Smartthings pain

Frustration is setting in. I’m ready to dump this project. I’ve been wasting way too much of my time on all this. Every time I try to add a new device it takes what feels like a Herculean effort.
Case in point is adding a new Sengled Element Plus bulb. It never shows up in ST hub, no matter how many times I reset the thing. Every forum/topic/Sengled doc tells me its supposed to work and pair right out of the box. Sounds great yet I dont get(see) anything. Ever
The only reason I got the pair of Sengled bulbs was a Lightning deal from Amazon @ $15off.

Getting this all set up is a PITA. When it works, its great. When it doesnt I feel like I chucking it into the trash can.

Just in case it was a range issue, I moved the bulb to literally 8ft from the ST hub. Still nothing.
Did a reset on it (10x off/on), got the flashes letting me know it was reset, and tried again. Nothing.

I am using the Orbi Home System for my wireless network, and I have to have the ST hub connected directly to the satellite unit a couple feet away. If Zigbee is that sensitive to wireless interference, then looks like I wont be using them at all.

The only other Zigbee products I have are 2 Lightify Dimmer Switches, which was another issue altogether. They eventually worked, just as buttons and not as dimmers.

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I am not familiar with the orbi, but if you can change your wifi channel, that might be worth a try. I was having zigbee issues and once I changed the 2.4ghz channel on my router it seemed to correct the problem

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I know the feeling. I’ve been working on my new Smartthings hub for about 3 weeks now and its driving me nuts. Although a few things are easy most of it takes many attempts to get right and requires one to navigate a complex process. Smartthings need to make this stuff EASIER. IF they could only test and then officially include all the great integrations people in the community have done, it would go a lot smoother. As it is there are trip wires at every stage. I am making progress and have actually achieved one unofficial integration with Evohome but I wonder whether the pain and time it takes is worth it. Have you considered Indigo? Costs more and needs a Mac Mini + Z-wave dongle to run it but maybe that works better. I liked Smartthings initially because it was all in the box with battery back-up, but now…

I actually traded the Wink2 for ST only because I like the idea that ST was more customizable.

But here is the weird thing. The Lightify Dimmers are Zigbee-based. They were my first Zigbee devices (outside of Hue, that is) and paired up just fine, even from 15+ft away and in another room. Yet a brand-new out-of-the-box Zigbee bulb wont pair from 8ft away in the same room as the ST hub.