When I first started setting up my home automation, I decided on Zigbee, and I very much dove in head-first. I set up dozens of Zigbee devices, and some worked a lot better than others. I have a fairly stable Zigbee network with well over 100 devices, but many of those have been replaced over time. To save others the wasted time and money, I wanted to give a short breakdown of what I’ve noticed across brands.
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SONOFF: My Zigbee controller is made by SONOFF, and it works well. As far as their motion sensors, not so much (I even made a post about how bad they were about a year ago). Their motion sensors give such unreliable results that they’re borderline useless. Their plugs work generally okay, although they do drop off my network occasionally. Overall, they really wouldn’t be my first choice.
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Aquara: They make some very slick-looking devices, but they’re horrible. Magnetic door sensors frequently just get stuck in an open or closed state, or just drop off the network completely. I used two of their leak sensors. One is still working well; the other just spontaneously decided to stop responding completely. I have a few of their pushbuttons; it took me at least a dozen tries to pair them, but they seem to work well after that. Overall, Aquara devices either quit responding or drop off the network more frequently than any other brand; I will never buy another Aquara device.
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DOGAIN: I bought several of their plugs. So far, not a single issue. I assume they’re a white-label brand, so I don’t know who actually makes the hardware, but I have no complaints so far.
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MHCOZY: Another white-label brand. I’ve purchased several of their relay switches. I haven’t had a single problem with any of them, and I’m using quite a few.
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Haozee: Probably another white-label brand. I have several of their mmWave sensors. Occasionally they get stuck in a “detected” state, but rarely. They have never dropped off my network. I’d buy more.
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Phillips (Hue): They’re exceptionally expensive, but for a reason. I have a lot of their smart bulbs, and a few outdoor motion sensors. They all work flawlessly. Don’t use the Hue app or a Hue bridge, though, unless you want to be locked into their app; just pair your device with a third-party Zigbee controller.
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Leviton: I have replaced every single in-wall switch in my home with a Leviton smart switch or smart dimmer. They’re a well-known brand, so I would expect their products to work well, and they do. My only complaint is that occasionally one of the switches will drop and refuse to communicate unless I power it off (with a breaker); this is rare, though, and normally corresponds with a power outage.
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Thirdreality: I saved Thirdreality for last because I have absolutely no complaints at all. They are my go-to for Zigbee devices. I have many of their temperature sensors, plugs, magnetic door sensors, motion sensors, soil moisture sensors, etc. I have never had a device drop off my network or stop working correctly. I have dozens of their devices, and my only issue was a climate sensor that got stuck at 99% humidity after I accidentally sprayed water into the case. That’s my fault.
So, in general, if I was to re-build my Zigbee network from the ground up, I’d go for Thirdreality devices first. If they didn’t make what I need, I’d go for Phillips Hue, and if I still couldn’t find what I need, then that’s what the list above is for.
I’m hoping to see some replies to this; what are your experiences with different Zigbee devices? Any brands you either trust or would never buy from?
Edit: As others have mentioned, your Zigbee integration (also also possibly your controller) may make a difference in reliability. I am using ZHA and a SONOFF controller. Your experience may be different.
O have some of Aqara windows/doors sensors and I’ve never had any problem. I haven’t changed any battery yet and I’ve installed about 2 yeas ago (or was it 3? 🤔)
The Aqara buttons are very good as well as the motion sensors (even though I’ve just installed a couples at my sister’s and they disappear about a day after I pair them 🤷🏼♂️)
Huh, my 2 Aqara door sensors have been perfectly flawless.
Adding to the list, I’ve got several IKEA lightbulbs (the dimmable white colour temperature ones) and a few sensors (door/window, climate) that work well. Can’t recommend the IKEA remote control thingy because it just stopped working and nothing could bring it back up. The support didn’t sound surprised and refunded it no questions asked though so that’s good.
And I’ve got plenty of generic tuya switches and sensors (door/window, climate, water leak etc), both old WiFi ones that are flashed with ESPHome and newer ones on ZigBee from Ali. So far they all work great.
