Hey all,
So i was reading through the wiki and to give myself the best chance of starting on the right foot. The wiki states that Zigbee bulbs need a good network to work well (repeaters) and that they themselves don't repeat well.
Currently my home is a miss-mash of SH products which I have been using / testing before committing to a hub:
Xiaomi bulbs (4), Ikea bulbs (2), Wemo bulbs (4)
TP link sockets, wemo sockets
Orbi mesh hubs
Since im yet to get my hub, what am I best to do to get started ?
when I pair my ikea bulbs - do i remove the hub since HA will be taking over control ?
Do I move to Sengled bulbs, or look for some zigbee sockets to increase the mesh Before connecting the bulbs to the hub?
My move to HE was kind of analogous to yours. I moved from Wink to Hubitat. Before I moved any zigbee devices (mostly Osram & GE A19s) from Wink, I first setup HE and added several line-powered devices known to function well as zigbee repeaters. Specifically, Securifi Peanut plugs and Ikea Tradfri plugs.
Once I added these and moved them to their final location, I let the zigbee mesh "heal" by shutting down HE for about 30 minutes before powering it back up again.
After that I moved all my zigbee devices from Wink to HE. So far, and its been a shade under 2 months, nothing has fallen off-line. I should add that I also discarded Quirky Outlink outlets that didn't work well with Wink and were known to not work well with HE.
I thought I had a pretty good z-wave mesh with Wink, but after moving to HE, I discovered that my z-wave locks worked reliably only after adding z-wave range extenders. I added 4; 3 would have been sufficient.
I might have to research some powered repeaters that are sold here in Australia. I would like to go with the Ikea bulbs for my house, but like what you have written above, i'd like to have a solid base for them to start from.
Sadly ikea dont sell their repeaters or sockets here in Aus yet.
