I've been a lurker here. But here is my take FWIW.
I moved to Hubitat for local control. At the same time I was dissatisfied with Z-wave dimmer performance at my house.
I realized that time is money. I replaced most Z-wave dimmers with Lutron Radio RA2 dimmers. 2x the up-front cost. Zero times the troubleshooting cost. I didn't and don't care that Z-wave should work fine in my house. (And I still use Z-wave devices for some applications, just not lights)
Why not replace Zigbee outlets with WiFi outlets? Power/battery consumption is not an issue. There's also the manufacturer app to control the outlets if the hub won't. Hubitat works fine with several WiFi outlets. And Kasa is about 1/2 price of a SmartThings outlet.
I'm sure that Zigbee will be improved over time. But let someone else figure it out.
Lutron could own the whole radio controlled device space if their marketing people could see...
Lutron has far and away the best RF technology in this space. Their business practices include free technical support forever, usually free product replacement for any failure. They are an old-school hide-bound company in some ways, but ethical. Oh, and they have sold more dimmers worldwide than all other manufacturers combined, and the same is true for motorized window shades. Their technology is rock solid. Plus, they invented the entire category we are all using -- RF smart switches.
Maybe so, but my comment stands. I don't like their marketing and distribution decisions, and have voted with my wallet. Same reason I wouldn't buy Control4, too...
It is not a matter of whether they are the best or not, it's a matter if alternatives are good enough. And for me the alternatives are good enough, and cheaper.
You may have different needs, and that's fine too.
I have space on my Wall of Internet for at least a couple more hubs/bridges. My time is worth more than saying 'no' to another device.
The Lutron stuff actually works. No channel changing. No repeated exclude/include kabuki. The most you'll need is a range extender.
If you're in a reasonably sized metro area there will be a Lutron lighting supplier that will sell you anything you want up to the Essentials level of the Radio RA2 line at a better than list price. Higher levels than that require software licenses that are provided by Lutron. Those require paid training. But there's probably not a lot of HomeWorks customers who would install a Hubitat on their own.
That picture is EXACTLY what I have no interest in. I have way too many things to do to babysit a dozen hubs/widgets - even if I have the $$$ and technical expertise to do so. I expect most consumers are more like me in that regard.
But whatever. I'm not adding anything constructive to this discussion at this point.
After about 14 years of automating, if I had to do it all over again... I would hands down go with as much Lutron as I could. It just works and the hardware is rock solid. I've done the X10, Insteon, Z-wave and zigbee stuff from many different manufacturers. Nothing even comes close to the quality and reliability of Lutron. There is no babysitting or tinkering to get it to work either. A couple minutes to set it up and it's good to go.
For me I have 4 hubs in use right now, Hubitat, Hue, Lutron and Blink.
Three more unplugged, not is service...ST, Wireless Tag and Flic Hub.
Crazy how fast they can add up!
Everybody has their favorite or go to technologies but for me it's definitely Lutron. Now if they would just release more products in the Caseta line!
Lutron is the only company that can make a smart dimmer that doesn’t require a neutral wire and can dim LED bulbs.
For that reason alone, I will continue to give them my money hand over fist. Like when that new fan controller comes out, for example (though I’m hoping that won’t require a neutral).
You can overcome the 50 device limit with an additional SmartBridge Pro (costs about the same as 2 dimmers), integrating them with Hubitat.
The distance limit is not much of an issue ordinarily, and you can add a repeater. Lutron is super conservative about their specs. When they give a distance figure, you can be 100% certain things work 100% of the time within that radius, and 90% certain they will work at twice the radius. The nature of the rf technology (fixed repeater) over licensed spectrum means super low interference issues, unlike Zigbee and Z-Wave.
I have 3 Lutron Caseta Smart Bridge Pro's running a total of 122 devices spread mostly even across all 3.
The only downside is having 3 logins to their app. But after bulk importing the 3 bridges via a CSV into the integration apps, I had all devices working in a few minutes time in Hubitat.
I have shades, dimmers, switches and a ton of picos in place of a ton of 3 and 4 way switches (just tied them off and control the load at the dimmer or switch)
My house was pretty well partitioned into 3 distinct segments so it worked well. Took a bit of planning to assign which devices to which bridge.
Only down side is that cheap LED bulbs don't shut off with Caseta dimmers and I had to replace a handful in areas to insure they turned off. Also, some bulbs would flash on ramp up and replaced those too. Not too bad for a 30+ year old house.
Very happy with the setup and I've had a full house of Control4 dimmers and switches before, which are now about to go on eBay shortly along with my entire Control4 system.
Bruce, thank you, you are definitely the go to guy for Lutron info. Adding another hub isn’t ideal for me, but I guess that is a mute point until I decide on what to do.
The wife doesn’t mind their switches or the Picos, I tricked her into playing with them at Home Depot a bit.
I like the idea of what Mike Maxwell did, but lack of actual switches worries me in the long run.
I assume that regular Z-wave switches could be recessed into the wall and have Picos mounted in front will work? It’s the same concept correct?