(With the exception that I killed one and then a replacement switch by having them power a tiny LED light. Counterintuitively it seems like a thing that can wear a cheap design smart switch out if the load is too small and something something I got it explained to me by someone that understands electric circuits but now it is gone again.)
I have everything running in Home Assistant on a repurposed old NAS with a Sonoff USB ZigBee stick.
@whaleross
Strange, I have four different kinds of IKEA remotes, the oldest being over five years old and they all work happily with ZHA.Could be different revisions or something. At the time I discovered other people having the identical problem.
I love all the ikea stuff, but true that the remote controls are absolutely garbage. I have multiple and they all are either slow, or not responding half the time. I think they have some debounce build onto the firmware and it is way too agressive.
I’ve been using Aqara door sensors, temp sensors, buttons, and others, and have had great luck with them.
Same here. I’m using the Nortek z-wave and sigbee usb adapter with zigbee2mqtt + home assistant (both on docker). They are sometimes annoying to pair, but never had one drop for anything other than low battery (original battery sometimes craps out after a few months, but replacements go for 1+ year). I did hear their second gen motion sensor was kind of a miss when compared to the original one, so I stuck to the v1s. Not sure if they’ve addressed the reported issues. People also say that they don’t follow the protocol to the letter, so it seems possible that depending on the hub, they might not work as expected.
We also have some third reality smart switches that turn a switch “smart” with a physical mechanism on the outside, while not as good looking, they are awesome for renters when you want yo automate things like kitchen lights without having to replace anything on the circuit itself. The batteries last forever (aaa). I found that adding some vinyl matching the color of your outlets makes them more stealth if you also don’t have white outlets.
Edit: one of our third reality switches was placed on the porch light, which we wired the Christmas lights to this year using one of those $1.50 light socket to socket adapters (LED Christmas lights use very little energy - should be ok to power with a light socket which can do 100w for porch lights just keep it below 60w if unsure). It made automating them on when the sun set and off after midnight or so a breeze.
For switches / dimmers try Inovelli. Very very very tweakable. Can program things like minimum dim level, so even when you command 1% it still puts out enough power to start the LED bulb. And it will report taps and multitaps up to five taps as scene control actions. They also have a fan canopy module which can receive zigbee commands directly from a switch so the main paddle controls the light bulb and the secondary button above the LED bar controls the fan speed.
Are they easy to get now? Last I checked they had supply issues where most stuff is usually out of stock or comes back in waves or something (this would had been 2+ years ago)
Oh yeah they fixed that. I remember what you’re talking about, they went out of stock for like months or years at a time. That is no longer the case. Their flagship switch is in stock on their website all three flavors (Z-Wave/ ZigBee / Thread)
While I don’t have the number of devices you do, I can add two observations:
Kwikset Zigbee Door Locks have been rock solid since the day I installed them. No issues dropping off the network. The only downside is occasional delay in reporting state (locked/unlocked) to HA. Getting it to respond to a command to lock/unlock is near instantaneous.
Ikea Zigbee devices have also been rock solid. The only issue is that none of them seem to report battery level reliably. Other than that, there are zero issues.
How do the thirdreality motion sensors work with pets?
I have to say, I have dozens upon dozens* of generic “Tuya” ZigBee devices from Ali, and they all work flawlessly. The only ones I have issues with is a couple of GU10 bulbs that the devs decided should be routers when bulbs really shouldn’t route since they can be turned off at the switch. I really wished there was a way to prevent that.
*96 total devices in Z2M, a handful are Sinopé mains voltage thermostats for baseboard heaters (great units absolutely recommend!), another 3 are inovelli switches (again no issues here, great stuff), a dozen are Aqara (I’ve seen the hate but tbh I never noticed any issues). Almost everything else is Moes/Tuya. I even have a generic tuya temperature/humidity sensor that has been outside for a year and a half in the harsh Canadian climate (from -30C to 30C).
