Please don’t judge Zwave itself by the SmartThings’ idiosyncratic implementation of it.
Zwave is a good solid low power home automation protocol, which is why Ring chose it for its alarm system and ADT used it to add lighting controls to its systems. The fact that WiFi doesn’t interfere with it is a big plus.
SmartThings has from the beginning layered in its own communication layer while at the same time failing to provide most of the usual zwave utilities.
The exact same Zwave devices which are flaky in an ST installation often work just fine with a different Zwave hub. (The exception is early generation Jasco/GE switches, which tend to be more flaky elsewhere. But the newer generation are fine.)
So, absolutely, you might find that zwave is a bad choice for your ST-driven home. Just don’t judge the independent third party standard on the basis of that experience.
I am currently testing whether these darn Aeotec Extenders are the reason why my Zwave network sometimes gets bogged down. I noticed that my network slows down drastically especially when it is trying to reach a specific device at the farthest end of my house, in what we call the plant room and which is one level below even the basement. To reach anything there, I had to install 2 Aeotec Extenders along the way - and these did actually extend the reach of the network (somewhat), but I have a nagging suspicion they slow things down occasionally (read several times a day - which becomes very annoying).
I disabled all Routines that activate this device so that it’s not being constantly called to switch ON/OFF, and there is a tangible improvement, but not enough. So next step now is going to be to switch off the Aeotec Extenders completely and see what happens then.
And to be honest, I face this issue also with Aeotec Nano Duo. If I call one of these switches to turn ON/OFF occasionally, like with minutes in between, then it’s fine. But if I take any one of these switches and switch it ON/OFF several times in a row, seconds apart (like toggle about 6 times with a 5-second wait in between each toggle - from the app), then it’s a near guarantee that within seconds, the whole Zwave network will be clogged, with delays of several seconds to few minutes (really!).
