Mains powered Zigbee devices are almost always repeaters, with few exceptions. Sengled devices are one such exception.
Anyone looking for stability of Aqara and other Zigbee devices that are not compatible with Hubitat should do themselves a favor and stop chasing rainbows. The answer has been available for quite some time. I’m seeing people spend far more on repeaters and then ultimately new devices that gives only some satisfaction, and generates yet another pile of pointless e waste in its wake.
As soon as @ymerj and @tomw created and perfected Home Assistant Device Bridge, I put all my Aqara devices on HA and I’ve never looked back. They don’t drop, they don’t fail, and I can have fun adding cool devices to both HE and HA. Whatever works best on whichever hub, that’s what I choose. I don’t have to waste time, money, effort and experience low WAF with this setup.
Honestly, its the way to go. I’ve read plenty accounts of people saying they spent a bunch of money on repeaters that only slightly helped or did not help at all. But I’ve not read accounts from anyone saying that Home Assistant Device Bridge was a waste. Completely the opposite. In many cases, there’s an old laptop just sitting around looking for a use, and then all you need is a reliable Zigbee controller. That can be obtained for around $20-50.
