Tried 6 x Sonoff S31 Zigbee repeaters and that was a complete disaster. Replaced with 2 x Sylvania Smart + and while they had far superior range they would stop responding every couple of weeks until they were power cycled. I have an XBee so all of this is based on real data.
Eventually I split my network with 2 hubs and eliminated any Zigbee repeaters and this is the most reliable it's ever been. That said I'd prefer to have one hub doing it all and use the other one for dev.
Can someone tell me what Zigbee repeaters they use to achieve a 100% reliable network with decent range.
You seem to know what you are talking about but here are a few basic questions anyway...
Do you have any Zigbee bulbs in the mix?
What channel is your Zigbee radio on and what channel are you using for WIFI, are they overlapping?
What kind of house are you in, when there are to many WIFI signals around like in an apartment, hi-rise condo, etc. this can cause problems.
What are your walls made of, thick concrete walls and metal stud walls can be a problem also.
70+ Zigbee devices with an average of 6 battery powered devices/1 mains powered device. No bulbs, just outlets, switches and sensors, 100% reliable on Zigbee channel 20, with Hue bridge running on Zigbee channel 25, and 2.4ghz Wi-Fi on channel 1 and access point on channel 6. I use mainly Centralite outlets and a few Inovelli Blue switches, but as you can see, there is more to Zigbee reliability than quality repeaters.
Bobbyd saved me some thinking & typing. 50+ Zigbee devices with about 20 of them battery powered. ZERO zwave. No bulbs, just outlets, switches and sensors, 100% reliable on Zigbee channel 20. I use mainly Centralite outlets but my go-to for strong repeaters is the Sylvania 72922 Smartplug. I'm on a C7 because lightning fried my C4, but the zigbee network was equally reliable on the C4.
I have a 3000 sq ft house and 146 Zigbee devices on channel 23 on my C-7. It's highly reliable.
For dedicated repeating devices, I have:
10 Iris 3210-L smart plugs
1 SmartThings 2016 smart plug
5 Ikea TRADFRI control outlets
I also have these devices, all of which are repeaters:
(these show up in Neighbor Table Entry in the getChildAndRouteInfo page)
3 Sylvania Lightify RGBW strips
2 Sylvania Gardenspot outdoor RGB strips
12 Ecosmart Zigbee LED A19 or BR30 bulbs
This is all to support
4 Sengled LED bulbs
50 Iris v2 contact sensors
25 Iris v2 motion sensors
7 iris v3 motion sensors
3 PEQ motion sensors
1 Hue Outdoor motion sensor
8 Linkind water sensors
4 Xiaomi Mijia light sensors
2 Aqara temp hum sensors
and about 10 random other battery devices.
I originally planned for a repeater for every 8 battery powered devices, but the mesh has grown since then, both in number of repeating devices and number of battery powered devices.
The Ikea outlets are there primarily to make the Xiaomi/Aqara devices stay connected. IIRC they only repeat for 5 devices.
I have bulbs on my mesh, even though people suggest not doing so. I've not had issues with them, but I think it's particularly because of the ones I have (Home Depot Ecosmart, which IIRC repeat for 2 or 3 devices, and Sengled, which don't repeat).
Interesting, I have three of these (72922-A) (FCCID: 2AKGT-PLUGA) which are the the ones I referred to during my opening message that would lock up after a few weeks and bring down my Zigbee network. I have no idea of the firmware version and have looked at doing an OTA upgrade but leary of investing in a hub to not solve the problem. Can you tell me if you have updated the firmware on yours and how you did it?
I'm using a single tuya zigbee repeater, no issues so far but then it's just a small flat. They'll just show up as a "device" though and there's nothing you can do to change any settings.
As long as Hubitat sees it it'll do its job automatically.
Aliexpress is your friend.
