Leviton has now added WiFi in addition to Z-Wave with their new Decora Smart wireless outlets and switches.
I just purchased a couple of the dimmer and appliance WiFi plug in modules (DW3HL and DW15A respectively) and was able to set them up with the new “My Leviton” IOS app. Now I would like to control them with Smartthings, but it appears they are supported yet. I Did a search here on these and couldn’t find any info. Does anyone have any insight on integrating them?
As in cloud-to-cloud with MyLeviton? That would be tremendous for outbuilding support. Working on one right now and was looking at those new Wifi switches as the best option for something out of range of zigbee and zwave but with ethernet.
Could we get the protocol added to the product description on the official compatibility list? It’s there for a few devices from other brands, but not most of them, and the Leviton are getting hard to find because there are so many.
They’re not currently listed on the products page as we’re wrapping up Samsung Connect testing for these devices. They work out of the box with the SmartThings Mobile App.
Ah, I understand. I’ll pass that suggestion along. They’re listed for the GE devices because GE offers the same devices in both Z-Wave and ZigBee - so those are the actual names of the devices. Leviton doesn’t offer many ZigBee products at this time, so their device names don’t include the protocol.
Leviton’s protocol coding is in the model number, so just putting the model number on the page would help. Because they all use the same physical case.
Hello, I’m starting to plan out a migration from my current Insteon setup to Smartthings. I have given up on Insteon because of it’s closed standards and ecosystem that doesn’t easily interoperate with other standards.
I’ve settled on the Leviton Smart switches, but now that I’ve seen there is a Wifi version of these, which one would people recommend, the Zwave version of the switches, or the Wifi version of the switches?
I feel like the wifi version will be more “future proof” but I’m wondering what other think of pros/cons of each.
I think it would depend on a few things that are particular to your circumstances. Here are a couple that come to mind right now.
How many other z-wave devices do you plan to install? How big is your home and where will your hub be located? Z-wave switches can act as repeaters for battery powered devices that communicate with z-wave, which extends the functional size of your mesh network.
Wifi leviton switches depend on a cloud-to-cloud integration with ST. What if ST or Leviton decides to kill the integration in the future for whatever reason? Or if you decide to use a different z-wave controller in the future, you’d still have functional smart switches if they use z-wave.
Hi Mark, thanks for this input. I’m definitely leaning towards Z-Wave so as to create a good mesh network for other devices to communicate with the hub. I have a lot of concrete walls so this is important.
In terms of Wifi, it seems to me that over the past several years, as the wifi chips have gotten smaller (in size, price and power requirements), more-and-more home automation products have adopted it. From the perspective of the manufacturer, it reduces complexity because everyone has a Wifi router in their house that’s connected to the cloud.
First it was products like Nest and DropCam, but now it seems that even light switches and light bulbs are coming out with Wifi chips. I can see a future where Wifi routers will start to include home automation functionality built right in.
So that’s my only reason for thinking that Wifi is a safer choice. My view is also tainted having been “burned” by Insteon, which I invested a fair amount of money into, hoping that the adoption of home automation would compel them to focus on integration and interoperability.
But clearly Z-Wave does not suffer the same problem as Insteon, since it is a somewhat open standard with lots of manufacturers are behind.
But even so, the Samsung home automation which is built into the system utilizes both zigbee and zwave as well as Wi-Fi. ( As, by the way, does the Almond +)
There are multiple reasons for this, but at present, the most significant one is that Wi-Fi just uses too much power to work well for small battery operated devices like sensors or doorlocks.
Nice, yeah I’ve seen the Samsung router, didn’t know about the Almond+. I’ve also read that the Google OnHub (which I have) has a dormant Zigbee antenna built-in.
I think what I was suggesting is that Wifi seems like the most logical protocol to standardize on both in devices and in controllers.
But yes, the battery powered devices to present a challenge.
Apple’s HomeKit has chosen a mix of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices for their platform. The Bluetooth lets them have small battery operated devices as well as door locks.
I have two Leviton switches,
DH6HD
DH15S
both of which are connected via HomeKit over wifi. Is it possible to also use them with Smartthings? I tried using the Leviton Smart Home app but it never asked me to create an account that I could then connect to ST. It just found the HK devices directly.
