Hello…I am starting to really dive in deep with SmartThings. I setup a SmartThings Station at home and in my office at work.
I recently got a fridge with the Family Hub. Will this also do the same as the Station or can I use the Family Hub as the main SmartThings “Hub” in my home?
You need to verify that the fridge Family Hub has the Zigbee/Thread radio already built in. Earlier versions of the fridge required purchasing the separate dongle to support those radio types.
With those radios, the Family Hub will support exactly the same capabilities as the Station, with the exception of not being a wireless charger for your phone or other devices. Neither the FH nor the Station supports Z-Wave. The FH and Station support:
- Wi-Fi LAN Edge Driver devices (Sonos, Bose, etc)
- Zigbee Edge Driver devices
- Matter over Wi-Fi Edge driver devices
- Matter over Thread Edge driver devices
- Virtual Edge driver devices
Both hubs are Thread Border Routers that provide the communication path from Thread mesh networks to wired/wireless IP networks for Matter device communication.
Cloud->Cloud integrations are supported regardless of the hub since the hub is not involved with device communication between the ST cloud and a vendor cloud.
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