The Smartest House Home Automation Sale: Zooz Z-Wave Long Range Smart Plug

jmcgee

Aug 27, 2024 02:58 AM

58 Posts

Joined Jun 2005

jmcgeeAug 27, 2024 02:58 AM

58 Posts

Quote from Michael2649

:

Can't speak to the zbox. Check out the Hubitat box while you're looking.

AGREED ON HUBITAT. I moved from home assistant to Hubitat a couple of years ago and haven't looked back

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Giantcrazy

Aug 27, 2024 03:11 AM

3,380 Posts

Joined Sep 2006

GiantcrazyAug 27, 2024 03:11 AM

3,380 Posts

Quote from Michael2649

:

Can't speak to the zbox. Check out the Hubitat box while you're looking.

Bonus points, there's a seller on eBay liquidating a bunch of 7's for 20 bucks each. I'm slowly migrating from Vera to Home Assistant myself, but I've been using the Hubitat as a transitional hub until the HA is ready.

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DCstewieG

Aug 27, 2024 03:20 AM

21 Posts

Joined Mar 2011

DCstewieGAug 27, 2024 03:20 AM

21 Posts

Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank DCstewieG

Quote from funkdoobiest

:

Late 90s started building HTPCs, gaming pcs, work pics. Got so tired of equipment and finally got rid of everything and simplified life. Got rid of my last monitor years ago. Just looking to plop something on the shelf and plug it into the router and then operate it from my laptop.

I'd recommend anyone getting started with Home Assistant to look at their Green model:
https://www.home-assistant.io/green/

Plop and operate Smilie

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Tbl5143

Aug 27, 2024 04:15 AM

2,309 Posts

Joined Nov 2016

Tbl5143Aug 27, 2024 04:15 AM

2,309 Posts

Quote from skipoopy

:

Amen to Home Assistant! There's no reason to use the RPi for it any more. Buy a small form factor microPC and it will be a lot more robust (lots of articles about RPi flash failures). Get a USB stick from Zooz (maybe on sale), and you'll have a great setup. I was so hesitant to migrate away from Vera, but finally pulled the trigger (wasn't painless), but not looking back!

Yeah, would not recommend running HomeAssistant on SD card storage. There is a nvme hat for the Rpi 5, but then you're pretty much in the mini PC price range. I've been running HA on a low power Pentium Silver NUC for years. I have a zwave stick (currently the Zooz 800LR) plugged in and it's working great. I have had a few lousy Leviton zwave switches cause issues with the mesh when they started failing, and I took a few bad updates over the years. I would never choose a proprietary hub as you never know how long it's going to be around, or if there's ever going to be support for new stuff down the road.

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Zumaone

Aug 27, 2024 04:28 AM

1,125 Posts

Joined Feb 2009

ZumaoneAug 27, 2024 04:28 AM

1,125 Posts

Quote from Giantcrazy

:

Bonus points, there's a seller on eBay liquidating a bunch of 7's for 20 bucks each. I'm slowly migrating from Vera to Home Assistant myself, but I've been using the Hubitat as a transitional hub until the HA is ready.

Actually you can offer $15 and he will accept. I bought one to play with and it worked so well I got a backup.

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B34N

Aug 27, 2024 05:31 AM

1,163 Posts

Joined Nov 2004

B34NAug 27, 2024 05:31 AM

1,163 Posts

Quote from funkdoobiest

:

Can someone give a quick rundown if ZBox is any good. I set up my Vera years ago and it just started acting wonky and I need a new hub relatively quickly. This just happened to pop up at the right time. I only have Z-wave devices so this will work for me.

It really depends upon what you area looking for. I suggested a ZBox to a new user a year ago and they've been happy. I'm an openHAB user for 10 years or so and I'm very happy with openHAB.

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badfishlbc

Aug 27, 2024 06:07 AM

626 Posts

Joined Oct 2007

badfishlbcAug 27, 2024 06:07 AM

626 Posts

I agree with all the Home Assistant recommendations. If you are slightly more technical, going the Proxmox route with HA is pretty awesome. I use Proxmox and have a Docker VM all running on the same hardware providing me with a lot of great self hosted resources. But if you're timid, you can buy a cheap thin client or something preferably power efficient and run Home Assistant headless.

At any rate, Zooz has been some of the best stuff I've bought as far as Zwave devices go.

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LilPierre

Aug 27, 2024 09:17 AM

14 Posts

Joined Feb 2013

LilPierreAug 27, 2024 09:17 AM

14 Posts

I have around 12 switches, garage door controllers, motion sensors, door sensors, and water sensors that are Zooz branded. They seem to work very well and if there's any issues customer service is quick to respond and based on the email verbiage is US based. The drawback to their hub is that it doesn't currently have LR capability.

