Yes the hub itself polls Z-Wave switches and dimmers that don’t send us status reports, and only reports state changes up to the cloud. It aims to poll each one every 10 seconds, though no more than one per second. Unresponsive devices get dropped down to a longer interval.
The GE/Jasco devices also send a node info broadcast when you tap (not hold) the primary switch, for add/remove purposes. This isn’t sent specifically to the hub, but if we’re in direct range we hear it and bump the switch up to the front of the polling cycle. That’s why you sometimes see a quick response but not always.
If you don’t get a state update for a Z-Wave switch within 20 seconds, some things to try are:
- Hit Refresh in SmartThings to make sure it’s marked as responsive by the polling system. (Note that if refresh doesn’t work, polling won’t either)
- Make sure there’s not excessive Z-Wave traffic (eg. Pollster) as hub-based polling defers to cloud-based commands
- Reboot the hub and wait 10-30 seconds for polling to fully initialize before trying again.