The best and the worst devices of the year supported by ST. Please vote. ;)

@Cheekid this is the beauty of this community. Absolute truth and helping other brothers in arm in whatever level we can.

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I should also mention the aeon labs minimotes. I have 2 and they have been working very well for me. Definitely one of my favorite devices.

I was going to nominate First Alert ZSmoke smoke alarm as a best device . It is very affordable and battery life is great. However, yesterday I got a push notification while 800 miles away indicating ā€œtested smokeā€ and ā€œtested COā€ alarms. I was driving in bumper to bumper traffic and wasnā€™t able to investigate till much later. Since other smoke alarms did not trigger I realized this was a false alarm. I had to cancel other actions (all lights on and Aeon Siren).

It is comforting to know these issues are being monitored, however, the technology still has a ways to go. Anyone new to this should prepare themselves or be greatly disappointed. My family is very understanding but others may not.

I probably wonā€™t get it set up till Spring and will let you know then.

Put the jumper wire in test mode and the delay will be down from 4 mins to 1min.

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Awesome, thank you. I will try this tonight.

Many moons ago, I recommended an online database of devices supported by ST - with listings of ā€œnative supportā€, ā€œcommunity supportā€, etc. I also said that it would be good for registered users to be able to review the devices and give a thumbs up or down. This would be a great resource for the community. I think the problem is they wanted something out of the box to be able to spin up quickly rather than custom code a website for it.

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Hi Brian,

I actually remember that post. That definitely was along time ago.

I think the majority of us know what motion, open/close, outlets, and switches to buy but for the uncommon and new devices the database would probably be of greater help.

Nine out of ten times I read a few reviews on Amazon and base my purchase off of that. I also make a habit of reveiwing my devices or providing any input I can share with any members of our community there.

I donā€™t have any offical SmartThings devices. All of my devices are zwave or wifi.

@Cheekid Believe me, my friend! Not all ST users specially the new ones know which basic sensors to buy. Even I was totally confused when I joined the community.

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Yes, very true. I have to think of it from a beginnerā€™s prospective rather than an established user. I guess one of my assumptions is that someone coming to a home automation forum has some knowledge but just may be lacking direction giving the vast number of choices etc. I can clearly see how it would be overwhelming and probably frustrating as well. On the plus side those who choose the SmartThings platform have some of the coolest people to reach out to for information smiley:

Yes, as much as I have been a user for a while, even I donā€™t know which are better. Iā€™m often asking about motion sensors, for example. I want specs that you generally canā€™t find easily, like field of view, usable distance, etc. This is where the importance of the community helpsā€¦and a centralized DB as well.

In fact, I actually think a community DB would be a great selling point for ST. Think about this scenario with a well designed and maintained DB in placeā€¦

A user looking for a new device comes to the database. This person uses another automation system, but they heard the DB is good. They look through, read about the device, see ads for ST, maybe read some reviews from ST users. Now their interest is piqued in STā€¦ You can see where this could lead. The database is actually a marketing tool in the long run while benefiting everyone in the process.

Just a thoughtā€¦

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Brian, come work for us :smile:

Iā€™m excited to see the next version of this: http://www.smartthings.com/product/works-with-smartthings/

I think each capability should be linked to devices that can use that capability. In turn, being able to see which SmartApps use a given capability would be awesome too.

This community DB/wiki would be the go-to place to learn about all types of devices, smart or not. Letā€™s build it!

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Why do we always leave the poor Philips Livingcolors iris out of the list. It works perfectly fine forever no better or worse than the hues. :slight_smile:

@Navat604 I thought test mode made the ecolink 5 seconds not one minute. I know old ST motion sensor has 60 second delay

I like the Eco-link motion sensors. I have three of them now. Two are mounted outside and they rarely return a false alarm. I just mounted one in my hallway, replacing a SmartSense Motion because the SmartSense units detect my cat.

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@tenzingsherpa 5 secs would be a battery killer. I know the installation mentions about a 5 secs delay but I donā€™t get anything less than 1 min unless someone updated a custom ecolink firnware or some secret they are not sharing otherwise I am pretty sure itā€™s a 1min delay in test. Sorry @smart for hijacking your thread.

@Navat604 I just recieved the ecolink motion today and after some testing with pairing it with my linear zwave dimmer switch and it being on test mode. Ican confirm that the test mode is 5 seconds. Now the sensitivity isnt near as high as smart things motion sensors but regardless working pretty well.

My best product so far has got to be my linear zwave dimmer. The linear products I have researched have all been rated highly so im pretty sure I going to replace most dimmers in house with linear ones as well as look into linear outlets.
I dont have a worst product yet, although I am testing my ecolink motion and if not as sensitive as I like may be claiming that as my worst product.

I second this one. My dimmers have been rock solid and they are inexpensive compared to others. Time to buy a few more as I move through the rest of my house!

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I am really fortunate to have some devices that worked really well.
Best:

  • Ecobee Thermostat. Using the community device driver, it worked really well.
  • Linear Z Wave Dimmer.

Worst:

  • Orbit Z wave Sprinkler. It would pair with the hub and but it locks up the control of the sprinkler and gave you only one command to turn on the sprinkler manually for a few minutes.
  • Honeywell Lyrics. It kept disconnecting.

I would have to say my worst so far is the SmartThings batteries as Iā€™ve had some of my equipment since 11/26/2014 with everything else being newer and I have 4 devices showing charge of 75, 77, 88 and now one showing 66. For devices that work very well having crappy batteries is frustrating (especially considering how much they cost to replace). Everything else is new enough that I donā€™t think I can pick a best yet but I donā€™t have any complaints other that some of the batteries.

Sean