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.
Terrible time with Xiaomi sensors.
Tuya cured all.
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Ditto on the Tuya
(US $8.79 66％ Off | Tuya ZigBee Signal Repeater Amplifier USB Extender For Smart Life Devices Sensors Expand 20 30M Home Automation Module
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.
The Iris smart plugs can repeat for about 13 devices (based upon research here: Zigbee Repeaters and Max devices - FAQ - SmartThings Community).
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).
And they're tiny!
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Have to be flashed to a specific FW (easy if you have an rpi in the house, or other linux box) but these are pretty great.
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?
Centralite seems to be highly thought of. Is this the product you are referring to: Amazon link
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get rid of the sylvania bulbs.. i had nothing but issues with then as they insisted on repeating and not correctly and ffd up my network..
Sounds like the Iris 3210's are doing most of the work. Please correct me if I am wrong but these no longer seem to be in production.
Are you referring to this type of device?
Does the small form factor and presumably tiny antenna affect the range\reliability?
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I didn't have the bulbs for that very reason, just the outlets.
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ya the outlets were reliable. i had like 5 and were good repeaters but ive had 3 die and stop working now after a like 4-5 years.
I have thought about doing this but I've not yet given up on a smart plug that also does a decent job repeating.
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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.
The tuya smart sockets are also often repeaters.
97 Zigbee devices on channel 20 and like others have many Iris/Centralite outlets throughout house. Then as some GE Zwave devices were getting older I changed many over to their Zigbee version when they were on sale at Lowe’s several years back. So between that and adding the external antenna on my C7 that made a huge difference as I have a zigbee contact sensor on my mailbox at the end of the driveway that has zero issues.
That's the USB repeater I've been using for about 2 years now. They work phenomenally well. Form factor doesn't seem to matter.
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Sadly, they are not. Centralite made some really reliable stuff (all my Iris devices). I have spares new-in-box that I got on clearance.
Eventually I will find you... 
It was spring 2020 and I was looking for Iris v2 contact sensors... after many Google searches I stumbled upon teamequip selling bulk packaged Iris v2 contacts and motion sensors, and retail packaged 3210-L smart plugs, but in units of 100! I posted on the ST community to see if I could get a group buy going.
But then I contacted the seller and suggested they sell units of 10, and they responded they would. Shortly after I posted an update over at the ST community about it, @ogiewon started this thread over here (Lowes Iris Zigbee Devices Available).
I bought a whole bunch. And so did everyone else -- they were all gone in a matter of weeks. But the seller at teamequip was so happy I helped them clear out all their inventory so quick (after suggesting units of 10) that they sent me extra stuff. 
But I could have bought 2000 each of the motion and contacts... and made a killing selling them for 3 or 4x on ebay.
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