The "2021 Year in Review " marathon concludes with the Product of the Year elevated by Hubitat in 2021, as selected by our customers.
These devices exceeded our users' expectations in 2021, in terms of reliability and ease of use.
If your favorite device is not on the list, be sure to drop a comment below to share the device that has made your home a little smarter in 2021, and perhaps your life a little easier.
Lutron Caséta Smart Lighting (Integration)
Kwikset Home Connect 620 Z-Wave 700 lock (Z-Wave)
Zooz 700 Series Remote Control & Scene Controller ZEN34 - Battery Powered (Z-Wave)
Many thanks to everyone who participated in the Year in Review series and provided feedback.
Also, the "Year in Review" would not have been possible without the contribution of the following users who have helped us create and organize this project:
Pick Reasoning: For me it came down to either Lutron or Lifx. In the end for this category I picked Lifx. The reason is that Lutron has been well established on this platform almost since it's inception. Lifx on the other hand can be considered the most elevated with the recent native integration. Honestly why Lifx hasn't contacted you for a partnership deal is beyond me.
....and the winner is "Other" protocol A showdown between two different protocols would not be justified because each protocol has its own advantages, and their success is greatly influenced by local factors and conditions relevant to one's needs.
The best approach when building a smart home is to be able to mix and match technologies that are most suitable for the task of providing greater convenience and overall reliability, while avoiding common pitfalls, whether that includes Zigbee, Z-Wave, Clear Connect, Wi-Fi or any future protocols that will "Matter" [sic].
I like what the Inovelli Red Scene switches can do but it seems to be an ongoing project that requires fiddling and fixing. Lutron just works, all the time. Truly, set and forget.
Yes I do agree, I have Z-Wave, ZigBee, MQTT, WebSockets, and custom API's all running inside the the Hubitat. The only one's I am missing from the early days of home automation is RS232 and RS485 and UDP since the Hubitat doesn't support UDP (yet?).
Just over the horizon is the updated BlueTooth, Long Range Z-Wave and Matter. Life wouldn't be interesting if we didn't have so many protocols.
You still can. I have several modbus / serial devices that are working a new life / integration with hubitat, thanks to node-red. And in general, modbus devices are industrial units, therefore nuclear proof (I voluntary reboot my plc's just once a year and they run flawlessly since 10 years)
For my set up, it has to be something a tad more interesting than a lamp or a switch. These have been quite well resolved for years in my opinion.
The device that has been the most elevating for me is the Withings sleep pad, integrated by @dman2306’s awesome integration. I had some issues with this device at first, with a timeout from the Withings server on a regular basis. I gave Withings support a really hard time about that. It seems to have improved significantly now for me and runs continuously with no issues.
It’s absolutely transformational for automation. Get in bed, lights go off after a while, AC goes on if necessary, alarm gets set. Same in reverse when getting out of bed. The automation opportunities are extensive. It’s excellent. The diagnostics on this are also excellent, with analysis of hours asleep, REM, deep sleep, time to sleep and time to get up, snoring, breathing interruptions, etc. The only thing I wish it did in addition is send a signal when the occupant goes to sleep and wakes up (which the device is able to sense but Withings ignores requests to implement).
Highly recommended despite the price which initially seems steep but on reflection is fairly well justified.
@bobbyD , this series you've done has been helpful.
As a result, I find myself wishing there was a Master List where I could go and look at all the devices Community folk have tried/run over time and be able to see a CURRENT STATUS of how people feel, in sum total, about XYZ device.
I know adding versions would be one of a few things making this a real chore to maintain... but what if ....we could go in and toggle our "current experience face" and that was combined into an overall "HE Community Opinion" on the respective device.
For example -
Click on the face that represents your experience and current feeling about this device:
Sengled Multicolor A19 bulbs (ZigBee)
Only one click per device per HE Community Member, changeable at any time.
I could see the device marketing now....
"This line of our popular smartbulbs has maintained an 85+% rating on Hubitat's Community Device List for 2 years running"
A possible further upside might be Hubitat folk gettin some love when they contact a manufacturer regarding their device/firmware about driver issues/enhancement ideas/etc.
Inovelli Red! I started using Wink with the Lutrons I still use them and they are great but I switched to the Inovellis. Love that they can be used with a dumb switch, don't require a neutral (not a problem for me), and that they are less expensive is also nice. I also like their plugs and sensors. I got one of their RGB things but haven't installed it yet and will probably be buying more of their stuff!
Ive replaced all bulbs in the house with the Home Depot EcoSmart ZigBee bulbs. They were budget friendly, and work better than any other bulb I've ever had. I have some singles as well and the EcoSmarts are MUCH better. They dim to ~5% which is fantastic for a budget bulb, color temperature is accurate, they are rather bright, very quick to respond (instant as you would expect), and they have not once in the past year dropped off the zigbee network. All in all they are a great budget buy for anyone looking and can find the deals where they are a couple bucks, Ive been very surprised by how awesome they have been and would buy more in a heartbeat to add additional lights. I have ~40 of them and they have performed great over 2021, highly recommend.
Edit: They come with a very nice looking zigbee 3.0 remote/switch that unfortunately can't be used with hubitat very well, but it doesn't matter, they are still a good buy. Currently ~8$ now but that's still a good price.
Agree to an extent, though I have a hard time with wifi devices...I 100% do not want or need anything on my wifi that's taking extra space on the spectrum. I can see uses for certain things, but bulbs? No way would I recommend wifi bulbs when zigbee/zwave are much better suited for it. Thermostats and locks and all that I can see on wifi but I can't understand why wifi bulbs are even a thing, seems like it would just add congestion to the wifi.
Mine have lasted a couple years now, I got a bunch more earlier this year but I've been messing with them since Home Depot clearance them. Looks to be leeardson, rebranded by Home Depot. They appear to have a life cycle rated at 25,000 hours by leeardson so 2.8 years of always on. I thought to place it here because its been probably the best addition to the house of 2021.
Take a look a Lifx bulbs. By far the best bulbs I've seen. Blazingly fast and color accurate. So much better than even Sengled...100% local control, no cloud.
The Home Depot Ecosmart Zigbee bulbs are still 2 for $10 for me, both for the A19 and the BR30 (HD has regional pricing, so that price might not be the same everywhere). I've had 8 of the BR30 and 2 of the A19 on my mesh for 18 months, with no problems.
Okay so I just realized my statement is way over-generalized so apologies to EWeLink - Sengleds are in fact made by EWeLink so I guess it depends on the type of bulb.. the ones I tried "Liokke" died or started flickering after 6 months..
edit: Had to edit this because now I'm not sure of the difference between "Ewelink" (cheap bulbs like Liokke) and "eWeLight" (Sengled)... sooo confused..
A showdown between two different protocols would not be justified because each protocol has its own advantages, and their success is greatly influenced by local factors and conditions relevant to one's needs.
Sengled Multicolor A19 bulbs (ZigBee)
