How reliable is HomeSeer compared to SmartThings V3?

[TiiDub]

Hi all,
Tried posting this to the HomeSeer reddit but there seems to be no moderator there to approve my post. So i thought maybe i should try posting it here. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

I currently use the SmartThings V3 hub, have been using it to control my 60+ smart devices for the past 2 months in a newly renovated home. However, my experiences with it have been somewhat dissatisfying to say the least, my biggest issue with it is the reliability of the battery powered motion sensors.
I have the motion sensors setup to automate the turning on/off of pretty much every single room in the house. The problem is that about once per week i would get a random motion sensor in the house not respond to people entering the room and automate the turning ON of lights. What i have noticed is that if i leave the room and wait the duration of the timeout period of the motion sensor (which is about 30sec for my Zooz ZSE18) then re-enter the room again, the automation would run correctly.

I actually have no idea if its the fault of the HUB or the Motion Sensors at this point (OR even maybe my GE switches?) . But in my search online to resolve this issue, i have found that many ppl are suggesting HomeSeer as the go to hub for reliability. So my question for those of you whose had experience with both Smartthings and HomeSeer is, just how much more reliable is HomeSeer is compared to Smartthings? Do you guys think changing over to HomeSeer could resolve this issue?

[Guest]

Here 3 years ago , and 72 hours .before going into Hs3...

I tried the v2 hub. I saw the big latency between automations rules (do not remember the name they call this) .

It tooks me 3 days to remove this and to go into hs3 .


at that time, my only automation experience was with home-bridge.



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Anyway, could you say us what is your sensors model(s) ?

[TiiDub]

My motion sensors are:

12 x Zooz ZSE18 motion sensor

2 x Zooz ZSE40 motion sensor

1 x SmartThings motion sensor

1 x Ecolink motion sensor

All of them have had at least 1 incidence where motion did not trigger light. The Zooz ZSE18 motion sensors have had the most fails, but I cannot be sure if its the specific model of motion sensors that is unreliable or if its just a system wide problem in general. I have much more ZSE18s than other sensors so its only natural that it would have the most probability of issues showing up.

[mik3]

Never touched smartthings, but I’ve tossed the towel in on Hubitat and moving over to Homeseer.

hubitat is to buggy, inconsistent, and not met for big installs. Unless you want to daisy chain a bunch of their hubs together. Makes no sense since the cost will easily exceed Homeseer.

As for Homeseer. It runs and runs fast for me. Sooo much better. Less device support for zigbee devices though, but lots of ways to integrate other options that no hub can do.

[jmaddox]

I've never used SmartThings.

Homeseer offers a free 1 month trial. Why not deploy it for a month and then decide. I agree it's a pain to exclude then include all your devices, but that should definitively answer your question.

[Vit]

Isn't the Smartthings Motion Sensor Zigbee?

[gswalker88@gmail.com]

Isn't the Smartthings Motion Sensor Zigbee?

Yes, it is. I’m here in this thread for the same reasons, and I’m wondering how Zigbee will be supported under HS4. For those of us coming from the SmartThings world, would it be best to hold onto our ST Hub for Zigbee devices, and gradually move all of our Z-Wave devices over?

[Bigstevep]

Yes, it is. I’m here in this thread for the same reasons, and I’m wondering how Zigbee will be supported under HS4. For those of us coming from the SmartThings world, would it be best to hold onto our ST Hub for Zigbee devices, and gradually move all of our Z-Wave devices over?

The HS Zigbee plugin has limited devices that work with it currently. The Smartthings HS plugin works with all the devices you add to the ST hub but you will be processing the ST devices through the ST cloud not locally like HS.Here I use the Hubitat hub (s) and the HS mcsHubitat plugin for all the Zigbee devices and very limited Zwave. I use two HT hubs not because of the amount of devices but I have a very large spread out house so the radios (Zigbee, Zwave) cover the range and hold a better mesh.I am using three HT ZNets for the Zwave devices and I only use HT for Zwave if the device is closer to HT hub than a ZNet. Since I don't use the HT hub for any event handling (rules) I have never had any issues with with my HT hubs and they are running locally. with HS so no cloud.

