Maybe a dumb questions but does my phone have to be in the house for routines to work?
What routines, what devices?
Are your devices connected via bluetooth or Wifi?
Do you have a hub?
It’s impossible to answer without any context. So the answer will be: it depends.
No, with the exception of a few Bluetooth connected devices which connect directly to your phone. But for your cloud to cloud integrations, or hub connected devices if you have a hub, as long as there is an active Internet connection at the house routines will work even if you’re thousands of miles away. 
So, yes, the model number matters, but there are only a few devices that would fall into the category of needing the phone to be at home.
Sorry new to this seemed like a reasonable.question.
- Routine is a timer - turn off exhast fan after 10 mins.
- Device is Lutron Caseta Switch for the fan
- Device is Connected via Lutron Hub
- You didn’t specify what hub you are referring to?
This forum is for people who are using the Samsung SmartThngs ™ home automation platform, so all of the questions and answers are assumed to be in that context. So if someone just says “hub“ they mean a smartthings/Aeotec hub.
The Lutron system does work with SmartThings, as a cloud to cloud integration, so smartthings routines created through the smartthings app using Lutron devices can still run when your phone is not home.
If you are not using smartthings, and you are asking something just about Lutron, or about another platform, then you would need to find another forum to ask the question on. 
For example, here’s the Lutron forum:
Thanks JD. It’s the answer I needed. I need to get a hub. Can you tell me the correct model for it? I see several on Amazon.
I use Lutron devices in my own home. If you have the Lutron SmartBridge that should give you remote access already, you wouldn’t need to add smartthings to the picture. Normally you would add smartthings if you wanted to add additional devices which were not Lutron, and specifically zigbee or Z wave devices. And even if you did want to use the smartthings app, you don’t need a smartthings hub for the Lutron integration. That works cloud to cloud.
So why specifically were you thinking that you would need a Smartthings hub? I just wanted to make sure I haven’t confused the picture for you.
@JDRoberts, is correct. Any routines you set on the hubs will run automatically. Some routines can even run locally, meaning if your internet connection goes out they will still run as programmed and you can even control most things with your phone if you connect to the local wifi network everything is on.
However, I believe the Lutron hub is a cloud device, so if the automation is set in smartthings, it will need an internet connection to run every time. It would be best to program that on the Lutron app itself. (I’ll add I have no idea what the lutron capabilities are).
But for example, if you connected a Philips Hue Hub to a smartthing Hub, they are able to communicate directly, without an internet connection, which is nice. Similarly to what the new matter connection standard is trying to accomplish.
JD, thanks for the update. I am using smart things app and have it connected already to the Lutron switch and it is controlling the fan with the timer. I don’t have a hub so that’s why I was curious that my phone needed to be present.
Ok, in that setup, you don’t need a smartthings hub because, as I mentioned, the Lutron integration is cloud to cloud anyway. It never touches a Smartthings hub. In the case of a routine created in the smartthings app, that will run in the smartthings cloud. (Not on your phone even though it was created on your phone.)
When it’s time for the routine to run, the smartthings cloud sends an Internet message to the Lutron cloud, which sends an Internet message to the Lutron SmartBridge in your home. That’s why you have to have an active internet connection at home.
But you don’t need a Smartthings/Aeotec hub, it’s not in that picture at all.
BTW, the smartthings app on your phone is not “Connected“ to your Lutron switch. It talks to the smartthings cloud. The smartthings cloud talks to the Lutron cloud and the Lutron cloud talks to the Lutron SmartBridge, which then talks to the Lutron switch. So that’s why the phone can be anywhere, it’s not talking to the switch, or even the Lutron SmartBridge directly. It all goes through the Internet.
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JD, I do have a Lutron Smart Bridge. And yes, it does most everything I needed to do except it doesn’t have any timers. Ergo Smarthings. So if I understand you correctly, if I turn on the cloud
It won’t work even if my phone is not in the building.
KMW
No, it’s the other way around. It doesn’t matter where your phone is as long as your phone has an Internet connection and your Lutron SmartBridge has an Internet connection. That’s how they communicate whether your phone is in the same building or not.
If you don’t have an Internet connection, then the integration won’t work whether the phone is in the same building or not. It’s just the way smartthings is designed. It’s a very cloud-dependent system as of the time of this writing.
That may change once matter is fully deployed, but we aren’t there yet.
Ok. got it. Thanks for the explanation and the help.
KMW
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