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Deal-R-Dash

Aug 27, 2024 10:40 AM

1,371 Posts

Joined Oct 2014

Deal-R-DashAug 27, 2024 10:40 AM

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Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank Deal-R-Dash

Quote from funkdoobiest

:

Can someone give a quick rundown if ZBox is any good. I set up my Vera years ago and it just started acting wonky and I need a new hub relatively quickly. This just happened to pop up at the right time. I only have Z-wave devices so this will work for me.

I tried out a ZBox as I was having a lot of stability issues with my Hubitat C7 locking up and/or dropping off of our network. Zbox had a boatload of influencers peddling it as the next killer Zwave product "built for Zwave" when I bought it. I fell for the hype and even a year or so later there is simply not enough 3rd party integrations and community support when compared to Hubitat or HA. In fact, there really isn't even that many reviews out there other than the original marketing and influencer videos. Even after upgrading it to the latest version, the UI while "nice looking" had all kinds of issues with functionality not being able to save settings or the changes made to the page that made me feel like I was beta testing their product. Don't even get me started about the joke that is their mobile app. It would not even let you include/exclude devices among many, many other deficiences. Ironically their product team refuted all of this information so not sure if there is some sort of alpha version out there that they were referring to lol.

All that said, I bought a Hubitat C8 and have been absolutely loving it. It even included a free migration utility to back up my C7 and migrate the entire Zwave network to the C8. Pretty cool.

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Counterfeit

Aug 27, 2024 01:07 PM

412 Posts

Joined Feb 2008

CounterfeitAug 27, 2024 01:07 PM

412 Posts

Zooz/The Smartest House's competitor must be in here downvoting everything. Good prices and great service from The Smartest House. They're quick to ship and they have great customer service. Agree with the other commenters about Home Assistant. It's amazing, though it can be a huge time suck if you let it! But a lot of fun, and so nice to have a totally agnostic smart home hub once you add in bluetooth/Zigbee/Z-Wave coordinators. I also run an RTL_433 coordinator so I can connect my Govee leak sensors. Though I like the Z-Wave S2 leak sensors from Zooz better.

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Counterfeit

Aug 27, 2024 01:10 PM

412 Posts

Joined Feb 2008

CounterfeitAug 27, 2024 01:10 PM

412 Posts

Quote from brawa

:

I'm looking to add a standard ceiling fan with light to HA. Currently it has a single switch for power with pull chains for the light and fan (3 speeds). Is a ZEN52 in the canopy the best option?

I'd email The Smartest House. They'll help you out.

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CleverCreature256

Aug 27, 2024 01:17 PM

724 Posts

Joined Nov 2022

CleverCreature256Aug 27, 2024 01:17 PM

724 Posts

Quote from trza

:

Lots of people are using Home Assistant now. Best done using a dedicated pc and a zwave controller. An old desktop mini would be perfect for the job, but NUCs and those N series mini PCs are also popular. Or RasPi 4 or 5 could get you started.

Setup is a bit techie, but the app is mature and documentation is pretty good these days.

One can also run it in a VM or Docker

thebestnumberis42

Aug 27, 2024 04:25 PM

153 Posts

Joined Sep 2014

thebestnumberis42Aug 27, 2024 04:25 PM

153 Posts

Bought several of the zen30 switches to control a switched outlet. Thanks for this deal!

TCTX

Aug 27, 2024 06:38 PM

177 Posts

Joined Jan 2020

TCTXAug 27, 2024 06:38 PM

177 Posts

I bought the hubitat off of ebay but also been intrigued with HA. Do you still have to pay the $5 monthly fees to use voice control? I also know there's a long route to go through to avoid but not sure if that's still the case.

scraejtp

Pro

Aug 27, 2024 07:12 PM

893 Posts

Joined Jun 2005

scraejtp

Pro

Aug 27, 2024 07:12 PM

893 Posts

Quote from TCTX

:

I bought the hubitat off of ebay but also been intrigued with HA. Do you still have to pay the $5 monthly fees to use voice control? I also know there's a long route to go through to avoid but not sure if that's still the case.

Yes to both.

You either pay Nabu Casa for for ease of integration for voice (Google Home and Alexa) and remote access, or there is a walkthrough on how to set it up yourself.

The built-in voice control (Assist) does not require a subscription.

Last edited by scraejtp August 27, 2024 at 01:16 PM.

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The Smartest House Home Automation Sale: Zooz Z-Wave Long Range Smart Plug

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