Bottom line is that HS is software and connects to devices that gather the data whether it a ST hub, HT hub, WiFi, ZNet Pi or cloud connection. Because of this it is way more flexible that any consumer all in one device like ST, HT, etc Having said that ST is only as reliable as the data it is receiving from wherever so just make sure that data collection is solid.

[ServiceXp]

I know it's not what you asked but... I moved from Vera to HomeSeer several years ago for similar problems and while HS is not perfect for me, its LEAPS and BOUNDS better then Vera EVER was.

[logbuilder]

In terms of reliability and stability of HS3 itself, I have two locations running HS3. Both are Win 10 Home. One of them has been up for over 200 days with no issues. If you turn off windows updates, it runs well. The second is the location that I test with so I do reboot it from time to time.

In terms of motion sensors, I configure them so that they signal a motion anytime one is seen rather than having a time after motion during which it will not retrigger. I handle multiple triggers in the events. It is a strategy that I prefer.

As far as motion sensors, I have several different brands. There are two I really like. One is the Zooz ZSE18. I like the mounting and that it can be AC or battery powered. The other is the Aeotec Multisensor 6. I use it outside to get temp and humidity as well as motion. It is under a porch which is dry.

[Caboman]

The HS Zigbee plugin has limited devices that work with it currently. The Smartthings HS plugin works with all the devices you add to the ST hub but you will be processing the ST devices through the ST cloud not locally like HS.

Actually, ST can process a number of device types locally, including Z-Wave, Zigbee, and LAN (WiFi) devices. Just from my personal inventory: Sonos WiFi speakers, Philips Hue Zigbee bulbs, ST-branded Zigbee Plugs and Multipurpose Sensors, HomeSeer Z-Wave Leak Sensor, GE Zigbee Dimmer Plug, and a Zooz ZEN15 Plug,

BUT, and this is a BIG BUT, the local device handling is only a pre-requisite for locally-executed automations. Currently, only a handful of pre-defined automations will run this way. See https://support.smartthings.com/hc/e...cal-processing for details.

So although quite limited now, *hopefully* with the new ST emphasis being on software instead of hardware, this capability will expand. Just like *hopefully* we will see HS4 actually released, and not be “Coming Soon!” like it has been for 3+ years. If there’s no action on either front soon, I will have to look harder at trying out HomeSeer and HomeAssistant. (I’ve just heard too many frustrations with Hubitat to bother giving it a whirl as well.)

I’ve even seen speculation that ST would be able to run WebCoRE locally in the future, but I’ll believe that when I see it!

[mik3]

Yes, it is. I’m here in this thread for the same reasons, and I’m wondering how Zigbee will be supported under HS4. For those of us coming from the SmartThings world, would it be best to hold onto our ST Hub for Zigbee devices, and gradually move all of our Z-Wave devices over?

Or use a Hubitat hub as a gateway between both systems. They are currently out of stock though.

i am selling mine if interested.

[Caboman]

The HS Zigbee plugin has limited devices that work with it currently. The Smartthings HS plugin works with all the devices you add to the ST hub but you will be processing the ST devices through the ST cloud not locally like HS.

I get what you’re saying. Even for the devices that ST processes locally, any automations controlled from HS will all go through the cloud. Here’s key sentence from the ST support page I linked to says this about what runs locally on ST: “Manual, on-demand control of a device or SmartApp through the SmartThings mobile app always requires an internet connection to the cloud and cannot be performed locally.” As far as ST is concerned, HS invocations would be seen as “manual, on-demand control of a device,” and hence would always require the cloud. The only way to get around it would be to create a virtual switch in ST that HS could control. ST could then trigger an eligible routine that runs locally, but that initial trigger (via the virtual switch) would still depend on the cloud.