I will say, I have a couple of AIQ and mmWave sensors and I don’t like them because they produce a LOT of data and kind of spam the network, if I replace them I’ll do WiFi for those.
I run a HamGeek POE Coordinator.
Bulbs are mains-powered and should be zigbee routers. The way to prevent that is to take out the switch, wire it closed, and stick a smart button over it.
If I turn off my Home Assistant, everything in my house still works like a normal house. Your bulbs won’t.
I have a few backup lights that are dumb led lights on a smart wall switch. But my HA is pretty much never down unless I am manually restarting it for updates. And my Zigbee network works even when the internet or wifi is down.
Yeah I disagree. And I’m not the only one, many bulbs from larger brands don’t route. The Sengled bulbs don’t for example. IMHO bulbs work fine with dumb switches when they revert back to the last setting which most do. Nothing in the spec says a device that is mains power MUST route.
Instead of replacing the switch with a button, you can replace it with a smart switch that doesn’t actually cut power when you press “off”. My Zooz ZWave switches allow you to configure them to either use the internal relay to turn lights on and off (which cuts power) or disable the relay and use the ZWave side to turn the lights on and off (maintaining power).
It’s an annoying issue but this is what happens when you DIY things using parts from various manufacturers with differing design ideas.
Or a relay switch and keep the existing mechanical switch on top. I like Shelly but there are tons of options.
Relays dont do RGBCCT. You’re not solving the issue at all here.
The issue was that using the old mechanical switch would shut down the router in the bulbs. A relay absolutely solves that.
In any case, it seems to be possible to use a Shelly RGBW2 in CCT mode. Here’s an example of how to do it in Home Assistant’s native Shelly integration though OP says there’s also tutorials around showing how to do it via MQTT.
I hate that Shelly only do WiFi.
There’s Qubino Z-Wave devices, and some Bluetooth ones though my experience with those has been a bit dubious. And integration outside of their own ecosystem is still via WiFi (except for sensor beacons which are BLE).
How often does your temp/humidity sensor report? I’ve also got a Tuya one from Aliexpress and had to shelve it because it was spamming the sensor data 5 times a second.
Mostly on changes, otherwise every ~5mins or so? Probably less, I can’t check right now, but I’m certain I have never noticed spamming like that.
Okay, I guess I just need to buy a different one, luckily they are cheap.
Are you using zigbee2mqtt or ZHA? I’ve found a massive performance difference in Aqara devices between the two.
I started using zigbee2mqtt so I could use Aqara devices. They are the items I’ve had the least issues with since setting it up.
It also seems like zigbee2mqtt just has a wider net of compatible devices in general.
Most likely coded work around and quirks. Where as ZHA is I guess more “it’s a standard people, follow the standard. If we have problem with you due to your non-compliance, it is a you problem. It is not an us problem, oh and users… how about you patron the standard following device makers”.
That tracks, Z2M got popular when things were still pretty wild in the ZigBee world, they HAD to work around.
I tried both and my aqara temperature sensors still regularly fell off the network.
Swapped for genetic tuya devices from AliExpress and not had an issue since.
What coordinator are you using?
Which one is better for you?
MQTT by a mile.
Which of these is better for Aqara? I recently switched from Conbee to Zigbee2mqtt but I don’t have any aqara devices (yet…)
I actually moved to mqtt fire aqara. Turns out it’s just better for everything.
I have two Aquara door sensors and a thermometer and they all work flawlessly for me. I have automations with the door sensors to turn on some sengled lights for their respective rooms, and it happens almost instantaneously. The thermometer just tells me the temperature on the back deck, so not much going on with that. But I haven’t had any of them drop off the network.
I’m also using a Sonoff usb for my controller and it has been solid for two years.
I recently picked up some Thirdreality color bulbs, and i think they are pretty solid. The only gripe I have is that their colors seem to be kinda off. But it does white light very well, so they’re good enough for me.
I agree with the door sensors, they work great and sip battery.
