ZWave or Zigbee? That is the Question.
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- čas přidán 7. 12. 2022
- If you are building a smart home at some point you will ask yourself or random Internet forums whether you should invest in Zwave or Zigbee.
And after being berated for not searching the forums first, you will be told Zwave cause Zigbee sucks, or Zigbee cause Zwave Sucks, or neither cause they both suck and Wifi is the best.
But the answer is a little more complicated. So lets try and answer Smart Home's oldest question. And hopefully by the end you will have enough information that you can determine the right answer for you.
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My Name is Jeff. I am an DIY-er and Automator of boring things. And, of course, a huge Home Assistant fan. Oh, I also live in a house that tweets.
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The likelihood of a “Bad actor” even knowing you have a local zigbee network is about as an unlikely scenario as it gets. Let alone that person knowing how to take control of the device.
Yep. I think I saw a story somewhere recently where someone called that re-pairing functionality as a security vulnerability. But honestly Zigbee has been around long enough that if it was a serious issue we would have heard about it. But we also live in a time when people got upset cause if someone was on your local network or they had physical access to an SD card from a Wyze Camera they you could potentially see your video so I never know what people will consider serious.
I went Zigbee with my first HA build in March 2022. It's fast, reliable, affordable, simple... I started with 8 plug in switched outlets that are also repeaters. Very happy with my choice...
Which switches did you use?
@@chrisrnz Plugs by Sengled... Dimmer plugs by GE/Jasco... Motion and tilt sensors by Aqara.
I started out with an Echo 4 and a zigbee smart bulb.
I continued on with zigbee devices as I moved to more advanced home automation platforms. The cost of Zwave devices at the time were also much higher, so I stayed with zigbee.
I have Zwave, Zigbee and WiFi devices in my HA. I like Zigbee for how quick and easy it is to add devices and they do tend to be inexpensive. It was easier (cheaper) to extend my Zigbee network out to my workshop, which is 100ish feet from the house. I have found that Zigbee power switching devices are far less likely to have power monitoring, though I am not sure why this is. For devices where I need power monitoring (mostly for ensuring a pump is running or a filament bulb is not burned out), I have had to use Zwave or WiFi (Tasmota) devices. Some of the most helpful devices, like scene controllers, also tend to be Zwave.
Love your t-shirt. Want one!
Nice breakdown of the differences between the two protocols. I celebrate diversity by running both ZWave and Zigbee on Home Assistant. My situation is more a result of the mish-mosh of devices that had on hand that i wanted to connect, rather than choosing the devices based on the protocol's benefit, like zwave for security or zigbee for cost. I know there's a battery drain consideration, too, when choosing one over the other. Thanks for another insightful post!
How do you run both? I'm running Z2M but have some zwave i want to add. I can't figure out how to do it. Then again I'm a noob.
@@stevecalise9299 I have two USB transceiver sticks (one for Zwave and one for Zigbee) plugged into the Raspberry Pi 4 that my Home Assistant runs on... I use Zigbee2MQTT and Z-Wave JS to manage communication and entities.
It's good to ask questions... a bit of a learning curve, isn't it?!
@@PaulFletter Thank you. What sticks are you using and I have HA in Virtualbox do you think I could do the same setup as you? And definitely a huge learning curve.
@@stevecalise9299 ConBee II Universal Zigbee USB Gateway (~$26 on Amazon - at 25% off right now) & Zooz 700 Series Z-Wave Plus S2 USB Stick ZST10 700 (~$32 on Amazon - at 35% off right now!).
The Sticks will need to be plugged into local hardware that is 'always on' and accessible by Virtualbox - do you have that?
If your Virtualbox can access the USB ports anytime it needs to, then I'd assume you could use that setup. I personally like having HA running on a dedicated Rasberry Pi because then it just sits there doing it's thing and I don't worry about interfering too much - it has it's own ports and power and doesn't care how many times i reboot my PC!
@@PaulFletter Thank you so much for the help. I do have a RPI4 hanging around so I will put HA on that. I have the sonoff 3.0 as my usb so I will grab the Zooz for Zwave.
