Insteon user thinking about moving to Z-wave

[lilyoyo1]

Yep. Another recommendation for any HA technology that touches power; a basic whole-house surge protector in the panel. Surges and/or noisy power, to your point, seem to be the culprit. I'm on year 3 of my PLM (bought "refurbished) and ISY. I also had a USB PLM for about 4 years on HomeSeer and sold it, still working, when I migrated to the ISY. My surge protector is on year 16, its averaged out to $16/year including installation. My suppressor does not interfere with powerline communications.

 

Paul

I have the leviton whole house surge protector myself and love it. The way I see it, after spending 5k on electronic switches and so forth, I need to protect them like I do any of my other electronics. I also use the hardwired insteon phase coupler in the panel as that helps with noise as well.

[paulbates]

I have the leviton whole house surge protector myself and love it. The way I see it, after spending 5k on electronic switches and so forth, I need to protect them like I do any of my other electronics. I also use the hardwired insteon phase coupler in the panel as that helps with noise as well.

 

Yep . I have a double gang box attached to the panel. Phase coupler on one side, outlet on the other side for the PLM, it attaches to the panel through one of the bridges breakers.

 

Paul

[lilyoyo1]

Does this mean the non-ZWave Plus devices do NOT have immediate status updating to remote devices?

Does this mean all ZWave Plus devices DO have immediate status updating to remote devices?

....or is that feature not necessarily related?

 

I couldn't find mention of that feature in the article linked.

Its not related. Status is up to each individual mfg. and how they want to implement it (there are multiple ways. When it comes to Zwave (regardless of gen) it comes down to what feature any given mfg. wants to support. 

 

This is the exact reason why I stay away from zwave for the most part. No matter then benefits; there's always a "but"

[lilyoyo1]

+1

 

Keypads are a big one for me, too. I found a 4 button leviton, but it looks lot like a retread of their original x10 4 button transmitters. $Pricey$, even by keypadlinc standards. While the leviton x10 switches were always advanced feature wise, I don't know if they support status.

BTW, I have one and It's not supported by the ISY yet (havent tried it on version 5.10 yet) 

[stusviews]

I have the leviton whole house surge protector myself and love it. The way I see it, after spending 5k on electronic switches and so forth, I need to protect them like I do any of my other electronics. I also use the hardwired insteon phase coupler in the panel as that helps with noise as well.

 

Ditto, a Leviton whole house surge protector and an Insteon hard wired phase-coupler for each panel.Neither is a sub-panel, one electric drop that feeds each panel separately.

[asbril]

BTW, I have one and It's not supported by the ISY yet (havent tried it on version 5.10 yet) 

Maybe I am wrong, but these Zwave key pads may be to activate  Scenes, in which case the Status Reporting may depend more in the switches (in the Scene) than on the keypad itself.

[lilyoyo1]

It doesn't even add to the ISY to find out what can be done.

 

Regardless of support, your answer goes straight to my point of why I don't like zwave devices. Nothing is ever straight forward. To many variables out there. With insteon, there is no guessing game. Everything just works

[mwester]

It doesn't even add to the ISY to find out what can be done.

 

Regardless of support, your answer goes straight to my point of why I don't like zwave devices. Nothing is ever straight forward. To many variables out there. With insteon, there is no guessing game. Everything just works

 

... except the siren.  Oh, and the new motion sensor.  And the PLM after about two years...  hmmm... actually it seems that quite a lot of stuff, even a couple of the newest things, don't "just work" with Insteon...

 

(Sorry, couldn't resist injecting just a little reality into this.  Sorry to disrupt anyone's happiness.)

[io_guy]

I've been using Insteon in my house since 2009.  So far I've had 2 PLMs, 2 switches and 2 KPLs die.  I've had to add 4 filters (various noisy devices), and use a hard-wired phase coupler and whole home surge supressor.

 

In general I'm happy but when I move (likely next year) I'll be saying goodbye to Insteon completely.  I have a few Z-Wave outlets and door locks and love them.  Next house will be all Homeseer dimmers.  Where I need KPLs I'll be creating a custom PiZero/Touchscreen to fit inside a gang box.

 

I just hate the stupid PLM.  Ridiculous having to buy one very two years and the speed is terrible (ISY program reaction time for something like a double paddle click).

[G W]

... except the siren. Oh, and the new motion sensor. And the PLM after about two years... hmmm... actually it seems that quite a lot of stuff, even a couple of the newest things, don't "just work" with Insteon...

 

(Sorry, couldn't resist injecting just a little reality into this. Sorry to disrupt anyone's happiness.)

Except they do work with Inston. They don't work with ISY.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[lilyoyo1]

... except the siren.  Oh, and the new motion sensor.  And the PLM after about two years...  hmmm... actually it seems that quite a lot of stuff, even a couple of the newest things, don't "just work" with Insteon...

 

(Sorry, couldn't resist injecting just a little reality into this.  Sorry to disrupt anyone's happiness.)

As Gary already said, they do work with Insteon devices. With that said, you named 2 devices which there are technically work arounds for. Compare that with the multitude of zwave issues and there still is no comparison to be made. A person will more likely run into unsupported devices or features with zwave than they would with Insteon.