I am DONE with IRIS products

I just can’t take this anymore. I woke up this AM to have 4 of my IRIS devices in an “unavailable state”. I am not sure if I should try to sell them or just throw them in the trash. There MUST be a motion and open/close sensor that is reliable. If this were only happening in 1 part of my house, I guess I could chalk it up to a bad mesh or something. But in one case, I have 3 open/close sensors on some closets that are all next to each other. One craps out. Or I have multiple motion sensors in a room and at various time during the month, one of them will die. I dont want to have to remove the battery and re-pair this. If anyone has a recommendation of sensors that have worked well for them, please advise. Thanks - rant over. :zipper_mouth_face:

I have at least 6 IRIS devices, Smart Plugs and Motion detectors. None have ever gone offline in over a year.

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My Iris motion sensors are some of my most reliable ST sensors - zero issues w/them going off line, and they are quick to sense motion.

One thing - if you have Device Health enabled in the SmartThings app, that can cause issues/false alarms. I (and I believe many others) have turned that feature off. It’s possible your devices are/were fine, but getting misreported as unavailable.

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I’m sure that’s very frustrating! :disappointed_relieved:

Do you have any zigbee bulbs connected directly to your smart things hub? Not through a hue bridge?

If so, which brand and model?

There is a known problem with many brands of zigbee bulbs where they are identified as repeaters, and they do repeat pretty well for each other, but they run into a kind of “buffer overflow” problem and they will lose messages from other devices. This could be difficult to troubleshoot, because it can make it seem like the problem is with the sensor when in fact the problem is with the repeater.

Obviously, if you don’t have any zigbee bulbs, or the only ones you have are connected to a Hue bridge, this won’t affect you. But I did want to mention it just in case.

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I’m kind of a purist and try to stick with 1 brand that I know works (hence the tons of Samsung gear in my house :). I only have Hue Bulbs connected to the huge bridge. The only other lighting is 1 ST LED strip. I have the Hue Bulbs on all 3 floors. I have Lutron Caseta Dimables in the rooms without HueBulbs (with the Lutron Hub), and Leviton Smart Plugs for the things that need a 2 prong plug.

Also, I just turned off device health, dont know if that will help or not but will try anyway.

If device help was on, it will probably help immensely by turning it off. Did for me. Watch out whenever you get an update to the app on your device. For some reason the feature has defaulted ‘on’ for me the last couple updates and I find our when one of my door sensors goes ‘unavailable’

Interested to see if it’s better for you in a few days

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Sorry, what brand is the LED strip? And is it connected to the hue bridge or not?

Turning off device health may also help, it has for some people.

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My iris products are some of the most stable devices I have.

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As mentioned in your other thread, you need some zigbee repeaters

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As mentioned several times before by others:

  • The Iris devices are my absolute most reliable devices I own.
  • You need need a few ZigBee repeaters, like the Iris wall plugs.
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On repeaters:

Read post 11 in the following FAQ, then go back to the top of that thread and read the whole thread. It can save you a lot of frustration.

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If you’re gonna trash ‘em, I’ll take ‘em.

From reading the posts of unfortunate folks like yourself, there must be environmental issues that inhibit the functionality of the various sensors and devices. Because there are folks like you who have constant issues, and there are others who run the same devices with virtually no problems.

Glen I am sure you will have to fight to the death to get them.

Just out of curiosity, what is Device Health supposed to do, and why does it cause problems?

So far my Iris sensors are working fine, mostly. I do get the unavailable status a few times, but I currently have NO zigbee devices on my hub…so everything has to reach the hub. I plan to fix this soon with some random zigbee modules (repeating) plugged into my dormer windows. I understand the sensors may have to then be deleted and readded to get them to recognize the new repeaters.

Sorry, that answer is above my pay grade. :slight_smile:

I just noticed I was having issues, came here and did some searching and on the advice of others w/similar problems turned off Device Health and all was hunky dory again. I’ve kept it off since.

Someone else like @JDRoberts should be able to provide a richer explanation. :slight_smile:

Don’t make life painful for yourself. You do not have to delete and readd devices. If you purchase some new Zigbee repeating devices, get them paired and into the SmartThings system so you know that they work.

Then, you will unplug the power to your SmartThings hub, take out the batteries (if you installed them), go fix yourself a sandwich and a drink, wait 30 minutes.

Then put the batteries back in, plug the power cord back in and let SmartThings boot back up. At this point in time, a Zigbee heal will occur. Nothing you have to do other than be patient. It’s possible that it could take up to 24 hours for this to complete, more likely less time with as few devices you have.

Did I mention that you don’t need to delete and readd your Zigbee devices for them to find another device to repeat through? Just checking. :sunglasses:

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It’s a feature specific to the SmartThings platform, not part of zigbee or zwave, so I’m afraid I can’t help.

There is some more discussion here:

I think you might be implying something that I just cant quite grasp…you think maybe I could not delete them and instead just power down the hub and wait some time…:). Thanks

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When your SmartThings hub is completely powered off with the batteries removed, all the Zigbee devices that are connected to your hub go into what is known as “panic mode”.

Open and read the following post. It gives you a fully detailed explanation of how Zigbee and it’s devices work.

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