Z-Wave vs ZigBee in 2019

[@patsjoholm]

I started with home automation years ago. At that time, Z-Wave was in the lead and provided less expensive options in getting a hub running, using USB stick connected with your Home Assistant. So, I loaded up my house with Z-Wave devices and, honestly, they all work wonderfully and I have no issues with devices dropping or getting access to them. If I were to do it again, today, I would go with all WiFi devices and leave both Zigbee and Z-Wave out of my network. With the quality of WiFi products today being as good as they are, I don't see the need for either protocol. The only exception to this would be low power devices, i.e. battery operated motion sensors. But, even for those, I have figured out WiFi solutions running on ESP8266. Stick them into other devices, like clocks, or in-wall DYI solutions, and you don't have to worry about battery power.

[@AutomateYourLife]

There are lots of great WiFi options these days, but I definitely don't think you should be unhappy with what you have in Z-Wave! Best tech of the time for sure. :)

[@webfreezy]

WiFi is a total energy waster. You cannot have e.g. WiFi door sensors with batteries that last for two years with WiFi and immediate reaction. I always use Zigbee, if not available then Bluetooth and for powered devices only WiFi if Zigbee is not available or it does not make sense (like powersockets with energy meters).

[@Ejgde1]

For practical reasons I ended up having both systems in my home. The longer signal range with Z-wave was necessary for my outside lights (50 -75 meters) between lamps and controller. For my lights on the inside of my home zigbee is working great. Setting up the outside was difficult and I ended up with installing an outside antenna to get everything work.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Yeah I bet Lars! I have the same problem here. A bunch of devices that I want fairly far away (I have an acreage) and so that means Z-Wave)

[@bernardbredhauer1484]

Dont really know anything about either protocols but I am learning gradually and it interesting to know Brian. Thanks for sharing mate.

[@AutomateYourLife]

That's the idea sir. To inform you all a little at a time so you're armed for battle!

[@themagiceye6723]

Great video Brian, your content continues to improve. As I mentioned on one of your other vids the other day, it would be great to see a review of the Hubitat. I've spent some time in the official forums recently for Vera, SmartThings, Homey and Hubitat, to try and help me make a decision on a Hub and protocols. The Hubitat community is loving what that box can and will do, and the reliability seems rock solid. I'd really like to see your thoughts on it

[@AutomateYourLife]

I'm on the path Bob! Thanks again!

[@themagiceye6723]

@@AutomateYourLife Awesome...check out Homey too while your at it!

[@AutomateYourLife]

Hubitat, 1 month out for a review.

[@gG-jg8bv]

quality of comparisons is pretty high, nice job😄

[@AutomateYourLife]

Thank you!

[@avishkarseth1955]

Can someone help me out with these questions? 1. Explain how do you configure a Zigbee device for a WSN. What are the fundamental requirements to configure it? 2. Explain the basic requirements for designing software to extract and store data from any communicating devices such as Zigbee. 3. How a Zigbee based WSN can avoid interferences from another Zigbee based sensor network in the same region?

Nowadays I would just go for zigbee. Its most common protocol worldwide, as z-wave devices are unavailable in lot of countries due to legal reasons. And having inherent zigbee support in amazon echo plus is great...

[@AutomateYourLife]

And we will likely see both protocols get expanded support in devices, but I agree it’ll take longer with Z-Wave in some countries. :)

[@DBartel2000]

Excellent education session about the difference between the two protocols. Thanks!

[@AutomateYourLife]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@OneWhoWas]

The market actually needs to move, get known, or do something. No one knows what either of these protocols are. Just you and us in the comments. I guess it’s just the protocol behind a product.

[@AutomateYourLife]

It’s funny...I think the market recognizes it but doesn’t know how to deal with it.

[@basdfgwe]

Aesthetically speaking ZigBee devices are not pleasing (not including hue). Zwave appears to have better quality products. But country specific bands keep some of these products away from consumers. There are a tonne of products available in america that simply are not accessible in countries like Australia (where I live) unless you are willing to break the law. For the average joe, having a hub in Australia and not understanding the frequency difference will end up in disappointment. Whereas with ZigBee whilst majority of the products are still America you can get them imported to Australia and still get them to work without breaking the law. This is really annoying.

