It is or should be common knowledge that to build a good mesh you should start with devices closest to the hub and work outwards. All good on this..
What if you have to relocate your hub after the fact? Is it better to exclude the devices and start over in the new location or will the networks settle themselves eventually?
My residential client's hub is in the basement utility room right now and I would like to move it to a more centrally located place on the first floor. I have already paired 17 devices (Zooz Toggles Zen23 &24's) but things are starting to get a little tricky the further I go. I do have some repeaters on order etc but feel a centrally located hub will be a happier one.
I also have a C7 I could use but am holding off until the kinks get worked out... or if the C5 works well I'll leave it.
yes you should run a repair after moving.
Given there is likely a hub restart, you may want to wait 10-30 minutes to let the hub settle after its reboot. (DB is very busy during / after reboot).
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Yeah I figured I would do that at the very least.. the question though is - is there any good reason to exclude everything and start over? I can't think of any but wanted to check in with everyone to see if I am missing something.
My experiences are you do not have to start over generally.
I believe the 'start near the hub and work outward' is to help ensure you can pair devices in place.
If you started with a device far away, it may not want to pair in the first place, which is an unhappy initial setup experience.
Assuming your move does not otherwise orphan devices, the repair should resolve it. If you were moving so far as that there may be orphaned devices, then you may have another problem.
You might run repair before the move (so devices are aware of alternates), then move, wait a bit and repair again.
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That's a good idea will give it a shot. Thanks for your advice.
the thing to watch is devices that require beaming (locks typically). This is where moving the hub could be a problem if there otherwise is not a repeater that supports beaming near the device that requires it.
Also having [only] zwave+ devices (vs. old zwave) can also make things more likely to be able to speak to each other.
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Yes absolutely agree.. the good news is this is a new install so no old ZW devices and while there are some locks (Yale YRD256 Zigbee) they will be installed a little later.
I think they theoretically are supposed to fix themselves after a while. I sure wouldn't start by removing and pairing everything. Maybe as a last resort, but what a pain to do that!
There was some good Zwave advice above about network repair. For Zigbee there is no Repair button, but you supposedly can force a relearn/repair by doing a 20 minute or more shutdown of the hub.
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So to report back - relocated the hub to the main floor from the basement utility room. Ran a Z-Wave repair. Able to pair some additional switches but the basement lights no longer respond. Not worried at the moment will reboot the server, maybe run an additional repair and see what settles by tomorrow. I also have a contingency plan to add some repeaters and a 2nd hub if necessary.
You may need multiple Zwave repairs...
Let's imagine your working mesh had the hub (Node #1) with a repeater at Node #10 and Node #20 with an end device of Node #30. Now you move the hub and it runs through the list of nodes asking for neighbors... #30 is all it can converse with, because of range. And #30 says all it knows about is #20. Your Hub is completely unaware that #10 exists anymore.. it doesn't answer direct and it can't be reached through #30. A 2nd ZWave repair would allow the hub to talk to #20 and therefore learn that #10 does exist. It could conceivably require a 3rd Wave repair to get #10 to actively respond to the get neighbor request and respond.
Now the above is hypothetical, it's possible real world meshes aren't so physically distant that messages cannot make it back... but it can happen... at least in my mind 
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Okay cool - I've run it twice and will do a couple more times for giggles. Maybe a reboot as well.
Reporting back again! The morning after relocation...
So ran multiple Z-Wave repairs last night (remotely via wireguard!) , rebooted then let it sit. This morning most of the basement devices are responding!
Having a little trouble with slowness and spotty responsiveness especially with the basement front room switch. It is the furthest away but there are switches nearby (upstairs, directly above and on the stairway down to the basement) that should mitigate this.. Haven't done any zniffing yet.
I have some Aeotec 7 v2 repeaters on order to maybe improve things.
edit: spoke too soon.. some of the switches on the "edge" of the mesh are not responding.. even the ones upstairs. No doubt construction materials play a role in this. I may end up adding another hub back in the utility room.
