So I am considering implementing a smart home solution for a new home. Smart Home seems like both a hobby and a home tool. How often do you have to troubleshoot/debug to make things work correctly? Do devices routinely not work for one reason or another? Or has the ecosystem matured enough where once you set it up, it is relatively pain free? Appreciate any feedback.
I have a strong tech background, but have tried to keep things mainstream and easy to use for the family and houseguests. I won’t lie - home automation is still immature, and is intrinsically a heterogeneous ecosystem where an update in one area borks the rest of your previously working systems.
I have a lot of Zwave devices, quite a few Hue bulbs, extensive Alexa integration. For a hub, it’s been Wink->SmartThings->TBD.
Hue and Alexa have been generally good; Zwave was a mistake. I liked the lower frequency, lack of overlap with WiFi/Bluetooth/microwave ovens, mesh network, and keeping devices off WiFi. All the theoretical benefits haven’t made it reliable.
Things work well for stretches of time, but something inevitably breaks. It seems to happen most when I’m traveling because, well, Murphy.
Maybe a couple of times a year there’s a problem with my HA + (mostly) zwave setup, but it’s usually something I can ignore until a convenient time. I’ve had a problem that needed fixing straight away maybe twice in four years.
If you have any wifi devices though, oh my god, don’t change your password. Apparently “just factory reset it!” is the standard way for smart device manufacturers to handle wifi network changes. How do you factory reset it? “Press this tiny button sixty times until it finally reconnects and then redo all your configuration changes”. Nightmare.