Lousy experience with Homeseer HS-WD100+ and HS-WS100+

Devices & Integrations
22

Thanks a lot for your advice!
What about the coopers? Are they Zwave plus? Do they run locally? Or the only that run locally are the Levition and Ge?

23

I have no experience with this brand.

24

In my new home I was looking at all GE switches and dimmers (about 70 of them), and the only issue I am having is that the GE dimmers do not have any LED indicators to show the dimming level and GE dimmers look just like their switches (so people accidentally dim the light all the time because of the sluggish responses). For that reason alone I was looking at the HomeSeer HS-WD100+ dimmers. However, the issue that Aud is describing is giving me pause.

I have been using GE switches for about an year, and I like the fact they look and feel like ā€˜regularā€™ switches. I purchased Eaton Aspire, Cooper and Leviton to try them but did not like the feel of these switches (I think @JDRoberts has a good post on all these switch types somewhere also).

@jg506 - you mention buy mostly GE switches and Homeseer only in a few locations. How about just using their dimmers? Do HomeSeer switches and dimmers always talk to the cloud even for single taps?

Anyone reach out to Homeseer support to see if they have a solution?

Thanks,

25

Iā€™ve installed 4 Homeseer HS-WD100+ dimmers, and replaced a GE dimmer with one of these. Hereā€™s my feedback:

I didnā€™t care for the double tap or any other automation via Homeseer device, I use SmartThings for all automation. Donā€™t buy these for the extra features. The extra features are addons, but Smartthings can handle any of that for you. These are the same price as the GE dimmers and most other zwave dimmers.

  1. The user experience for these are way better than any zdimmer Iā€™ve found. The dim level lights and nice white LEDs, and you can tell this switch is a dimmer by looking at it. I had issues with GE dimmers bc they look like other normal switches and guests couldnā€™t tell if it was a normal or dimmer switch. These Homeseer switches have a GREAT design.

The delay for me is not noticeable when turning on. When dimming it dims a lot slower than the GE dimmers which is the main reason I bought these - we would try to dim the GE dimmers and itā€™s annoying bc it goes so fast you canā€™t get to a low level that you want. But the lowest dim level isnā€™t as low as GEs zwave dimmers. This is the only negative for me.

In summary, just one con - the lowest dim level is not low enough. They can fix this in a firmware update, and hopefully will. This could just be that my 6 11.5W Feit LEDs are just too bright though. Iā€™m going to replace with lower wattage lights and see soon.

The pros are:

  1. GREAT ergonomic design. Easy to identify that this is a dimmer and shows you the dim level you are currently at.
  2. Nice slow dimming up and down so itā€™s easy to find the level you want.
  3. Very fast for me, but I have 130Mbps internet speed. Some have complained about speed and this could be due to routing status to cloud and back. I have no issues with this.
  4. Zwave plus chip so youā€™ll save energy, although all the manufacturers have zwave plus switches out now for the same price.
1 Like
26

@ausmurp

  1. Did you ever end up figuring out if changing your LEDs would allow you to dim lower using these Dimmers?
  2. I cant find anything that would suggest that Homeseer considers this an issue or even has a firmware update in the works to correct it. Could you point me in the right directions.

Thanks for the help!

27

Hey, as it turns out lower wattage LEDs did the trick, and I can now dim pretty low. Still not as low as the GE dimmers, but Iā€™ve now installed these in all of my recessed light switches, along W the standard non-dimming zwave switch for my outdoor lights.

I still love these switches, by far the best Iā€™ve tried, and now my whole house is wired up with themā€¦next project is Sylvania Lightify outdoor lights on me deck.

28

good luck with your deck!

I am really liking the switches i installed so far. I am going to try a few different bulbs and see how the performance varies. I also ordered a couple of Leviton switches to do a comparison with before i wire up the entire house. Curious to see local processing VS cloud processing and dimming capability.

29

I have about 20 Homeseer dimmers that will get installed in the next two weeks. Now that we are mid-2017, have the kinks been worked out?

30

Just make sure you go with lower wattage bulbs i.e. not the standard 65W equiv. The lowest dim level on those is not low enough. Iā€™ve found same thing with Leviton dimmers.

31

My newly built house came with recessed LED lights, so I didnā€™t have a choice which bulb to use. Now that my Homeseer switches are installed, in a couple of rooms Iā€™m not happy with the lowest dim level. Most rooms I donā€™t care so itā€™s not an issue. Homeseer has a list of regular bulbs and compares dim level among other facts. However, I havenā€™t seen a list for the native LED recessed/flood light fixtures. Anyone have a recommendation for a native LED recessed light fixture that has good full range dimming?

32

Are you very technical? A work around could be to grab a custom firmware from GitHub from a hobbiesy smartthings Dev and see if you can change the case statement that handles the lowest level dimā€¦I may try this and if it works Iā€™ll post instructionsā€¦

33

when will SmartThings add native support for this device that will run locally? switches with scene controlā€¦