@drgregharris
While I didn’t see any schedule related issues last night, my “thoughts” are that SmartThings is a convenience in its current form. I simply can’t use it to make certain the attic is warm enough to prevent pipes from freezing, as it is dependent on my internet, their internet, their servers, and their software, all to be running without error.
While it is nice to be able to get notifications on my phone when I am out, for mission critical stuff, I suggest you handle it locally, and preferably with a hard wired solution.
MY goals for HA devices are that they have an open API; that way I can integrate them with SmartThings, as well as having local control over them. Good examples of this are Phillips Hue and Venstar thermostats. And while I have a number of Z-Wave and Zigbee devices, nothing they control is mission critical.
What attracted me to SmartThings was the open system, and what appears to be aggressive development; none of the competition matches this. I was not aware of the total internet dependence at time of purchase (and almost returned it), but decided to take a chance. I have seen numerous outages in my short time with SmartThings so I know I can not depend on it, but I don’t need to the way I have things set up. Like I said, I treat it as a convenience.
Vera, and Universal Devices (once their wireless stuff goes GM), are worthy contenders for local programs and control, but it looks like Vera is in trouble, and Universal Devices takes forever to do anything; this is why they are currently crossed off my list. Indigo is quite capable, but their mobile device support is spotty, and does not support Android.
With the exception of big, proprietary installs, I think everything else out there is also internet dependent. While “Internet” is a very catchy marketing term these days, “dependent” is not so much. Systems should provide status and control to your mobile devices over the internet, but not be totally dependent on it for local devices to communicate with each other. SmartThings has the first half of this down pat, and I have seen numerous comments that they are working on the second half.