I currently have 40 z-wave switches & dimmers connected to my V2 Hub. I’m about to add a little over 50
additional dimmers. Before I add these devices, is there a compelling reason to move to the V3 hub or should I stick with V2? I figured if I don’t move to the V3 with wifi, I’d just walk around with my Eero connected to the V2 hub when adding the new devices. Any advice or feedback?
I’m a little bit confused about what you mean by this. The V2 hub doesn’t have a Wi-Fi radio at all, so it has to be plugged into an ethernet port. That can be a port on a Wi-Fi extender if that helps any. But the V2 hub wouldn’t be using the eero Wi-Fi, it just needs an Ethernet connection to the Internet.
Also, if your new Z wave switches are all Z wave plus, using the 500 or 700 chip, you shouldn’t have to walk around at all: those can all be paired in place. The exception would be Zwave locks which still have to be very close to the hub in order to exchange security keys.
V2 vs V3
As far as reasons for switching to the V3… It’s hard to say. At this moment in time the two are pretty close with regard to specifications. But the V3 does have the Wi-Fi radio. There’s a possibility, although definitely not a certainty, that it might work better with matter once matter is supported. Or at least that the V3 might get matter support first. But nobody knows for sure outside of Samsung, they haven’t published the details of what they’re planning to do in much depth.
Better than the V3: But not here yet
Speaking just for myself, my own expectation is that within two years or so I will probably want a Z wave long range hub (the specification is referred to as “Z wave plus V2“ or “Z wave LR”) because that’s going to have some very real advantages. Much longer range but also the ability to add more devices and some other interesting technical improvements. Plus I’m a sucker for lower power consumption. 
So again, speaking just for myself, I would probably go even farther and put off any new hub purchases until a z wave 800 version was available. But again that could be a couple of years.
At this point, I think there are arguments to be made either way, particularly if you want to limit your expenditures, so it’s really just a matter of choice. I’m sure the V2 will be discontinued eventually, but the question is what will be available to take its place. Because there’s definitely better zwave tech than the V3 coming down the line, But no guarantee of when or if smartthings itself will utilize it.
Tagging @Automated_House @nathancu and @garrett.kranz just in case they have any thoughts on this.
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At this point I don’t see any compelling difference between the V2 and V3. Since there are no migration tools, changing to a new hub means resetting all devices and pairing them one by one to the new hub followed by rebuilding all automations. Not a process to be taken on without a serious reason.
I’ve been building out my SmartThings network for almost 3 years starting with my V2 hub. Everything I put in is either Z-wave Plus or ZigBee.
I’ve never had to carry the V2 hub around the house to pair devices. But I also don’t have any smart locks.
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Believe OP Is talking about carrying an eero mesh device plus the V2 hub around. Most, maybe all, eero devices have an Ethernet port so that would be hard wired to the hub and also be part of the eero WiFi mesh.
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That’s correct. V2 plugged into eero. Worked like a charm. It’s really no harder than carrying the V3 Wi-Fi hub around by itself. I have V3 at another location and the effort is about the same.
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My trusty Pre Zwave+ Schlages - built like tanks but man are they a PAIN to pair to anything… But besides those three devices I never move my hub/controller to pair.
Stick with the v.2 - Pair in place.
My build philosophy is - if it doesn’t work, keep adding repeaters until it does.
MOARRRR POWER!
(adds Tim Allen grunt for effect)
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I know this thread is super old, but can’t find any other thread related.
Excuse my ignorance, I wanted to upgrade all of my ZWave switches to ZWave Plus 700 or 800 series. But I am still on a V2 Hub. I know it’s “compatible” but will I see real world benefits from staying on my v2 hub, like improved response/latency and faster processing?
@JDRoberts can expound further, but since there are no ST hubs that support the 700 and 800 series, I doubt you will see any benefits.
Thank you for the quick response. I won’t even see any benefits with the range with client devices, or possible faster traffic from nodes back to hub?