That shirt sums up my entire Z-Wave experience. Sensors are fine but any device that "does" something e.g. a Smart Switch is next to useless. Wrong reporting of state, unresponsive actions etc. Maybe it's a brand thing (they're all Aeotec), don't know, but my experience with Z-Wave has been terrible. Even with repeaters and hard-wired devices everywhere, so I'm sure it's not a mesh/signal thing.
If you are choosing Z-Wave or Zigbee, then it might be better to choose Matter compatible. If you have a Z-Wave network setup, it won't suddenly stop working, nor is Z-Wave about to disappear anytime soon. What is setup today will keep working into the future until the electronics or hub dies.
I would say, go for what sensors you need in the price point you want and have both Zigbee and Z-Wave if you can. So I guess I agree with choose the best sensors for the situation and have all things on the hub :)
Zigbee still for me, because its cheaper and wider range of IoT devices mainly tuya that basically brings majority of these stuff
Thanks for sorting out the Z's for me!
Hi Jeff, thanks for the informative content, particularly learning the different territories using different frequencies.
I am about to purchase the ultralog u-bolt pro with a ZOOZ USB 700 SERIES Z-WAVE PLUS S2 STICK ZST10 700 (both z-wave alliance listed for US, CND and AUZ). The system is to be integrated to a Home Assistant OS instance. But I live in HK and not the USA!
So my concern now is 1) would the config work in HK? ... as there could possibly be interference with over devices in the same frequency band making my system unstable; 2) possibly it will be illegal if I am interfering gov agency/public services frequency range (i guess I have to find that out myself!!!)
Jeff (or anyone who knows), do you think Ultralog u-bolt + Zooz coordinator + HA-OS work in HK, outside of the legal issues?
Hope the question makes sense!!
The question makes sense, I just don't know the answer. Not sure on the legality but I suspect there might be interference simply since they use different frequencies since the freq wasn't available.
ZigBee for me 😄
I agree!!! :)
@@BeardedTinkerHello BT 😄
I run zigbee and wifi devices. And I've yet to hear a convincing argument in favour of matter.
I started with Smartthings Hub, along with their motion and door sensors as well as their buttons and some bulbs, all ZigBee devices. These moved over smoothly when I moved to Home Assistant and have been trouble free. I have added other vendors devices, ZigBee as well and they work, albeit I had to modify some of my Node-Red flows as the returned values were different.
My only Z-Wave device is an Intermatic pool controller and funny enough, that has been my only one that has had some interference issues in the past. Solved it by moving the raspberry pi that was sitting next to the NUC that runs HA and has the ZigBee/Z-WAVE radio. That solved that problem.
I'm part of the "Started with Smartthings club as well!
@@SlackerLabs I am starting to set up my smart home and have some queries hoping you guys can advice.
1. if i understand correctly in your video Zigbee devices will act as hops to reach your hub, but zwave doesnt and need to be within range of the hub directly.
2. Samsung Smart thing hub support both protocols zwave and zb?
3. Smartthings hub do you deploy a couple of hubs through out your house to reach all devices ? or does your zwave/zB devices tap on your house wifi to trigger in google home ?
4. if my internet or smart things hub goes down does the zb / zwave switches still able to turn the appliances on and off manually ?
5. Could i consider Wifi switches instead of zb/zwave switches? what should i look out for and why ?
Would really seek your advice here as most of the it sales man are unable to advise me =(
@@icy3dge Sure.
1. Both Zwave and Zigbee devices an act as routers to help extend the network. So just make sure you have some devices for both that act as routers sprinkled in. Most hardwired devices are, but it should say in the description whether it’s a router or an end device. The only difference is how many devices they can have in-between them and the main hub, but unless you have a big house you won’t have an issue. I
2. The smart things hub supports both wave and zigbee.
3. Unless you have a massive house, you shouldn’t need multiple hubs. Even less of an issue if you can put it in the center. Zwave and zigbee use the devices to extend the range. The devices do not connect to wifi, but the hub will and that is how google or Alexa can reach them
4. Yes, any of the wave or zigbee devices will have a manual control on them. So you can control them manually if you have too. Samsung once said they could operate without internet. Not sure if all of their hubs. An,, so you may have to check. But wave and zigbee itself doesn’t require your internet or network. My devices still get automated fi my network or internet is down. But I am also running home Assistant.
