Zigbee, whether it’s Phillips or SmartThings, covers a much wider range then just Wi-Fi band one. However, each zigbee device controller picks one zigbee channel which is a thin slice. Some controllers, like the Phillips hue bridge, will let you change from one zigbee channel to another. Others, like the smartthings hub will not. So in order to avoid a conflict with Wi-Fi, you sometimes need to change the Wi-Fi channel.
The following FAQs explain more and have graphs that show the overlaps:
Z wave and wifi don’t interfere with each other, so you don’t have to worry about that.
But WiFi can drown out nearby zigbee, particularly boosted Wi-Fi.
At my house, we have a Wi-Fi booster. If we plug it in on the north wall in one room, all the smartthings – controlled zigbee devices to the west of it drop off-line. If we just move the Wi-Fi booster to the east wall, all the zigbee devices work fine.
So the first step is to make sure that your SmartThings hub is at least 3 m away from your Wi-Fi router or any access point.
But sometimes the problem is bigger than that, and your Wi-Fi router is broadcasting on a channel which is just drowning out your zigbee devices.
You do have the option to change your Wi-Fi router, typically between channels 1, 6, and 11, so what’s the best Wi-F…
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@Mr_Lucky said, it cannot change its Zigbee frequency, either on the fly or as a user request. Whatever it was set to at the factory is what you’re stuck with. So, to be honest, “best practices” from a network engineering standpoint just don’t apply to a device of this type.
The best things you can do with a SmartThings hub to limit Wi-Fi interference:
A) put your smartthings hub at least 3 m from your Wi-Fi router. Also keep it away from metal.
B) whenever possible, put your Wi-Fi traffic on 5 GHz, not 2.4. And choose a 2.4 Wi-Fi channel which is the maximum distance from whatever Zigbee channel your SmartThings hub happens to be on.
C…