For most of the speed benefits, you would need to have a zwave 700/800 device at each end of the hop. Since SmartThings doesn’t have any compatible hubs with those chips, the place where you would get a benefit is if your message is being transmitted between two of your Z wave 700 devices along the route. But it would be a little tiny advantage.
The range, though, is a different issue as each individual zwave 700 device does have longer range. So you would see that benefit.
You would also see a benefit in improved battery life for each individual Zwave 700 device.
I don’t think any of the Z wave 800 benefits that are not already provided in Z wave 700 would be available without a Z wave 800 hub, so those would basically be the same situation as the Z wave 700. You would definitely get some range and battery life Benefits for the individual devices, but not a lot of speed benefits.
Latency is a much more complicated question and depends on the overall network setup. I don’t think it’s really easy to predict that one in advance in a mixed generation network. Also, because SmartThings still has a significant cloud component, that complicates things further. So I think that’s just a try and see question.
If I had Z wave 500 switches which were currently working for me with a SmartThings V2 hub, I wouldn’t upgrade them yet. You’re not likely to see any noticeable improvements from a direct swap.
If I had Z wave 500 battery powered devices, that’s a different story, because you would see the battery life improvements right away.
And any new devices that I added would definitely be at least z wave 700 even if I weren’t yet upgrading the hub.
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Thank you @JDRoberts for the thorough explanation. I believe I have a few Z-Wave Plus 500s, but most of my switches and devices are First Gen Z-Wave non-plus (300 series?).
That being said, I think I will swap out at least my first gen Z-Waves for at least the added range and battery life, and any incremental speed difference in between hops (if any).
I do have a final question: I found that some Z-Wave brands switches better at some things, while others are better at other things. Is it ideal to mix different brands of Z-Wave switches when upgrading your Z-Wave network? I assume as long as they’re all Z-Wave Certified, you’re okay. (Not including mixing brands for 3-way switches of course).
As long as they’re all zwave certified, you should be fine. Different models have different features and selecting ones that suit each use case makes sense.
If your current switches are Z wave 300, then, yes, many people would choose to upgrade them, although you don’t have to if they’re working OK for you now. Choice is good. 
I doubt if they’re actually first generation Z wave. Z wave 300 was the third generation. But the Z wave 300 might be the first models ever made by that manufacturer, the first two generations were pretty rare even then. Zwave plus came in with Z wave 500, and was a major improvement in many ways.
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One alternative you may want to consider… switching to Matter over Thread devices. It would require a Thread capable hub or other Thread border Router. Just throwing out there about the possible lack of z-wave in the future by ST.
Most of my Z-Wave GE switches are from 2015 when SmartThings first released the v2 hub. So maybe not the original zwave but certainly not Zwave plus- and certainly not 700/800 series. 
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I actually started dabbling in some Matter over thread Smart Outlets last year to begin building out my Thread network. Added at least 8 outlets spread across 5 different Thread Border Routers (Apple, Google, Alexa). It was very inconsistent and kept getting offline every few days, I since unplugged them for now until development gets more stable.
Zwave was invented in 1999.
Z wave 500 was introduced in 2013, which I believe was when the first GE branded devices were made.
The earliest zwave 500 devices were not Z wave plus – – that was a later introduction.
Dang. It says 500 series (aka First Z Wave Plus) was introduced in 2013, but in 2015, majority of the GE Z-wave switches at the big hardware stores (HD and Lowe’s) were still only stocking Z-wave non-plus). 
Big companies often have supply chain issues where they want to sell off all their old inventory before introducing new features, unless the market makes them do that.
This is why smaller companies are often more nimble in introducing improvements from the independent third-party standards.
Yeah I get but 2+ years later, and they’re still selling the outdated Non-Plus ZWave switches? . Funny thing is these GE Non-plus Zwave switches still are working great 10 years later. Only had one failed me out of 22.
I just want to replace them to catch up with technology. lol.
That would make sense if you were also going to upgrade the hub, in particular if you were going to series 800.
But if what you have is working for you now, I tend to stick with the stuff I know that works rather than rushing onto the next shiny new thing. But that’s just me.
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