[@AutomateYourLife]

It’s all over the place, which is why I think dotdot is so important. It should let us use whatever we’d like for the situation we want :)

[@qbusqbus]

Zigbee is priority inoperable schemes between brands. Zwave is interoperability between brands. Zigbee pro works on fixing that.

[@EsotericArctos]

I have actually found ZigBee quite interoperable between brands, but not quite as much as Z-Wave. I can use Hue, TradFri, and many of the chinese ZigBee brands on SmartThings, Wink, Homeseer and also on open source like Home Assistant and OpenHab. Zigbee is a lot less proprietary since Zigbee 3.0, but ZHA and ZLL are quite interoperable also. A lot of people class Philips Hue as proprietary for some weird reason. I have found Hue to be the most open and interoperable platform of the lot. An Open API for the Hub, Hue Globes connect to virtually any hub and have full function, with the exception of firmware downloads. I was totally avoiding ZigBee when it first came out because of lack of standards. Now I will use ZigBee and Z-Wave equally happily on my Home Assistant platform. I find here in Australia, ZigBee is pushed harder, but in Europe Z-Wave seems to be king. :)

[@AutomateYourLife]

Ahhh, I didn’t know you were in Australia Brendan. Boy you know your stuff. Always impressed.

[@EsotericArctos]

@@AutomateYourLife I just read a lot :). Automation out here is quite restrictive for DIY unfortunately. We have some extremely strict rules in regards to mains wiring. Something as basic as putting a plug on the end of an extension cable is illegal unless you're a qualified electrician here. I can bet there are plenty of illegal extension cables our there though :)

[@EsotericArctos]

@@AutomateYourLife Just slightly off topic - Did you ever get around to the ZigBee/Z-Wave include/remove testing/education video?

[@AutomateYourLife]

Ooooh...I’m guessing not. Sorry Brendan do you wanna refresh my very bad memory?

[@just4therecord]

Zigbee - cheap, small, low power, battery operated. Z-Wave - different frequency for different regions, expensive, not open. Btw even Sonoff is going to Zigbee

[@AutomateYourLife]

It's very interesting to see a bit of a shift. :)

[@Slimhaven1]

Great video but Zigbee is the only way to go as Zwave is to finicky when removing from hubs and causes a lot of angst.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Hopefully you’re not having to do that too often Don!

[@AlexanderLong]

I actually had very opposite experiences. My Zigbee network crush down very often, sometimes just one or two devices, sometime the whole network. Z-wave for me is way more reliable and secure . Not to mention ZigBee and 2.4Ghz WiFi interference. I am actually in the transition of moving to z-wave for all my door and motion sensor to get a better security monitoring system.

[@AutomateYourLife]

To each their own. Alexander, have you seen our coexistence video for zigbee and wifi?

[@alkemapeter]

Any US Zigbee in wall receptacles that are also repeaters working with Samsung ST? I have a very hard time finding one.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Get the Smartthings outlet itself!

[@alkemapeter]

I have 3 of those, but I wanted a home integrated system instead of the bulky smarthings outlets sticking out of the wall outlet. In comparison, the are zwave wall outlets, but that's not an option for me.

[@johnjacobjinglehimerschmid3555]

Just searched zigbee and zwave on home depot and amazon ... Seems like I got more returns on the zwave not the zigbee searches

[@AutomateYourLife]

You won't find a ton of either protocol at Home Depot, but Z-Wave has definitely had more market penetration for a while. There are bigger names now in ZigBee though is what I'd say (Samsung, Hue, Xiaomi, etc.) It's a toss up, and use both anyways. :)

[@johnjacobjinglehimerschmid3555]

@@AutomateYourLife As I've looked and I'm sure that because this stuff is sold in a big box store that it must fit NEC for fitting into a receptacle box. In your forays into smartening your home ... Have you had problems replacing dumb with smart in the same box?

