He said he has 5 locks x about $200 a piece = $1000
4-5 extenders/amplifiers for about $25 a piece = $125
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Not guaranteed to work. Zigbee works 100%.
I can guarantee it worked for me and a few others, but YMMV.
I have no issue with providing opinion/suggestions, which is exactly what I stated with YMMV and did NOT claim it would "guarantee" a solution, it just was a (MUCH cheaper) solution for many, unlike yourself who makes a 100% claim when there are posts that disprove that claim. Kwilset 912 - #7 by mmuniz317
I think I may end up going with the zigbee chips. I won't switch out my existing locks. I can buy the zigbee chips on ebay for 50-75 each it seems. And maybe resell my z-wave chips for less than that.
I already have a ton of wired z-wave plus devices (mostly GE switches), so I'm not confident that range extenders will solve it for me.
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FWIW, I had 5 Zwave Plus switched/repeaters within 10 feet of one problem lock and 2 Zwave plus repeaters within 5 foot of the other problem lock and had issues that are now resolved with adding 4 of the extenders/AMPLIFIERS...... Do what you feel best, just wanted to provide as much information as possible.
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I have a 910 that has been working without issues for about 9 months. I do remember having to bring the lock within inches of the hub to pair it, but once paired it was fine. I do have Z-Wave plus switches right next to the door.
Well, I have one zigbee chip on the way from ebay. Going to put it in the first lock that started misbehaving. Fingers crossed it improves things.
I switched my Yale Assure SL from Zwave to Zigbee. Best decision. Very stable now.
I guess each enironment plays a role, so some claim z-wave is "better". I hate z-wave, however my Schlage BE469 has been perfect on ST and now HE, both hubs less than 6 foot line of sight to hub.
Many more headaches for me with z-wave, pairing , dropping, not reporting, outside of my lock
Zigbee much much more reliable, at least in my house, and faster too, for me
My zigbee chip from ebay arrived. Was only about a 5 minute task to switch it out, and that lock is now behaving perfectly. I'll be watching it for a few days and then decide on ordering more zigbee chips.
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How are the locks working with the Zigbee modules? I have a Z-wave+ Kwikset 914 lock and got it paired with no problems, but it is not reporting the locks/unlocks to the device itself. I can lock/unlock it from the HE device page, so it is communicating with it. Hub is just on the other side of a wall about 12+ feet away, but there is a Zwave+ plug/repeater about 5ft away across from it.
Wondering if I need to change out the card to Zigbee or not.
I have 3 kwikset w/zigbee and they work perfectly. No missed lock/unlock events. Code used always reported.
I ended up switching only 1 of my locks to zigbee. That one is working perfectly. The rest of my z-wave locks work well as long as I use my Reliable Locks app with them.
I just purchased off of the same Kwikset 914 but with a Zigbee card. I am going to put the card into the garage door lock and install the zwave one at the back door. I'll then see if the zigbee works better. If so, I guess i will have to hunt down a Zigbee card for the 914.
I use the reliable locks app and it is not helping. The lock status is not chaing at all. I have a Zooz ZEN25 plug 6ft away across the hall and the hub is like another 12ft over.
Ah, I think I understand. You're saying that if you physically lock/unlock it, it's not reporting that event back to the hub? If that's the case, yes Reliable Locks won't help. It's a z-wave mesh issue. Reliable locks helps if you are sending commands from the hub but not getting correct status back afterwards.
Unfortunately with these z-wave locks, tuning the distance and layout of the repeaters doesn't really seem to help anything. What they want is for you to have LOTS of repeaters.
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I purchased a Zigbee Kwikset 914 model and will be installing it soon on another door. Hopefully it works and if so, I will just change out the Zwave card for a Zigbee card on the other one.
FWIW I stay away from anything Z-wave. I have tried many permutations of setups and I came to a conclusion that the protocol is just inherently unreliable. Don’t get me wrong, I had it working probably 95% of the time, but that’s just not good enough. My Zigbee and Lutron stuff has never failed, not once. Problem is Z-wave seems to have better variety.
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