ZWave dropping out even with plenty of routers

Configuration Z-Wave
1

I’ve only recently had issues with my ZWave network. There are about 8x zooz scene controllers (Zen32) around the house that all work as expected. I then installed a single ZWave shade from smartwings. It worked great so I installed 18 more.

Only one had issue pairing and it drops out every once and a while. I checked the settings on the device and it’s trying for a direct connection on the basement while it’s on the second floor. There are about 2 scene controllers in between that could relay the signal. Why is it not hopping instead? I have tried to rebuilding the network (using ZwaveJs) and it didn’t help.

I’m using the Zooz ZSE10 S2 with FW 7.18.3

I did check many of the ZWave devices and most are direct but not all.

I’m really hoping I don’t need to re-pair devices. Any guidance or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

2

I read somewhere that the controller has its own proprietary algorithm that it uses to calculate routes so it’s kind of hard to tell why a device uses a certain route.

Fortunately if you use Z-Wave JS UI you can test the signal quality between nodes
and manually setup static routes if you need to.