So if I buy new light switches, I had been exclusively Zwave. But it seems rumors of the next ST hub w/ Matter will exclude Zwave. Should I just start buying Zigbee stuff now? Give up on Zwave?
I’d say hold off for Matter devices if you can.
2 Likes
or a better option → Lutron Caseta. Dependable and they always work.
Choice is good!
3 Likes
Zwave is on its last legs. With the introduction of Matter, which will be the go to standard from now forward and zwaves absence from its standard, rest assured zwave will be phased out completely.
I would have to respectfully disagree. The eighth generation of Z wave, Z wave series 8, is very cool from an engineering perspective and is designed for large commercial properties. It has incredible range, over 1 mile, and instead of the Z wave mesh structure used in previous generations. It uses a star structure topology more similar to Wi-Fi. But using much less power than Wi-Fi devices. It will be great, for example, for a smart hotel with big parking lots. Or a commercial building with automated lights and security systems. And will have the ability to support up to 2000 devices on a single net work, as opposed to 232 with series 5.
Zwave is UL listed for security which zigbee is not for some complicated technical reasons, but it’s the reason that, for example, the ring security system uses zwave.
Anyway, it’s pretty clear that series 8 is the future of zwave, and I think it will be real. But you will need a series 8 hub for those features, and SmartThings/Aeotec isn’t even up to Series seven yet. So that’s all pretty far off in the future, maybe two years. But I don’t think you have to throw out your Z wave devices now. There is a future for them. But it may very well mean a different hub than the one you have now.
That said, when it comes to buying new switches now, I would personally agree with the recommendations of either Lutron Caseta (which I use in my own home and really like) or wait for matter. Going Zigbee right now isn’t going to be a guarantee of future compatibility. And matter is still a few months off in terms of actually having devices you can buy.
JMO, of course. 
2 Likes
Any Chance Matter incorporates Z-Wave?
How long will Z-wave last?
Any chance Samsung shuts down the Z-wave radio?
There are vendors highly invested in Z-Wave: Aeotec, Zooz, Inovelli and GE to name a few. I wonder what they have planned.
I have the same issue. I need about 5 more light switches and am considering buying Z-Wave because they work well. The new Zooz and Inovelli switches have great functionality that is ahead of the zigbee competition. For example, the wiring is much easier. While I have been waiting to see what happens with Matter, I am considering buying the 5 switches I need because I will at least get good use out of them.
1 Like
That’s the long-term intention, and silicon Labs has already demoed a combo SDK called Unify that can handle everything, but the other included protocols use IP addressing (that’s why it was originally called Project ChIP) and Zwave doesn’t in the regular version, so any Z wave to matter bridge has to proxy addresses for both the individual devices and their endpoints. It’s not impossible, but it’s just one more step in a long development process. So I think if matter takes off it will happen eventually, but probably about two years behind thread. And again it would require a new hub.
How long will Z-wave last?
No one knows how long any protocol will last, including Wi-Fi. 
It just depends on what else comes along. But as I described in my previous post (#5 in this thread), there is a future path for Z wave with series 8, so I’m not worried about the next 3 to 5 years.
However, that doesn’t mean that smartthings itself will continue zwave support past the current generation of hubs. But again, no telling.
Maybe, but I don’t really see any reason why they would for the hubs that already have it. The work is done at the hub level, so they wouldn’t have a reason to.
There are vendors highly invested in Z-Wave: Aeotec, Zooz, Inovelli and GE to name a few.
As a company, GE has absolutely zero investment in Z wave and that’s always been true. Instead, a manufacturing company called Jasco licensed the use of the GE name and logo and put it on their own products. So all that GE gets is a small amount of money from Jasco. And they don’t care whether that’s going on a zwave product or a Zigbee product or a thread product or whatever as long as Jasco sticks to the device class and the details of the license agreement. (Jasco also licenses Star Wars, Uber, and energizer brand names for a few products.)
As for the other companies, you named, yes, they are heavily invested in Z wave. But again, I don’t expect zwave to disappear in the next few years. Both Aeotec and Zooz already have series 7 hubs (not smartthings compatible, though). No way to say for sure, but I don’t see them jumping ship soon. It’s also possible that either of them might come up with a Z wave to matter bridge, we will just have to see.
3 Likes
Thanks everyone. Those are the most expensive. The Claro Smart Switch by Lutron Caseta looks similar to the others at least.
But: what about this brand: Leviton DZ15S Decora Smart Switch with Z-Wave Technology?
I might shift some around so the new ones are in a different room at least, and reuse old working ones elsewhere…
But if Matter is so close, I’m inclined to go with the cheapest option 
These Jasco ones are that, both in quality it seems, and price. But I get a 5 year warranty too, which should hold me over 'til Matter options exist.
GE by Jasco is fine, Leviton is fine, neither works out of the box with all features with smartthings so you probably do need custom code for the new platform, but it’s available.
One very popular budget zwave brand in the community is Zooz, the house brand for the retailer, the smartest house. Excellent engineering and tech support and the company provides the necessary edge drivers to make them work with the new architecture. You can read lots about them in the forum. So you might add those to your candidate list:
3 Likes
One thing, I forgot to mention…
If you do get more Z wave switches, and you use zwave direct association, there is one potential issue. (If you don’t use z wave direct association, you can ignore the rest of this post, everything will work fine. )
Although the independent third-party standard for z wave is committed to always being backwards compatible so that new devices can work with old devices, there is one exception that came in with the new security framework, S2. Devices that use the highest level of available security under S2 can only be associated directly to other devices at the same security level. That makes sense, but it can be a little bit tricky if you’re just trying to set up a virtual three-way light control and you have some old switches and some new switches. So I did just want to mention it.
2 Likes
Thank you, I just bought 3 of these Zooz switches!
3 Likes
Let us know how they work for you!
well: a flip of the circuit breaker brought the jasco ones back online, so I’m just going to not change anything after all… doh, should’ve checked that. Last time it didn’t do anything though. It was to be my 3rd switches in these positions.
All of this to say: I still appreciate your responses and I’m now keen to use Zooz for my next generation (after Matter hopefully)
2 Likes
Zooz is much better than Jasco. It has better tech support, more reliable, and is also about 30% less expensive. Someone in this thread called it the “budget Zwave brand” which I take exception to.
I’ve had several Jasco switches fail and have needed an immediate replacement. Lowes in my area only stocks Eaton’s Z-wave switches. They’re marginally better than Jasco (don’t require the “accessory switch” for 3-way operation, and the outlet has a 3-way option that is unique), a little more expensive, and the support is just ok. But the fact that I can get them immediately means I have a few in my house. If i can afford to wait 24 hours, I get Zooz every time.
4 Likes
Thanks for sharing!
It’s a “budget brand” based on the industry definition, which is just based on price point. It doesn’t say anything about the engineering quality, which I also mentioned in the same post is very good.
For example, Rayovac batteries consistently test equal to energizer, yet also consistently sell for noticeably less. Home Depot considers Rayovac a budget brand, but it’s just based on price, not quality.
From a retailer’s point of view, one of the other differences is that budget brands typically provide less marketing support to the retailer.