[@johnjacobjinglehimerschmid3555]

@@AutomateYourLife Another ?? Now I'm not so sold on having to turn my lights on at home when I'm sitting on the crapper at work. Do you have any thoughts about the HUB .... purchasing a commercial version or something like Hubitat. Are there considerations that I'm neglecting?

[@AutomateYourLife]

Oh you can definitely have trouble replacing within the receptacle. It's good to check it out before you go knee deep, because some of the options are actually really large and require a lot of spacing. Dimmers and things that are trying to control bigger loads usually want a little more space in the box and so they can be difficult to cram into older homes' spaces.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Hubitat is a great option for all local control, but I always recommend SmartThings over and above it. They're getting more local control and that gives you more options for easy integration.

[@Roman-c3s]

what about healthy? is it not danger to set a lot of device with radio signal for your health?

[@AutomateYourLife]

At the levels we are talking in terms of power, we should be just fine. WiFi routers often have a warning not to spend much time within a foot of them.

[@Softmodding]

The Philips Hus Hub is Zigbee, right, sp the new SONOFF BASICR3 can connect to the hue hub?

[@AutomateYourLife]

R3 I’m struggling to find, but what I’ll say about Philips is if you can make a connection...it doesn’t really have great control of other ZigBee devices.

[@sergioperez7467]

Hi! What about Bluetooth devices as Casambi? This protocol is leading among lighting companies here in Europe

[@AutomateYourLife]

If Bluetooth is the leading protocol in Europe...I feel sorry for most! The newest Bluetooth...is almost there but still not stable enough yet.

[@gaiasmartliving2495]

well done, future business, need smart information

[@AutomateYourLife]

Happy it helps!!!

[@philipperostin]

Ring Z WAVE Sensors don't have a high range. I will say about 15 meters and a 50cm difference between where you set it up then install can break the range. Same for Sengled and Zigbee. But for this latest installing a dummy zig bee plug does the trick to reestablish the mesh network as you just mentioned. The most important for both mesh networks is to really plan your set up and set up things the closest to the hub and then work your way to the furthest thing thus your mesh is stable and well balanced.

[@ronm6585]

Thank you.

[@kwinzman]

Perfect on 300% playback speed.

[@AutomateYourLife]

If you're on...cocaine? Hey whatever works! Glad you got the info!

[@kwinzman]

@@AutomateYourLife Thanks! It was a good comparison. And that you're still audible on 3x speed is a good trait haha. I think Z-Wave suits me better because there are good open source controllers on the raspberry, MQTT gateways that I found to be more approachable than the Zigbee one. 2. I have loads of interference on 2.4GHz where I live (but not tested if that would affect it). 3. Most imporantly I found Z-Wave actuators that do what I want out of the box, and 4. I trust the Z-Wave security if you pair with S2 ( kzbin.info/www/bejne/aZfbp5yDa5iMhdE ) a little more than the ZigBee one ( kzbin.info/www/bejne/b6ndiaNjr7WeoLc ).

[@AutomateYourLife]

You've talked about all the benefits of Z-Wave right there and it sounds like you're making a really good choice for yourself. One thing that's changed since this video is probably just the upcoming open standard that's being produced by the ZigBee alliance with Google, Amazon, and Apple. That will change how some of the ZigBee products integrate in the future, but I have no doubt that Z-Wave will do some amazing things with integration there as well. PS. Totally agree with the Z-Wave Actuators thing.

[@tobiaslins]

I'm using Homey - www.athom.com/en/homey/ - to use both and automate between both protocols and it just works great! :)

[@AutomateYourLife]

Lots of folks are loving the Homey!

[@whoDatBeDare]

"A highly standardised standard" - ;-)

[@AutomateYourLife]

;)

[@codemonkey2k5]

Yah no. Going to stick with Insteon. Better looking devices same functionality great support from SmartHome... Every time I look at the competitors products I am baffled why anyone would want to put that ugly crap in your home. Maybe it's a US vs EU/Canada thing.

[@gaiasmartliving2495]

well done, future business, need smart information

[@AutomateYourLife]

Lots of it on our channel as far as I'm concerned!