I live in a 2,500 sq. ft. condo. I live in the top corner of my building so I have the least possible surround issues. I’ve been using a C-7 for a couple of years now. While I’ve been very happy with it most of them, I do notice that every few months it gets noticeably slower, which I think gets cured for a while with a graceful reboot. (In fact I’m planning to do one this weekend as some lights and switches are taking 20-30 seconds to react). I only have 1 Zigbee motion sensor, but it works just fine. Virtually everything else I have are Z-Wave Plus 500 series chips from Inovelli with most being their Red dimmers, 5 Black on/off switches and 5 of their fan + light switches (which despite being 700 series chips rarely direct connect to the hub). I also have a few z-wave plugs, a couple of Aeotec range extenders, which frankly seem to do next to nothing despite being 700 series chips, a Hue hub and 2 of their light bulbs, plus 3 Fibaro Keychain 6 button devices (which though a little slow, I totally love). Many devices connect at 100. The plugs seem to be at 40 and some switches are at 9,6, no matter how I’ve tried moving the range extenders around.
I was very tempted to go with the after market antenna add-on, so I’m thrilled to see the C-8 will have them. There is no question I will buy one. I do have 2 questions: 1, Is there any reason to think the C-8 will fix/be better at the slowdown problem (I ask, as after all, don’t they run the same software and I’ll still have the same devices?); and 2) Would I be better off just running the C-8 by itself or should I add the C-8 as an add on and keep the C-7? If I do the later what do I need to do and how beneficial is it?
