What can be bought in the US?

[sballoz (fabrizio)]

A friend of mine is going to the US next week.
Is there any thing than can be bought there and that would work on a UK hub?
thanks
Fab

[teohwk]

Amazon echo. You can only get that in the US.

[JDRoberts]

@sballoz

A friend of mine is going to the US next week.
Is there any thing than can be bought there and that would work on a UK hub?
thanks
Fab

Zwave devices bought in the US will not work with the UK hub. Different radio frequencies.

Zigbee devices using the “zigbee home automation” profile (ZHA 1.2), including SmartThings branded sensors, should work technically, but might not be legal for operation in the UK as the US allows for “boosted” or “amplified” Zigbee which has a Broadcast strength that is above the UK maximum. So for those you just have to check each individual device.

In addition, there may be UK customs issues with electronics that are not labeled “CE” for electrical safety. In particular, if you have a case full in new boxes, customs is more likely to assume you bought them for resale and block them on that basis. The airlines also generally don’t like you bringing too many batteries at once. So again, just something to be aware of.

[JDRoberts]

Also, the following thread had some discussion from SmartThings staff about which smartthings branded devices sold in the US might work with the UK hub:

Cost effective door/window sensors (UK)

This is as of the most recent generation of devices. Amplified devices: US Hub US Outlet US Water Leak UK Hub Unamplified devices: US Presence UK Presence US Motion UK Motion US Multi UK Multi UK Outlet UK Water Leak And a note from our engineer: But the presence of an amplifier doesn’t necessarily mean that the signal is being transmitted at a higher strength. In the UK hub, for example, the amplifier helps with the RX side of the transmissions, but the TX stays within the lower UK limit.