To kick off a topic and people’s choices and opinions on this subject.
Why ZigBee or Z-Wave over the other? Why both?
So it appears to me that there is a lot more options for z-wave. Why would people want to go with zigbee?
Isn't this the same as your previous post?
Search is your friend but here is a quick link:
Sort of. I've started a lot of topics in the last couple days.
There is no right or wrong answer, on this subject.
It's solely subjective personal preferences
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While I definitely agree about that "personal preference" part, I have to state for the record, that in many categories of equipment (e.g. motion sensors), zigbee devices are now significantly less expensive than their zwave counterparts. (Especially, the newer Chinese sensors)
If you're installing in a large house, that can add up to a significant difference in cost.
This makes for a good point. Much cheaper solution to move forward with.
But, devices are limited. For instance, I can't locate an outdoor zigbee plug.
Or, Zigbee garage door openers.
In addition, there appears to be some differences between the SmartThings implementation of Zigbee versus Hubitat. Speaking as a novice, it appears that there is greater flexibility in Hubitat (e.g. change in chanel, etc.)
This isn't quite accurate of a generalization Hue (Zigbee) Motion Sensors are significantly more expensive than zwave motion sensors And Iris Contact sensors "were" higher than zwave until Iris went out of business.
It is entirely manufacturer specific on pricing
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The cost of individual cheap sensors needs to be balanced by the need for extra repeaters. If you use Zwave for switches, there may be no need to Zwave repeaters.
You will likely settle on using both since there are devices that only come in one or the other.
Gentlemen,
Of course, you are quite correct that "it is manufacturer specific on pricing". Your mileage may vary.
However, could it be that the zwave people charge more for their chip than the zigbee people charge for theirs? I don't know.
I do know, that these days it's important to shop around for devices, and to be careful - quality is not always the same. Nonetheless, there may be significant differences in cost between devices from manufacturers.
If your troubles are with a z-wave lock, then it might be that the closest repeating z-wave device doesn't support beaming. The last adjacent node to a lock needs to support z-wave beaming to work. I only recently learned of this, but lucked into building out my z-wave mesh with Leviton switches and outlets which happen to support beaming. I have a feeling that people who have to move the lock to a few feet of the hub to pair them are lacking these beaming repeaters.
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Has a ZigBee smoke/CO detector or listener been released?
When I was deciding between Z-Wave and ZigBee a few years ago (I picked Z-Wave and now have close to 130 Z-Wave devices connected to my Hubitat), the main deciding factors for me were (1) not competing with WiFi and Bluetooth (lots of interference for me on 2.4 GHz), (2) better range through walls of my old house that seem good at blocking higher frequencies (I have a lot of issues with my WiFi and require four mesh routers for two stories, each just under 1000 square feet), (3) availability of all the kinds of products I needed (I couldn't find, e.g., a smoke/CO solution on ZigBee), and (4) guaranteed backward and forward compatibility with almost all other devices and controllers (I didn't want to get locked into a particular manufacturer's ecosystem). I didn't care much about cost differences, and I haven't paid enough attention to know what the aggregate difference in cost may be.
Overall, these considerations still seem to hold for me to a certain extent, though my technical understanding is admittedly limited. I do think the balance in the marketplace at large seems to be shifting more in favor of ZigBee as time goes on; one notable exception to this trend seems to be outdoor applications, which I understand may still prove more difficult for ZigBee, given its shorter range in most use cases. Outdoor Strips Z-Wave sensors advertised to have 10-year battery life are an example of long-range, low-power Z-Wave devices that take advantage of Z-Wave's lower frequency, though I think Strips has also been experimenting with ZigBee alternatives for the same use cases.
I will be curious to see if/how Z-Wave 700 Series (new successor to Z-Wave Plus) figures in this analysis.
When I first started with SmarThings I was a bit concerned by some articles I read about Zigbee that made it sound like manufacturers were using it (I don't know the specific details) to "lock" a buyer into a specific ecosystem. I now suspect this was marketing to counter SmartThings as they started to have some success. As a result of my fears, I made it a point to purchase Z-wave devices, although not exclusively.
Fast forward a few years and I found I was able to transition all my Zigbee devices (most of those of the SmartThings brand) over to another hub, Hubitat, quite easily. The Z-wave devices also moved but the excluding and pairing process was, at best, cumbersome.
From where I am today, I look at the difficulty of being able to fail over my Z-wave devices to another hub in the event of a catastrophic failure as a big issue that tilts my opinion towards Zigbee. Another factor that tilts me toward Zigbee is they seem to be faster. Now, being on Hubitat, I can't blame "the cloud" for latency but also I can see more clearly which devices appear to react more quickly and those (mostly) appear to be Zigbee (of the ones I have tried).
Despite the legitimate concerns about interference with WiFi, I have not experienced anything I could attribute to WiFi interference. I may just be lucky.
But, in the interest of full disclosure, I have transitioned all my "normal" household lighting controls over to Lutron Caseta (I have five circuits more - one bathroom - and I will be 100%). With those on Lutron's Clear Connect, the Zigbee vs. Z-wave debate is much less critical to me.
