I didn’t need repeaters for long thankfully, once I finished upgrading all the light switches etc in the house to zwave, everything worked fine.
Migrating zwave from the c7 to c8 was a lot easier than migrating from Vera to the c7. Everything just worked perfectly, except for one ghost that appeared and needed deleting.
I don't think these are issues w/me...I get the differences between Z-Wave and Zigbee, and have left the HE Zigbee mapping page open for hours/days in a row in a separate window and it still never showed an accurate state for my Zigbee connections. I'm going on the advice/info from others here who are much more experienced than I w/Zigbee devices and mapping, who have said that the maps from the Xbee/XCTU that I've created are the most accurate approach. 
Yes as mentioned this has better software to reach further the hub only shows what was connected or is connected to the hub directly. So it only shows it's tables
I could be wrong here, but i think this is perpetuated by frequent advice to add repeaters. With the C8 its not offered as much, but with the earlier hubs, and even the C7's usually one of the first bits of advice someone would get when asking about poor mesh performance was to include more repeaters. while the advice isn't to SPECIFICALLY add dedicated repeaters, and that any mains powered device would work. I think human nature is to just ASSUME that a dedicated repeater would work better than something that wasn't a dedicated repeater.
I’m not sure I agree. I have a small Z-Wave mesh. Excluding repeaters, I now have 4 recessed door sensors, 3 GE/Jasco combo Motion and switch/dimmer Z-Wave devices, a ZEN16, and 2 Schlage BE469ZP locks. All other switches are Lutron, and a bunch of Hue light strips and bulbs. With such a small Z-Wave mesh (all Plus), and the incredible reliability of the Lutron devices, there was no way to make it all work on my C-5, then the C-7, without sprinkling Ring Gen 2 repeaters strategically throughout the house. Now that everything is on my C-8 with direct-to-hub connections, I probably don’t need the repeaters, but it gives some redundancy if routes become difficult.
I just was never willing to give up the rock-solid reliability of the Lutron system just to have a stronger repeaterless Z-Wave mesh.
I don't blame ya there! and you are correct, With a smaller mesh, it often does make sense to just add a dedicated repeater or two where needed vs. swapping out working (and in your case superior) devices just to gain the repeater. My point was more along the lines that in the past the first suggestion is to add repeaters, and while I believe the intention was not SPECIFICALLY dedicated repeaters but really any mains powered device that COULD BE a repeater, often people just getting into HA assume a dedicated device must be better than a perceived multi purpose device. AS @dennypage points out, that is not necessarily the case.
I completely agree there, and have never believed otherwise. No argument at all.
I had 4 Aeotec range extender 7's (ZW189) installed and according to the Settings/Z-wave/routings, not ONE of my devices were going through any of the repeaters... NOTHING.
I excluded all 4 repeaters and will see if I have any changes.
I did notice that there were two particular devices, ecolink plugs, that have been having intermittent problems sending their status back to the hub, and the rules that were using their status to control operations, were failing, even though the plugs had turned on.
I don't know if the repeaters were messing around with the plug's routing causing problems, but the repeaters are out of the question now so I will let it run and see how things respond.
Then I was using my C7 and repeaters, the problem didn't exist... only since upgrading to the C8 did things get flaky.
So I removed one variable to test.
This is almost the same experience I have had with them. For a while one of them was actually repeating through another device. I have one in my laundry room to boost for devices in my garage, even though as far as I know nothing uses it. I will be installing some Zooz switches and dimmers in there soon, once I do, i'll take that extender and retire it. The only repeater I'm keeping is a ring gen2 (Which also has nothing repeating, but i'm keeping it for commercial power notification.
Interesting!
I thought these were the cat's meow and that is why I bought them.....
Too bad they don't really "work" as originally anticipated.
Guess I will try and sell them because they may work for someone else.
If not, I guess I can harvest the radio out of them.
Download the Hubitat app
