Hello everyone. I am interested in the new SmartThings Wi-fi 3pack, i’ve seen some good reviews on this mesh and I am interested if it works in Romania. I ve seen some other topics related to the V3 hub, which is working if bought from UK. What about this pack, any ideas if it will work in my country?
Thank you!
I don’t think I’ve seen those for sale in UK (I’m in UK) AFAIK they are US only. The Z wave frequency (since it claims it doubles as a hub) would be wrong on a US model I believe
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Thanks for your reply, I was thinking of having them shipped from US. I am more interested in their zigbee and wifi capabilities rather than z-wave.
Just check that the Zigbbe and Zwave frequencies are the same for UK. Otherwise you may be stuck with buying only american products.
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Thanks for the idea!
In addition, it is often illegal to operate a device with a Z wave frequency for a different region because the whole point in having different frequencies is that local ambulance and first responder communications are on different frequencies in different regions. So Zwave is designed for different regions to avoid interfering with those. Also with local mobile function. 
In addition, because of this difference, you will have a very hard time finding light switches and other mains powered devices which will work with your hub if you have the wrong frequency. ( The frequencies must match exactly between the hub and the other devices and the frequency cannot be changed after the time of manufacture.)
For these reasons, you really need to stick with a hub which is using the Z wave frequencies for the region where you will install it.
All of the EU countries, the UK, much of the Middle East, and China are use the same zwave frequency. So people living in those areas should get the UK version of the smartthings hub.
https://products.z-wavealliance.org/
That said, Orbi, Eero, and TPLink Deco all make Wi-Fi mesh systems that all have similar features to the smartthings system and usually equal or greater ratings in the EU. So you should be able to find multiple candidates.
One note: I believe all of these residential WiFi mesh systems, including the SmartThings system, have the same issue when it comes to home automation: you cannot choose which of the two frequency bands to connect your mobile to. So it will probably automatically connect to the 5.0 GHz band.
The problem with that is that there are many IOT WiFi devices which can only connect to a 2.4 GHz band, and these require that your mobile be on the exact same network branch during set up for security. If you can’t change your mobile to the matching branch, set up can be extremely difficult. This applies to many Wi-Fi lightbulbs, video cameras, video doorbells, even devices like the Logitech Harmony hub.
Wi-Fi mesh routers intended for commercial use generally have more options and can typically handle this, but they also cost 3 to 4 times as much and most people wanting one for residential use won’t get those.
At the present time, there aren’t any really good workarounds for this except to take your mobile phone and walk far enough away from your house that you lose connection to your 5.0 MHz network. (The 2.4 band has a longer range.) You only need to do this at the time you are installing the other equipment, once everything is connected to the network, it will all work fine. But it’s just something to be aware of.
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Thank you for your time and explanation. Best regards!
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