5. Yes, you could use wifi switches. The only thing to watch out for is wifi congestion. Zwave and zigbee use different frequencies and dont take wifi bandwidth. You will just need to make sure your wifi outer can handle the number of devices.
@@SlackerLabs noted thanks for the clarifications, ive check with Aqara on their switches and realised that you need neutral wire in order for the switch to act as a repeater. Unfortunately my house isnt wired up with neutral.
i use both. and i do like both... the only downside to mine is the older z-wave devices.... i'm unable to upgrade them to the latest firmware and so i'm unable to take advantage of all the new, "cool", features available on the latest and greatest. however... i really do like the cheaper prices of zigbee devices. for simple functions like turning things on and off... they work quickly and don't cost a ton of money. however, if you want cool things like.... power management.... zwave seems to have the edge when it comes to price. and devices like that are really nice for things like... older tv's that aren't smart.... you can monitor if you left it on and turn it off remotely. not really the 'ideal' thing for a tv, but it works.. and providing you don't leave it off for an extended period of time.. it won't really hurt it. other things i like, either, for is my modem for instance... because it's provided to me from my internet provider, i cannot schedule a restart.... however, i can use either a zwave or zigbee device to do it for me using home asssistant... and because it's completely controlled locally, even when the internet goes out it still can turn the device back on after a specified amount of time which would be required if you wanted to clear the cache on your device...
If a device stops getting firmware updates, it should be targeted for replacement as it can be compromised if it has a vulnerability.
Or you have all HA/IoT devices on their own network segment and block all ports except those required to function and monitor activity and behavior.
I'm using both as somethings are just not available in both protocols. Over the years I've had issue with both... Z-Wave light bulbs factory resetting during brown outs and a new zigbee shade resetting when the battery ran low (8 days of standby with solar charging). Zigbee has not been as reliable in my install and I'd likely go with Z-Wave, WiFi and then zigbee when shopping for a new device. WiFi isn't really a battery powered option though.
This has been my experience as well. I dont buy Zwave bulbs. They just never worked reliably for me.
we have quite a fiew z-wave switches at our store
LoRa all the way :) Great video Jeff!!!!
I nee to try LoRa. I actually live someplace now where the distance could be beneficial.
either way, im hardwiring my home renovations electricals. still not clear what the universal standard is gonna win
I might be a conservative old bag. But I still swear by Zwave. Yeah, more expensive. But even here it is, like everything: You get, what you pay for. Zwave made my smart home reliable and gave a lot of possibilities. It just works. Always. Zigbee I use on company site for lightning is reliable too, but i must say, that then I'm talking about Philips professional products, not consumer stuff. And yes, I did try some cheaper Tuya devices. My advice: stay away of Tuya, unless you are a masochist ;-)
Zigbee is not only superior in real deployments, but open source. You buy a device and it works. With Z-Wave since every country has different frequencies, good luck if you purchased online a device that was for another country, or they sent you another one accidentally, that alone plus being more expensive means it's doomed to fail. Even more now because ZigBee will eventually be the Matter protocol, which is what all technology companies are investing in as the future protocol for home automation.
This means all your Zigbee devices will just work with a simple update and your Z-Wave devices will be left in the trash. In 2023, it is more than clear that Zigbee is the option now. At the beginning, a few years back, Zigbee devices had interoperability issues, cheap quality and not easy to find, that is not the case anymore. Zigbee is far more reliable, more devices available, and is a future investment. Keep using your Z-Wave devices and network, but if you have to buy new ones, create a new network or expand your existing one, you should seriously consider moving to Zigbee.
Too late! I just ordered a HOUSE FULL of zwave switches 😅
Zwave team for me
LoRa yo link work well in and outside my home. Zigbee on other devices for now.
Zigbee for me... Definitely...
I definitely have way more zigbee deices than zwave.
Bluetooth low energy (BLE) s the future the rasberry pi have a onboard ble reciver