Hello, I’m new to home automation so bare with me.
I have loved the smartthings app and have 6 tp link kasa light switches / dimmers throughout my home. I have over 13 teckin outlets throughout as well that are being controlled via IFTTT to smartthings app. Everything has been working great with no integration problems - including have it turn on and off lights when members come home and leave.
with all these smart devices in my house, they’re basically using my home router as a hub right Now, Leaving me with a ton of devices on the router. I have ordered a smartthings hub because I want some water sensors and whatnot throughout the house as well.
My question is,
Would these wifi switches/outlets move off my router to the smartthings hub?
If I buy the smartthings router/hub would that do the trick?
Thanks for your time! Can’t wait to find what else I can do with it.
If they are wifi switches then they will have to remain on your wifi network. Zwave and Zigbee create a mesh network and communicate with the hub only. So getting the hub alone would not reduce the chatter on the network.You would have to replace your wifi switches with zwave or zigbee.
As @jfattizi said, WiFi devices have to be on a WiFi network. Z-wave and Z-wave plus devices will communicate over a separate mesh network. Zigbee devices will communicate over yet another mesh network.
Depending on your country you may be able to purchase a model of the SmartThings hub which also functions as a WiFi mesh router. From what I’ve seen it appears that Samsung is updating the firmware on that device less frequently than the models that don’t function as WiFi routers.
If you’re on the verge of overloading your WiFi router, you might look into replacing it with a WiFi mesh system such as eero. I believe they can support more devices.