I’ve had a V2 hub for ages. Is it worth the $200 upgrade? I have 110 devices, most of them z-wave… maybe 10-15 zigbee.
My opinion… if everything is working fine then keep your current hub for now. Only reason i can think of for getting a v3 is if you want to connect devices that use thread.
$200? What country are you located?
Most would say it is not because the v3 has less memory and tends to have performance issues with higher number of devices and Edge drivers.
Probably not. See the following.
As others have said, the V2 hub has better specs in most cases than the V3. There are two obvious differences in favor of the v3 which will matter to some people and not to others.
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The V2 has to be connected via an ethernet cable to your Internet router. The V3 can use Wi-Fi, which might allow you to place it in more places. But if that was going to be a dealbreaker for you, you would probably already know it.
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The V3 has a “thread border router“ built in. The V2 does not. That is only significant if you intend to use “matter over thread“ devices via Matter. Thread border routers are typically built into other devices, but there are a lot of them these days, you may already have one. For example, at least some of the Echo models, some of the Google Home models, and some apple devices like the HomePod mini all have thread border routers built-in. And will be able to work with V2 for matter. There are also some other devices, even a smart plug or two, so options.
Here’s the official support article on thread border routers:
What do you get if you use devices that support matter? Sometimes you get fewer features, but the connection itself will be local and will not require custom code, so it may be more reliable, may be a little quicker, And you will be able to use it with multiple Home Automation platforms at the same time, like using it with SmartThings and Apple home without having to have any custom integrations. So you may care about that or you may not, it’s just something to be aware of.
United States. That’s amazon…
Thanks for the feedback everyone. Going to stick with the V2. I am not using thread yet, and I have lots of ethernet drops in my home so I’m all set there. Awesome community, thank you.
ahhh… on Amazon… don’t search for Smartthings hub… you will get the ST one that was stopped being manufactured and thus the extremely high price from vendors. Search for Aeotec smart home hub and get the lower price of $130
Just came here for this. My shades (Leviosa) are telling me I will need a v3 hub in order to upgrade the shade motors and connect natively to the hub. May stick with V2 as it is still chugging along. (and because of the better specs)
I also have a V2 hub which has been working well for 8 years. Should I consider moving to a V3 hub to be ‘future proof’ for backups? Is it true that if the V2 hub fails then I can’t use ‘hub replace’ to add a new V3 hub?
Thanks
See the last sentence in the following post.
“Hub Replace works for going from v2 to v2, v2 to v3, v3 to v3, v2 to Aeotec etc. You don’t have to be on v3 to use Hub Replace if you have a v2 and it works if both hubs are active and when the old hub has died.”
My understanding is that ‘hub replace’ should work exactly the same on V2 and V3 hubs.
A better reason for moving to V3 might be the ability to use ‘hub groups’ with their automatic failover (which they call ‘backup’).
Thanks. This is very helpful. So it would be advisable to add a V3 hub now to my account to ensure that I have an active V3 along with active V2 in case the 8 year old V2 fails in the future?
I just recently replaced my v2 hub with a version 3 & used the replace hub feature & it was simple & quick (i was veey surprised). I also added a smartthings station & then made.a big hub group with both devices plus my samsung tv. You will not go wrong. Only recommendation i would make is limit how many zwave devices you add as samsung is no longer supporting zwave. I definelty would say make teh switch.
Connect zwave devices to the ST V3 or Aeotec hub as they support zwave.
I did but i was just saying im trying to move away when possible because of support & what i forgot to mention is start furure proofing with matter devices.