Well, just goes to show that everyone experiences different things! Like I said, I spend untold hours flipping breakers, re-pairing, resetting, updating firmware, killing ghosts... It was a nightmare until I finally pulled the trigger and replaced all of them (about 25) with Lutron. Since then? Not a single problem with light switches.
My GE (Enbrighten) outlets seem to be fine though...
I think I might have lied about only having a few Z-Wave devices left... I just looked and surprised myself... I still have 35 left... Oh well, they seem to be stable!
Hi, my name is Harold and I'm an automaholic...
Let me give you a very recent example. I have my lights on Leviton z-wave switches. I also have about a dozen Thread plugs from Wemo for my Christmas lights throughout the house (Trees, garlands, wreaths, etc). About an hour ago we had a brief power outage (duration: maybe 2 seconds). All of my Leviton devices recovered fine. About 75% of my Wemo plugs lost their mind and had to be physically unplugged and replugged.
Yeah, I definitely don't think Thread is ready yet. I have 6 Nanoleaf Essential bulbs on Matter/Thread and they drop off the mesh a lot. Currently using Google Nest Border Routers. Hopefully, the improvements they touted at this year's CES work out. I have three Thread networks that I'm desperately trying to join together. It's been an interesting journey though. It forced me to get my IPv6 world in order.
If you’ve got the money and family doesn’t mind missing that world cruise, go with Lutron, but I am extremely happy with my Zooz devices and I went on a world cruise 
I just got back from a cruise! Definitely not a world cruise. I don't think I could take it. But I also have twin 9 year olds so that probably has something to do with it... 
I have a 3yr old boy and a 7yr old girl. Confidence levels are through the roof. I've never experienced anyone who can be so utterly sure of something, whilst simultaneously having f*ck-all idea of what they're talking about. The wife has her theories 
"Daddy, you said the wrong word and you are wrong and I am right" - 3yr old, yesterday.
Jesus.
Has he been on reddit? 
2200 square feet. Right now everything but one computer, and the HA stuff is on WiFi. The 4 hubitat, 1 hue and 1 Ecowitt hub are all on a managed POE switch, so running a switch isn’t a bother. I imagine I may need to canngenit out for compatibility though. The original (and now renewed) plan was a combination of utilizing exsisting cable that is just there, but not actually connected to anything, with a few runs of new cable. I want to get the TV’s, streaming boxes, Xbox, receiver and computers all off WiFi and I to hard wired.
Currently we are on a 500mbs internet package. The one computer currently connected to hard wire is averaging about 330 - 350 mbps. We can go up to 1 gig .
If they currently work on WiFi, I need to ask why? Do you have performance/bandwidth issues? TVs, streaming devices, etc. don't typically hog allot of bandwidth. With the internet plan you have, you won't really see any benefit of hardwiring at this point. Even if your devices can do gigabit, you are limited on your internet access to your 500Mbps speed.
If you think your current WiFi setup is not meeting your needs, look into a scalable solution. A Unifi setup should be able to easily meet the demands of your current and future devices. If you aren't on WiFi 6 yet, a bump to that would be a nice improvement/upgrade.
That being said, 1 Express device will not provide enough WiFi coverage. You can go with 1 Express and mesh a 2nd (or more) for more coverage, or add 1 or more different Unifi APs to provide the additional coverage where needed. Just remember that the Express can only handle an additional 4 devices when used as a gateway/router. Consider the Dream Router as an option, if you're not ready for a Dream Machine Pro or SE.
Most of the UniFi APs are advertised to cover 1,500 sq. ft. They will easily do that if mounted high in the home in a location that doesn't have a lot of non wood framing/wallboard obstructions. The new WiFi 7 APs are out now.
I meant we can go up to a 1gig plan (actually I think 2 is available here now).
Currently router is WiFi 6. Why do I want to do this? We get a decent amount of buffering while streaming. In addition I tend to follow that hard wired is better school of thought. The only reason we have all WiFi currently is because there isn’t currently an optio. For hard wired except in on room, the office where all the equipment is. House is 3 years old. There was cat6 laid out in the attic and some walls, but none of it connected anywhere. To network panel in the house .
That might be due to be a setup issue on the streaming devices or the WiFi settings on your router. It can also be caused by the limitation of your ISP speed. If you are at 500Mbps, consider upgrading to 1 gig or more, if you can swing the difference in price per month.
