Z-Wave Lock completely unreliable after a year of working perfectly

Since updating to core_2022.2.9, my single Z-Wave device has become practically unusable. Originally I was using ZWaveJS2MQTT but I took the downtime as an opportunity to switch to the official ZWaveJS addon, the symptoms are the same:

  • The lock will sometimes respond to lock/unlock commands, but much slower than it used to. Sometimes it just doesn’t do anything. This happens within HASS and also in HomeKit.

  • When physically turning the bolt, the lock state in HASS and HomeKit rarely changes. Either it’ll update a few minutes later or it will simply show the incorrect state. This too used to be instant.

I have tried excluding and re-pairing and have had no luck. I’ve tried with and without my USB extension and in different USB ports. Changed out the batteries on the lock too. I briefly thought I’d fixed things, the network seemed responsive again, but 10 mins later, nothing.

Currently running HASS OS on a Pi 4

Not unexpected, ZwaveJS2MQTT is simply a console for ZwaveJS - they use the same guts.

what kind of lock,
what kind of Zwave Coordinator?
is this your only ZWave device?
How far is it from the coordinator
How far is it from any other Zwave devices if oyu have any?

Schlage Connect lock
Zooz ZST10
This is my only ZWave device
It’s about 20 feet away from the coordinator and has worked flawlessly til recently
No other ZWave devices

I briefly suspected the Hue Hub I placed in my network closet could be causing interference, but considering you can buy ZWave sticks that also support Zigbee, I doubt this is the issue.

Zigbee won’t interfere. But if that zooz zst10 is the version with the SL 700 series ZWave chip. You have a firmware update you VERY much need and is possibly the root cause of your issue.

If your firmware is less than 1.17.1 - update and see if it continues.

Also, with locks its best practice to have at least 1 hardwired repeating device with beaming capabilities to act as store and forward for the lock when its sleeping. So id plan on installing a ZWave Switch in whatever porch light switch is right next to your door. :sunglasses:

Do those things in this order.

Update stick firmware
Restart ZWave JS
Repair lock (you should be running at this point)
Install repeating device
Run repair on lock AGAIN (so it knows it can use it)

There’s a suspicious amount of posts around zwave suddenly malfunctioning with one of the recent HA updates. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the updates, possibly to HA itself or the zwavejs server, broke something.

Did you try downgrading back to whatever version you were using before ? That would be the first step in these kind of scenarios, so to rule out any coincidental hardware failure, interference, etc.

Unlikely. That 700 series issue, if I understood it right, was affecting the way the chipset was doing clear channel assessment and only started to show its ugly head on high traffic meshes. It’s unlikely to happen with only a single device, especially if it was working fine before. But of course you’re right, updating the FW is always a good idea regardless.

I’m not sure I understand that. Are you saying you somehow connected that lock to HA and Homekit simultaneously ? Or does Homekit control the lock through HA ?

1 Like

It hoses the device when it runs a repair and it happens MOSTLY in busy networks. But I was able to get mine to do it just running a repair on a single node. With that exact stick and lock. It does this in a hurry. While I agree that its suspicious about sudden issues in both Zwave and Zigbee in recent builds - op needs that firmware if he’s gonna run a 700 stick.

Ouch. Yeah, then he should def update the FW.

1 Like

Yeah AND I agree - I also think they broke something deep in stack somewhere around 2021.9/10 that hasn’t been figured out yet. The firmware helped my install tremendously but there still some little things that aren’t 100% - mostly with non-plus devices. But that’s beyond the scope of THIS thread. :wink:

Thanks everyone. I’ll update the firmware and try again. As for HomeKit I use HASS to bridge things into HomeKit. Since the issues happen within HASS, I’m going to assume that HomeKit is not the issue here

1 Like

Update: I don’t think I have the 700 version of the Zooz stick. All the images online show the 700 version clearly labeled as such. Mine has nothing of the sort, I think it’s the older 500 version. Simplicity Studio Z-Wave Tools reports

Z-Wave device chip: ZW0500

What would be the proper steps to downgrade? I’m looking through my backups (had the backup option checked whenever i updated stuff) and all I have is partial backups. Should I roll back the OS and everything back to say… december?

1 Like

Indeed since a couple of updates before (Zwave-js and HA) I do also experience Zwave issues: less reliable, slow reactions, some times no reaction at all.
It worked perfectly before.

Do you know where to find the location to find answers? (If there are)

I seem to have solved it. Here’s how:

  • Updated everything (I had attempted to fix things by restoring an old partial backup)
  • Migrated back to ZWaveJS2MQTT (I don’t think this was the solution, I just prefer the interface)
  • Factory reset the Z-Wave stick
  • re-paired my lock but this time using S2

Everything is back to being responsive. S0 used to work just fine when HASS didn’t support S2, but at least in this case it seems to be an improvement

1 Like

Well, this issue randomly returned. Zero clue as to what caused it as I haven’t changed anything or even rebooted my Raspberry Pi since my last comment.

Edit:
Reinterviewing, updating all the stuff that was outdated (OS, Supervisor, ZWaveJS2Mqtt) seems to have fixed it for now. How annoying, but I’m relieved.