Potential SmartThings Customer

Devices & Integrations
1

Hello Everyone,

When I first started looking at Smart Home hubs I narrowed it down to SmartThings and Staples Connect because of the compatibility both had with so many technologies. What deterred me from SmartThings was the fact that at the time they were on V1 and everything was reliant on the Cloud so if your internet went out your smart home did too. Now that V2 is out and stuff some stuff is ran locally I am reevaluating my decision. Here is my thought process on the pros and cons:

Staples Connect:
Pros:

  • Runs Locally
  • Very Stable (have never been down or slow)
  • Device Compatibility
  • Supports Lutron (ClearConnect)

Cons:

  • No IFTTT support
  • No API for apps
  • Very Slow updates from Staples

Based on that you can see I do have a Lutron device that I would need to change out, not a big deal. I would gain IFTTT and would also be able to use voice commands through Amazon Echo. Seems like that is more than enough for me to make the switch. Could you please give me feedback as to the stability of SmartThings and if my internet goes out does my setup still work flawlessly? Staple Connect has really given me a very stable environment, I don’t want to lose that. Thank you for the feedback, please feel free to give my your thoughts on things I might not be considering.

Dave

2

You will lose some stability but here are a few things to keep in mind.

The simpler your setup, the more stable it is.
The less you are making changes, the more stable it is.
The only current app that can run locally is Smart Lighting and it only runs locally with a few devices. I have no doubt this will continue to grow.

SmartThings is making big strides in the right direction. But they continue with growing pains. The pluses way out weigh the minuses for me. I wanted easy home automation for years that also let me get a little geeky, when I found SmartThings last spring it was exactly what I’ve always wanted.

1 Like
3

My experience is that the cloud has been pretty reliable. My own internet connection is less reliable than their cloud service.
That said, the local processing support for ST is still very limited. You will be disappointed to learn that most setups will still fall on their faces when the internet or cloud services have a glitch.

4

You’ll get some very varied responses about stability right now. The v2 app update and the v2 hub release has caused some upheaval. Some of the changes seem like they may not have been fully baked yet, and there are some bugs rearing their ugly heads. I switched from v1 to v2, and it’s been pretty good for me (and many others), but some other folks have not been as lucky.

Local control is possible in hub v2, but it is still in its infancy. While the capability is there, at the moment, only the Smart Lighting app can run locally and only some devices (many of the official ones, but not all, in my experience) can run locally. For a Smart App to run locally, both the app and any devices it use have to be permitted to run locally, and that list is pretty small right now.

Personally, I have faith in SmartThings. Not that I can 100% guarantee that everything will work, and not that I believe they will implement everything everyone wants (because no company can do that), but I do believe that they are working towards good stuff and that things will improve from here. I am pretty sure that local control options will expand from the current state (ST staff have also said so).

That said, everyone has to make the decision based on their own needs. I believe that if you can’t be pretty happy with the way a system is right now, then you shouldn’t buy into it yet. Future features are not a 100% guarantee. It may take longer than the company initially plans, it may not come out the way you wanted it to, or the company may have to change course for a variety of reasons. Until a feature ships, you can’t count on it. If local control is a high priority for you, for instance if your internet connection tends to be unstable, then you probably shouldn’t go with ST right now.

I’ve never used Staples Connect, but from what I gather, people seem to say it is very stable, but also a lot more limited than ST. Everything in life is a tradeoff.

If you decide to go with SmartThings, then great! Welcome! There’s a lot of cool things to do!

If you decide to go with Staples Connect now, then if you stick to acquiring Z-wave and Zigbee devices to build your system, you could maintain the ability to switch to ST down the road for the relatively low cost of the hub.