The thermometers (the square ones from a few years back) suck tho, they drop off the network all the time. I’ve replaced them with those generic Ali round ones with the display, they take AAA batteries which is a plus.
@Damage
I got the square ones a few years ago and they kept on dropping from the network. In the meantime, a few firmware updates later I migrated to HA and now they are rock solid, don’t know if it’s due to consolidating Ikea, Hue and Aquara Zigbee networks into a single ZHA mesh or the firmware getting better, but I suspect that it’s due to a single optimized mesh instead three colliding Zigbee networks.I’ve started (admittedly years ago when implementations were less advanced), with a single Zigbee2mqtt network with Philips, Le grand, IKEA and so on, but they kept dropping off immediately.
Some time later I got a new coordinator, migrated everything, everything else improved, those sensors did not, so I tried creating a different, Aquara only network for them with another instance of Z2M, that made things better but still had problems.
This week I’ve installed an Athom Ethernet ZigBee gateway (great device btw, mine runs Esphome), and joined the networks again, but I’ve already had disconnections. I’ve only got a couple of those still in place, I keep trying to get them to work 'cause I have a bunch sitting in my drawer, but I’m just about to throw them in the recycling bin.Any chance you guys have your zigbee radios plugged directly into your host device? I had a bunch of issues with mine until I plugged it and my ZWave dongle into USB extension cables. I think with the Pi specifically, you can wind up with interference. Another point of interference is your wifi AP as wifi and zigbee frequencies overlap one another.
I’ve personally used Aqara window sensors, temp sensors, and switches for a few years now on my current Sonoff and previous HUSBZB radios without issue after eliminating any possible interference as noted above.
Getting some repeaters couldn’t hurt either. I have a couple Ikea Tradfri shades and they both came with repeaters.
I’ve tried it all: short cables, long cables, stands… Most other stuff just works.
I’ve got repeaters: every room has multiple light switches and smart plugs that act as repeaters.
Aquara door sensors here too and they work great. I have one that turns on the kitchen light after sunset when the back door is opened and it works flawlessly.
That’s interesting. I first set up Aquara door sensors on all my doors. Every single one has dropped off the network and required re-pairing multiple times. I’ve started just replacing them with Thirdreality door sensors when they drop rather than re-pairing.
I wonder if my controller or my Zigbee integration has something to do with it?
I’m using a raspberry pi with a ‘sonoff universal zigbee 3.0 USB dongle’. But I’ve no clue what I’m doing. I originally got into it just so I could automate a bedroom light for the wife. Beyond that I’ve got a couple of lights and contact sensors and the recent attempt at controlling a dehumidifier. Googling and blind luck has got me this far.
I wonder if it helps that the door contact sensor is in the same room as the zigbee dongle? Maybe 20ft away
Looks like there’s no DOGAIN UK plugs. Which is a shame. I have an INNR plug running a dehumidifier and it’s not great. It will turn off and on as per my Home assistant schedule and I get to see how much power is being used which is cool. However, it has a habit of turning itself off and back on randomly while as far as home assistant is concerned there’s been no interruption. It’s frustrating.
Suprisingly the lidl zigbee range is really good
I shall investigate. Thanks for the suggestion
Does Thirdreality make a UK plug? I can’t find one on Amazon but that might be because I’m US-based. Out of all the plugs I’ve tried, theirs have been the best in terms of reliability.
Sadly I can’t find a UK Thirdreailty plug. Their website only shows US, doesn’t even detect I’m coming from the UK so I’d guess US only. Surprising seeing as the company is based in China.
Thank you for this! I haven’t started my network yet, but I just got the HA voice assistant, so this will be very helpful.
I have a decent setup for my apartment, I only use Philips Hue, both as a bridge and for lights.
I am currently considering switching the bridge as I want to add radiator thermostats and I don’t believe that the Philips Hue bridge can handle those well.
I have thought about getting a bridge from Homey, but haven’t done anything yet…
Ohh thanks! I just started with ZigBee stuff and reviews like this are perfect!