My household consists of 4 people - 2 adults and 2 teenagers. I have multiple streaming devices, TVs, laptops, tablets, phones, etc. We can stream using multiple devices at any given time without issues or buffering. I can stream Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, etc., while my kids stream Apple Music or Spotify all day. I estimate that 90% of the devices in my home are connected to WiFi.
For certain, things yes. I used to think a hard wire was necessary for everything, but no longer do. I'm an IT guy by trade and deal with this stuff day in and day out.
I bought my house new. Unfortunately, it was fully built when we found it and I did not have the opportunity to have ethernet run to every room as I would have liked. I did have some runs installed after the fact, but have even only used a handful of those.
With the advances in tech over the years, a solid WiFi network can meet or exceed the performance of a hardwired network.
I'm not one to tell someone how to spend their money. If you can easily get a hard line to the locations you need, go for it. If you can't, then there's no reason not to consider building a more robust WiFi network setup. Please keep us posted as to what you decide and how everything pans out. And of course, keep asking any questions you may have.
Lol, telling people to upgrade from 500Mbps connection.
Netflix recommends the most for 4k stream at 25 Mbps, YouTube, Hulu, Amazon are all less.
You can LOL all you want. Upgrading ISP speed is not simply about what the streaming services recommend or require.
The fact is, with today's devices and services, most people just don't need, and won't come close to really using, a connection much faster than 100-500 mbps. That might change over the next decade, but I laugh when people upgrade from 500 mbps to 1 gig, or from 1 gig to 2 gig, at home.
When we lived outside Philly, we had a 1 gig symmetrical connection at home, with two people in the household, simply because we could. We had about a 300 mbps (allegedly) connection in our small office a few miles away, with an average of 5-7 people making much greater use of it, because that's all the provider there could support. Did I notice any real, practical difference when working at either location? Nope! Sure, files would transfer faster at home on the 1 gig connection, but we're talking about a minute or two of difference (if that) when updating an OS or working on large video files. So, we'd go to the restroom or get a cup of coffee, and it's not like this was a major part of the day, most days.
When we moved to our vacation home permanently at the start of the Covid pandemic, we couldn't even get decent DSL and had to work on slow, cobbled together 4G with distant towers. Now that we noticed! But now we have Starlink, and routinely have two people working online every day (much Zoom and Teams), with one of them having streaming video (e.g., YouTube TV) on in the background. In the summer, we often have 1-2 guests on Zoom calls now and then, as well. Works great for everyone.
Bottom line: We need to make sure everyone in this country has access to about 100 down, 20 up, at a minimum. And, we probably need to shoot for about 500/100 by the end of the decade, to give us a good safety margin. But do most people need, say, a gig symmetrical? I'd say they won't even make practical use of it, and own the equivalent of a Ferrari for driving to the grocery store.
Agreed. I could pay for faster service from Spectrum, but I would actually see very little benefit. We have 300Mbps down and 10Mbps up. Multiple 4K streaming with no bufffering/stuttering, even with others in the house downloading massive updates or video files. Having a robust, reliable home network (e.g. UniFi) AND using quality streaming devices (e.g. Apple TV) has resulted in a very solid, reliable, and robust solution. Additional Internet bandwidth would be nice, but I cannot justify the added expense.
Agree...good internet access is long past being a nice-to-have, it's closer to other utilities like having access to electricity, gas, and water. Look at countries like South Korea where access to fast/reliable internet is the standard. Admittedly, South Korea is very small country, but if we can send people to the moon...
About the same here, and it's been more than enough for our uses, even when we have both sons and daughters-in-law visiting/streaming - everything runs like a top. (I know some people may have specific WFH needs that are different.)
Back on topic...Lutron does seem to be the Rolls Royce (or at least Lexus) of lighting control from everything that I have seen in this forum from users, and not depending on the Z-Wave network insulates them from any HE Z-Wave issues. So great quality/reliability at a price.
Question is whether the additional cost is worth it and of course no one can tell anyone else whether it is or isn't, as that judgement is a combination of both financial and personal factors. We're very comfortable, but wife's family immigrated to the US when she was very young and money was very tight, so she's barely on board when I'm buying $25 to $30 smart switches. Should have seen the arguments we'd have over $2 ATM charges years ago... 
(Seriously.)
GE/Jasco/UltraPro switches have been rock solid for me (aside from HW issues in the much older 500 series devices years back). The GE stuff has been completely set it and forget it. Don't cause problems, join easily from any location in the house, etc. Not fancy in terms of features, but just always work.
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