure if their final product will have an external antenna but the prototype Z-Wave Controller USB radio adapter stick that Nabu Casa (Uwe and Dominic) has tested does have an external antenna, see picture of their Z-Wave Controller USB dongle prototype in green color with external antenna in the blog post → Z-Wave is not dead - Home Assistant
Zoom from
Left: Dominic, slightly jetlagged, with our stick prototype (green). Right: DrZWave with the controller reference design (purple). Background: Uwe, 0.7 miles away.
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I think the green color is the bare PCB board. From looking at teardown photos of other controllers they are also the same color Internal photos Internal Photos
Yeah but the point is that specific Nabu Casa prototype clearly has an external antenna, the color does not matter.
What we are asking and hoping for is that their final Z-Wave Controller will have an external antenna.
You can pick any color for your bikeshead as long as it is black 
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Whatever they release had also better be IP-connected. I’ll never buy another USB-connected radio for Z-Wave. PoE or nothing.
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Do you have any Zen26 (switches) or Zen27 (dimmers)? Those are the only ones that crash and become unresponsive after a power failure over here.
But all models, going back to the 3x series have failing LEDs, and a few with plastics that start to show cracks around the bezel.
Zen 27. I have never had iossues with Zooz switches
I’m envious. I’ve had this issue with every one of my 6 zen26 switches and one zen27.
Now it usually happens to one particular zen26 and the zen27 most often. Rapid/quick power failure/recovery (which happens at least once a month here) makes both of them hang.
The zen26 is the biggest pain because it’s the switch controlling the basement lights that illuminate my way to the loadcenter where I have to power off and then on the breaker to get the switches rebooted.
I am not as technical as many in this forum, but I wonder whether the issue is not the switches themselves but possibly range or something else in your Zwave mesh.
No, because as I’ve mentioned, the software on the switches crashes. The switches can’t even be used manually by clicking their rockers. It has nothing to do with Z-Wave specifically, just crap firmware.
I’m going to get rid of them eventually. The dimmer (in the dining room) is super annoying to have die regularly.
Sorry to hear this. As I mentioned, (so far) I have not had any issues with my some 10 Zooz devices.
Oh! this sounds familiar. my story is also z-wave but a different brand, and in short: stay away from Eaton z-wave switches, everyone.
The Eaton RF9640,
… that are (or were) available at Lowe’s and other places, also have this symptom, and the only remedy is to go to your panel and flip the switches off and back on from there.
I got the issue around 30 minutes after install, I reached out to the customer service at Eaton immediately. After some tests as requested by CS and 3 emails later, Eaton acknowledged that this is a known bug, where they have fixed it with a newer firmware.
So far so good, right? Nope!!
I asked them to send me the firmware file and I can update my switches → no can’t do they said.
Fine, give me the procedures of how to update the firmware → no can’t do. Have to be done via approved hubs.
Fine, so what are the approved hubs? → we do not have that kind of information.
What? How about I send you my switches and you flash the updated firmware and send it back?? → no can’t do.
How about we do a swap, I send you mine with old firmware, and you send me another switch but with newer firmware? → no can’t do either.
I was like, WHAT? What kind of customer service is that? There is literally no fix.
So in the end I of course went to Lowe’s and refund the thing.
Again, everyone, stay away from Eaton z-wave switches… regardless how good or bad quality their switches could be.
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My experience as well. I stay away from Eaton.
Discussion here seems to concentrate on Z-Wave vs. Zigbee. But I’m curious why no mention of Bluetooth BLE.
My experience is that BLE devices are priced in the Zigbee range (or below). And reliability seems to be as good as the BLE coverage I can provide. Which is easy and cheap, by scattering BT Proxy (“gateway”) devices all over the premises (connected mostly by wired Ethernet, but a few on Wi-Fi).
Seems less finicky than Zigbee or Z-Wave networks (which I also have), because BT support provides redundancy --as I understand it, multiple gateways can provide the device with connection to the BT service on HA, and it just uses the connection with best signal.
Only negative point I’ve found with BLE is more limited selection of supported devices, but that’s growing very quickly.
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As a new user…
3 weeks to be exact i stated with Zigbee and quickly found that I had issues since most of the products out there are cheaply made and also seem to be knockoffs of each other, identical packaging and the sort. Most of all the the range is HORRIBLE! I have installed at least 8 smart plug/routers and cant even get 20ft on some devices (3rd Reality Water Alarms) then Sonoff Devices like the communicator 3.0 dying 2 days after install or their Minirelay barely able to handle 14ga wire. I bought a ZOOZ 800LR started trying out some Z-wave and except for a Echolink Tilt sensor which looks as if it was made and packaged by some 10 year old in a sweat shop have been very pleased with range, performance and documentation.
I know someone stated ZooZ has poor firmware and bugs maybe that has been corrected but so far their switches have been great. Battery operated devices though CAN be a PIA when trying to make changes and waking up.
Ever heard the saying “you get what you pay for”? As yes Zigbee devices have really bad radio propagation and is extremely sensitive to interference so you need to both add loads of known good Zigbee Router products and take actions to avoid sources of EMI/RMI/EMI as well as making sure there is no overlapping Wi-Fi channels. Read and follow this → Zigbee network optimization: a how-to guide for avoiding radio frequency interference + adding Zigbee Router devices (repeaters/extenders) to get a stable Zigbee network mesh with best possible range and coverage by fully utilizing Zigbee mesh networking
Z-Wave have much better radio propagation and longer range because it uses Sub-1GHz frequency, but you still want to avoid having Wi-Fi or other possible sources of EMI/RMI/EMI too close to the Z-Wave Controller and devices as it is still possible to jam the signal causing wierd symptoms like quirk battery drain. And you still also want to add many Z-Wave Repeater devices, (especially if you live in Europe where Z-Wave signals are not allowed to be as strong).