Z-Wave Mesh Unreliable, Help debugging

I have had a somewhat unreliable z-wave always. Sometimes things work great immediately, sometimes its fast, sometimes devices don't respond at all and everywhere in the middle.

It is a fairly large house, but most devices are Zooz repeaters. I'm at a lost about where to start debugging, if anyone can help that would be greatly appreciated!

All devices are Zwave+; I am adding the mesh details graph below in case it helps. All devices in it are repeaters. I am happy to provide anything else asked for! Husband gets very upset when things don't work :rofl:

Things that can hinder Z-Wave reliability include:

  • Z-Wave devices that didn’t pair correctly and create “ghost” nodes - the Z-Wave details screen can show those - look for a “discover” button, or post screenshots of those so the community can help identify them. They absolutely need to be removed by pressing the “Refresh” button followed by the “Remove” button once it appears. This sometimes requires multiple tries and sometimes doesn’t work. In those cases, a Z-Wave stick is required.
  • Z-Wave devices paired with S0 security - These are very chatty and will cause mesh issue. If you have a C7 hub and the device doesn’t have the ability to allow pairing with no security, the options are limited. Using a Z-Wave stick with the Z-Wave PC software can help but is a bit of work.
  • Many Z-Wave devices paired with S2 security will cause some issues, especially with Inovelli switches
  • Having Multiple Zooz ZSE40 4-in-1 sensors (not the new 700 series version) on the C7 will cause some major issues. I moved all of mine on my C5 secondary hub and it made all the difference!

There are a lot of posts on the forum from people with similar issues and the solutions they implemented. If you search for them, you will get some really good information.

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Z-Wave details page shows nothing with "discover" Everything in the list seems active

None, everything is either S2 or Unauthenticated. I would be okay unpairing and re-doing the S2 devices to be Unauthenticated, but Hubitat doesn't seem to give me the option anymore? Only 1 or 2 are Innovelli, and those are all Unauthenticated. 90%+ are Zooz

None :(. Though I do have some of the ZSE 18 Motion sensors, maybe those are behaving badly? Seems strange they would cause issues through the whole mesh though.

I will try again to look for other posts, most seem to be unhelpful or not relevant :confused:

Thanks for the reply!

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Can you provide more details about this? Is the issue with powered devices, or battery/sleepy devices, or both?

You don't provide a lot of detail about which devices you have in your mesh, but another thing that is known to cause issues is too many energy/power reports. If you aren't using energy monitoring to drive automations, I would recommend turning it off or decreasing the frequency of energy reporting where you can.

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Since 2.2.9 (I think), you get a prompt and if you cancel out, you will be paired without security.

I would start with @tony.fleisher’s recommendation to verify power reporting.

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The biggest culprit is opening a door and the light not turning on, so battery + powered. Looking at logs, the door open triggers, the app recognizes it and sends the power on, the switch doesn't respond.

Sometimes powered motion sensors don't function correctly to report events.

I have:

  • 3 battery contact sensors (several Zigbee/internet but those are on a different hub)
  • 21 powered Zooz switches (various 500 + 700 series)
  • 1 powered Innovelli switch
  • 2 powered ZSE 18
  • 1 Misc plug (no power reporting available)
  • 2 zooz appliance plugs - reporting only Wattage, used for monitoring laundry, reports every 2 minutes
  • 2 zooz double plug, one isn't reporting (since October), the other I set not to report but seems to report anyways. Parameter 18 claims it is set in the logs but doesn't seem to. Will see in the morning if it stuck in case it's taking too much time
  • 1 powered Temp monitor which reports about every 2 minutes

These are known to be troublesome.

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Try the rebooter app and reboot nightly. It just cleans everything up an helps me with my Z-wave issues.

Just moved them to the backup hub. We will see if it makes a difference

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Yeah, I have it rebooting twice a week right now. Seems ridiculous that I'd have to do it every night! I also worry about the hub mesh with rebooting it constantly.

Plus, that graph above with the nodes not talking to eachother tells me there is something up with the mesh, just don't know enough to know what! From what I've read it should be mostly blue.

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You might also contact zooz support and check the inovelli website for firmware updates on the devices. For zooz, they need the model, current firmware version and order number for the devices and will send you links to download any firmware updates that might be available.

Opened a ticket yesterday about a few of the devices. How in the world does one track which device is from which order though?? :sweat_smile:

Ignore that, look for ones without routes.

These can cause the same issues as the 4-in-1's

Can you post a copy of your z-wave details page? (not the map)

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I would move that to once a day in the middle of the night (ie 3am). You will never notice and it can only help.

Zwave Details:





I moved the two double plugs to my older c5 hub that does zigbee/internet connections. The appliance plugs are behind appliances and a pain to get to, so moving them would be a lot harder

I could also do the details from the custom z-wave mesh Tool if that's easier to read through

I'm wondering about those zooz outlets... if you could get rid of them for a while and see if things improve.

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I can't move the other two until this weekend at the earliest. I can't move the washer/dryer by myself :confused:

Something is weird. You have two locks paired without any security ....

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The Freezer temp speed is a little wonky too.. but maybe okay.

You might want to install the "Hubitat Z-Wave Mesh Details" app.. it can give you a nicely packaged overview of your devices and how they repeat.

Use the Hubitat Package Manager..

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I have it, I just don't understand it :rofl: I'm happy to post the images from that if it will help to get me on the right track

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