I'm sure this has been covered, but I couldn't figure out the correct search terms to find it, so apologies for that.
Seems like a really "duh" question, but I'm curious nonetheless:
I have a pretty good mesh. The majority of my Z-Wave devices are at 100kbps and route directly to the hub or with minimal hopping. Included in my mesh are 4 Ring Range Extenders. In the ~6 months since I last rebuilt my mesh, I have never seen any route to a device that included one of the range extenders.
Do these range extenders provide any unseen benefit to my overall mesh, or could I go ahead and remove/sell them without impact?
Basically just wondering if it's possible that they are doing something to strengthen the overall mesh despite the lack of routing (which would seem odd to me, but is why I'm asking the question).
I too have 4 dedicated extenders (Aeotec RE7s) strategically placed in my mesh.
Sometimes none are repeating (everything connected direct), but more typically at least one of them is helping somewhere. The strange part is that it changes almost every time I happen to check (every couple/few weeks or so), but that's just how ZW rolls.
I leave them in my setup for peace-of-mind -- I know they all work (at some point in history, each of them has repeated for something), so I consider them kind of the foundation of my mesh -- they're all in good spots to pick up duties in case I move other stuff around, add new, etc.
My experience is similar to @hydro311. I have several Aeotec RE7s and several Ring Range Extenders strategically placed around the house. Most of the time only 1 or so of them are repeating. The actual repeating device changes. The Aeotecs seem to repeat more often. This may be a matter of location. The one advantage of the Ring Range extenders is they have battery backup and I have RM rules which report on loss of power. I leave all of them in for peace of mind.
