Which hub to purchase -HELP!

Devices & Integrations
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I am on the fence of purchasing smarthub, every post I read has me leaning towards to Samsung however when I read customer reviews on multiple sites (amazon, eBay, Best Buy, google, etc etc) it’s a lot of negative reviews. I mainly would like to purchase to be able to use motion sensors, door sensors “security” type things to know if I’m away from home if something is sketchy and sense of just knowing, but again these reviews have me even more confused as to what to purchase hub wise.

Samsung- if my WiFi or power is lost will it work without these? Any added info or points anyone can help assist with would be helpful or if you could have a different hub would you get which one?

I read amazon echo will not work with the smart devices like described above, I would likely add the light switches maybe and def the plug ins for devices but motion and door sensors was what I really preferred at this time and water leak. Any info at all is helpful esp with the biased Reviews

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I switched over from Iris by Lowe’s and couldn’t be happier at the moment. I purchased the ADT hub, as I plan on having them do the monitoring in the near future. Just about everything I had purchased previously, minus the door/window sensors, migrated over so that was nice. I have my Google home connected to it and it performs fast and accurately. When asking for a light to come on, it turns on before it can repeat it back to me. So far I haven’t ran into any issues with the system, but I am still new.

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Which company provides your TV/internet?

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Well define work? The hub itself can have backup batteries in it and most sensors are also battery powered. WiFi plays no role in the ST hub since it requires an actual Ethernet connection.

However if power is out, it is unlikely your Internet connection is alive…so some functions won’t be there, no notifications, and lights won’t work because…well…there is no power. This issue will be similar for most hubs unless you get one that is more security focused and has cellular backup.

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If power is out, you are pretty much screwed unless you have battery backup for everything that requires power to work. If you’re internet goes down you will have limited functionality. For example, when my garage door opens it will turn on the light. This will work without internet because the rule is local to my hub. But I cannot pull up the app and turn my garage light on or use a third party like Ifttt or stringify to do something if there is no internet.

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We have charter for internet and use fire stick Netflix for tv.

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You could look into what charter offers for home automation and home security. Most cable companies have packages like that now.

Probably one of the biggest potential downsides is it won’t be the cheapest way to go. But the device selection and system setup will be taken care of for you.

If you’re finding yourself overwhelmed by all the options for DIY home automation and security, that might a trade off you’re willing to accept.

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I switch over from Wink about a year ago and the automation level in my home went up like 150% - ST has integration for just about everything, and if there isn’t one you can make one yourself if you know a little bit of coding. After going through 4 systems I am satisfied by ST. There are outages from time to time but not any more than what I saw with Wink. Atleast with ST and the strong community forums there is a lot of transparency. So you don’t tear your hair out wondering if its an outage or device/hub malfunction. Almost all system rely on internet/cloud except for a couple. One is infancy hubitat and one is creaky and old Vera. So for now, atleast for me ST is the best option out there.

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That’s true for low cost home automation except for apple’s HomeKit, but it’s not true for most of the low cost security systems. Almost all of those will run for at least 8 hours even if power or Internet are down. In fact, it’s a UL requirement for a security system, even a low-cost one.

The security systems may have an add-on cloud piece for some convenience features, but the primary detection and notification features will not usually require the internet.

This is true for the SmartThings/ADT security panel model, which is the only SmartThings model that offers cellular communication, but only that model and only for the security functions not the Home automation ones.

https://www.smartthings.com/adt

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11

If you’re main concern is security, I’d get the ADT/SmartThings hub. As JD mentioned, it’s the only one with cell backup and also the only one you can disarm from a panel

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Everyone has their own requirements as far as security systems go both with how much they’re willing to spend and with what specific features they need.

For me, professionally monitored fire safety is a big deal, because I’m quadriparetic and I would need assistance in a fire emergency. :fire: So I’m not interested in a system that doesn’t have professional monitoring or that only has professional monitoring for “intrusion alerts” ( contact and motion sensor alerts To the professional monitoring center, but not smoke or CO2)

It’s important to note that a lot of the low-end systems (including the smartthings models that use scout alarm rather than ADT) Can only alert for intrusions. Not fire.

I can’t say what would be the best solution for anyone else. For myself, if I just wanted a really simple “intrusion alert“ system, I would probably wait a couple of months and see what the new ring alert ends up looking like. It’s hard to tell right now because since they first announced it the whole company was bought by Amazon, so there may be a lot of changes when it actually comes to market. But as it was first Announced, it looks like a really good simple intrusion monitoring system, and it even has professional monitoring. But not fire monitoring. :disappointed_relieved:

https://ring.com/alarm

But I definitely want fire monitoring. If I was only looking at systems which are available for installation today, I would look at abode (which is always very highly rated) and at the SmartThings/ADT security panel, which is very new, so doesn’t have as many reviews, but looks like a decent system. The SmartThings system has more options on the home automation side and the abode system has more fully integrated camera options. So I’m not sure which one I would end up picking, but those are the two I’d be looking at.

https://goabode.com

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If I was willing to wait a few months, again, speaking just for myself, I would wait and see how the new system from abode, the iota, looked once it was actually released. That’s because it has both HomeKit and Alexa compatibility, and that’s something that I would like. But since it’s still in pre-release, there’s no way to know what features it will actually have once it’s ready to ship.

https://iota.goabode.com

(I’ve looked at the Honeywell lyric security system with HomeKit compatibility which is available now , but it didn’t meet my own needs.)

I would also definitely schedule a free appointment with my local cable company just to find out what offerings they have for a professionally installed system. As Mark mentioned, this may cost more and you would have fewer device choices, but that’s worth it to a lot of people just not to have to deal with the headaches of installation and device selection.

So those would be my candidates. If I needed something to install today, I’d talk to my cable company, and do deep research on the current Abode system and the smartthings/ADT security panel.

If I was willing to wait a couple of months, I would wait for both the ring alert and the new abode iota to see what they offered.

But different things work for different people, so I can’t say what your best choice would be. There’s no question that selecting a security system can feel overwhelming. You have to read all the fine print in order to know exactly which features are included and it’s hard to compare systems head to head. The cable company systems will be good enough for most people, and is the easier choice If your primary concern is security. You may feel you’re paying a little too much, but on the other hand you remove a lot of the hassle and these generally have good reliability and a reasonable feature set.

If you’re trying to save every penny and get the least expensive reliable intrusion system, I would probably wait for Ring Alert.

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I just started my migration from Iris, too. So far, I’m satisfied.

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Thank you for this, if you come across something that ends up being your go to please let me know what you decide and ur input on it.