I recently conducted a test to see which one was better, i.e. delivered a response at a further distance.
Test bed Zwave LR:
1 new Hubitat C8 on 2.3.9.x
1 new Zooz Water Leak Sensor: ZSE42 (800 Series)
Hubitat mobile app V 2.X
(power provided by RavPower portable battery, Internet via Mobile Hotspot)
Zwave LR SmartStart was used to attach the Zooz water leak sensor to the Hubitat.
Test bed Yolink:
1 Yolink Hub:YS1603-uc
1 Yolink Water Sensor: WLS1
YoLink Mobile App on Android
Tests were conducted at an extremely large house.
In both cases, the water leak sensor was immersed in a paper cup of water, at various distance in order to test the distance and received signal.
In all tests, the YoLink range proved to be FAR superior to the Zooz Zwave LR.
As soon as there was a concrete wall (with or without rebar), no Zwave LR signal was received.
YoLink range was approximately 1000 feet.
Yolink makes some nice devices, but the whole cloud based issue is a huge turnoff.
I also seem to recall that the ZW-LR devices power level might be fixed at whatever level it pairs at, that it isn't dynamically adjusted? I am not sure I remember that all correctly, I would have to go back and dig up where I read that, so please take it with a grain of salt. But it could explain the lack of range.
As soon as I read the word "Proprietary" I stopped reading. It may be a great product, however being essentially "locked in" to a single vendor would not allow me to sleep at night.
Proprietary doesn’t have to be bad, but it’s often a tough pill to swallow.
Want to integrate with YoLink? You’re stuck going through their cloud. Or you could get rid of all your non-Yolink devices and stick with whatever they’re willing to sell you.
I certainly agree with you that there are many downsides to the whole YoLink setup.
However, I was highly surprised that there was such a difference between it and standard zwave LR.
That was posted by a user based on an email from Zooz and likely a misinterpretation of what the Zooz rep had stated to them in an email.
The ZSE42 though, may not be operating at the max power offered by LR, possibly due to the small CR2032 battery. It also may need time to adjust the radio power based on circumstances, I am not totally sure how it works. but it is supposed to be variable to save on battery power if the device is closer to the hub.
The YoLink device runs off 2xAAA and may just operate at the full radio power/range at all times.
Z-Wave LR devices automatically adjust and optimize the radio output power at every transmission. This dynamic power control is critical to supporting future-proof Z-Wave device installations...
I completely understand and respect those with concerns regarding the need for using the Yolink cloud to integrate with Hubitat. That being said (and I also would definitely prefer a completely local alternative) I have been using Yolink sensors to monitor temp status, leak sensors and some other applications (water valve controller) for 4 years now without any problems. Hopefully, Yolink will not decide to “pull the plug” or cause future problems with my Hubitat integration.
For me, the Yolink devices were the only ones with long-term battery life (several devices going on over 3 years now without a change) and range good enough to monitor refrigerator temps and mail box status while completely enclosed in metal “faraday” cages while also several hundreds of feet removed from my hubs which are located in a hardened security/IT closet/room behind several doors and walls. The only devices needing battery changes about once every two years are those that are outdoors or in refrigerated areas and subject to 33-37 degree F temps regularly.
Again, everyone’s use case will vary as will the relative importance of various features (such as total local vs cloud dependency). But for what its worth, interestingly enough, throughout the time I started using Yolink integrated with Hubitat, the Yolink part of the equation (along with my fiber optic internet) has been much (and I mean mucho) more stable than problems with my Hubitat (problems with which have been relatively few also) and especially compared to my small number of Z-wave and Zigbee devices. In no way am I trying to start any arguments here (really, to each his/her own. . . Peace to everyone).
As I have been saying for several years now, I wish someone could incorporate the range, battery efficiency and reliability of the Yolink system into something that could be implemented locally with Hubitat. That would be one sweet system !!! Fingers crossed that Yolink doesn’t suddenly do something that makes the integration unusable.
Yolink rarely delivers on anything they promise in a timeframe they promise (or at all in some cases). Feel free to look through the Yolink thread on Home Assistant's forum. They said all sorts of things were "coming soon" that never came at all, or came much much later.
I like the devices, but would never implement anything from them with the current cloud requirements and false promises they make.
However, wouldn't you implement a situation with YoLink where Hubitat or even your own LoRa devices couldn't deli8ver the required functionality?
Of course, assuming that the YoLink devices would deliver (today) the required functionality and Zwave LR devices wouldn't.
Given your knowledge of LoRa, do you have any inkling as to why their devices perform much better than zwave LR?
You make an excellent point which may have been hinted by @jtp10181
Perhaps the Zooz water sensor is just not designed as well as the YoLink water sensor.
Could be...
That wouldn't surprise me. Their light switches are terrific, but my experience with their sensors was less then optimal.
Admittedly I haven't tried any Zooz sensors recently, nothing in the 700 or 800 series, but their old sensors were buggy, ate batteries, and would often crash the mesh.
A better test would be one of the new motion sensors, ZSE18, ZSE11, or ZSE70. They can all run off larger CR123 batteries or be wired up to USB (or 12v for ZSE70).
I could take my ZSE70 for a walk, but I wont have concrete with rebar in the way, maybe a couple of houses though.
Of course, this makes the assumption that the amount of power in the Zwave LR device is directly proportional to the size of its battery.
Is that a valid assumption?
Shouldn't it be that the amount of power in the Zwave LR is not proportional to the size of battery, rather the lifetime of the device is proportional to the battery size. That is, no matter what the size of battery, the same power of signal goes out.
!!! Fingers crossed that Yolink doesn’t suddenly do something that makes the integration unusable.
