I just bought a new home and inherited a few HA products. I am thinking about investing in a ST hub so that I can streamline all of them for automation. Does ST give me one user interface for all of these or will I still need to go into each individual app for review or to change settings? Is it best to stick with one product line for HA? Obviously this would put me at risk of being SOL if one were to go under but I don’t think any of these companies are going any where.
Here is what I have… August Smart Lock, 2 Philips Hue bulbs with the Hue Hub, Honeywell Skybell Slim, Chamberlain WiFi garage door opener, Echo Dot, Google Home, TP Link Kasa Power Strip, Wyza Camera and Arlo Camera.
There are a few things I would like to add. I’d like to do smart lighting through my entire house, add another smart lock, and I am thinking of going with SimpliSafe for my security system but I’m not too excited about adding another brand of camera to the mix. Lastly, I have a Unifi AP connected to a TP Link router for my wifi. I still have no idea how to best utilize the Access Point, but plan to figure that out this weekend. Thanks in advance for the help.
August Smart Lock = yes
2 Philips Hue bulbs with the Hue Hub = yes
Honeywell Skybell Slim = no
Chamberlain WiFi garage door opener = no, not natively. custom code
Echo Dot = yes
Google Home = yes
TP Link Kasa Power Strip = yes
Wyza Camera = no. supposedly in the works.
Arlo Camera = yes, depending on the model
Congratulations on the new house! The short answer is that some of those devices will show up in the smartthings app and some will not.
Also, the first rule of home automation applies: “the model number matters.“ For example, some August lock models will work with smartthings and some don’t. And the Wyze camera does not have direct integration with SmartThings, nor does the garage door opener.
As far as what to choose, every home automation platform has pluses and minuses. And of course different ones cost different amounts. Smartthings is a very powerful flexible system in terms of the number of devices you can add to it, but it’s not the easiest to use and maintain, and it’s not the most reliable. If you enjoy tinkering, and you’re willing to spend an hour or more a week keeping everything running, it can be a good hobby and a lot of people enjoy seeing just how much they can do with it. It’s also still largely a cloud-based system which means two things: the company can and does make changes whenever they want and those will affect your system. You can’t delay or deny those. and there is an additional point of vulnerability. If the smartthings cloud is not available, which historically has happened once or twice a month, Then your system doesn’t work. It might only be for a few minutes, it might be for an hour or two, once or twice a year it’s been longer.
If you’re looking for a plug and play system which is mostly maintenance free for six months or more at a time, then you should look at some of the other options. Or if you need the system to work even if the Internet is out.
Again, it’s not that there’s any one perfect system, it’s that people have different preferences and the systems have different features. To get a system that was very reliable and that worked when the Internet is out might mean going for something much simpler with fewer choices of devices, just as an example. Or it might mean going for something which required a strong technical background and willingness to do some of your own coding.
There are a lot of alternatives out there, but the first thing is to be honest with yourself about how much maintenance time you are willing to put in.
Probably, but not guaranteed, particularly since it’s an existing house and we don’t know how old the device is. The first generation did not work with smartthings. I’m not sure about the second generation. The third generation pro model with zwave does work with smartthings. We need a model number or a photo to be sure.
Sure, but the “August connect“ is a separate device that is not required for the lock unless you want remote capability. So again, what they currently have might or might not work, we don’t have enough information to know.
Kygo the SmartThings route I would return your Chamberlain wi-fi garage door opener and go with the linear Z-Wave one. I also consider returning the August lock and just going with a kwikset / Yale Z-Wave model. Am I understanding the Chamberlain Wi-Fi openers don’t even work with Alexa or Google so I would definitely avoid that one. First thing I would do if I were you is I would research what zigbee and Z-Wave is. They’re two wireless protocols that are used with SmartThings and the biggest advantage they have as you’re not wasting your Wi-Fi bandwidth on a bunch of little Wi-Fi switches. Philips hue is a proprietary type of Zigbee device ( that’s why you have to use the hub with the bulbs). If tying in your video doorbell is important, the ring doorbell natively works with SmartThings and you can use the motion sensor in the doorbell to trigger porch lights in Smartthings.
Woo … I disagree. August locks and chamberlain MyQ are two good products that work with ST. One requires custom code. But they definitely do not waste wifi bandwidth.
Yeah but you can have a Z-Wave kwikset lock for half the price of an August lock you don’t have to worry about kwikset killing servers because it isn’t cloud connected in the first place. And does the MyQ garage door opener work natively with SmartThings or do you have to install a bunch of custom device handlers I remember looking into it years ago and was ultimately turned off by the fact that they really want you to use their proprietary app they didn’t even have Alexa integration.
He did not but most smart home users have some sort of voice integration as well. it’s just way more practical to ask Google or Alexa than have to pull your phone out and wait for an app to load to control a device. And you’re right he didn’t but that was just one of the deciding factors I had against the Chamberlain device, and like I said you also run into the issue that Chamberlain could decide that it’s no longer profitable to maintain servers for you to use your myQ and they can kill its functionality just like that.
