Question

What is everyone’s favorite light switch? I sold my house and I am leaving my current switches in the house. Looking for reasonably priced. Like under $30 each if possible. Thanks in advance.  

Answer 1

Shelly. I use them for all my lights and outlets. The same module can do both. Small enough to fit behind a standard switch or outlet. Uses WiFi, but still has SmartThings integration. Work with SmartThings, Hubitat, Alexa, Google Home, Home Assistant, Domoticz, etc. but when you see the features built in, you'll change your pants - they're as smart as a Hub on their own. Not joking. They have full local control if the Internet goes down. I like the pricing because the Shelly 1 module is $17 each, $11 if you buy the 4 pack, and my wife uses switches she likes while i get smart home that I like.  
https://shopusa.shelly.cloud/

Comments

@doubleedged10 Are you sure Shelly devices have SmartThing integration? I do not see any mention regarding such possibility in Shelly product descriptions

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@azzieb It hasn't been officially announced, but go in the SmartThings app, tapp +, tap Device, scroll down and look for Shelly.  

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@doubleedged10 Thank You.  

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@azzieb Glad to help, sir!  

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Is there a fan controller available? We are moving soon and the living room has a fan with lights, on 2 switches, but its a 1 gang switch

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@imperturbation91375 Not yet. On the fan in my office, I use a Shelly 2. 5 - one relay controls the light and the other controls the fan, but the fan is at a constant speed and I never dim the lights. In the living room, that won't work, because of the marital fan speed war. Waiting to see what Shelly comes up with for this. In the mean time, I plan to experiment with an RF controller for it, as that's compatible with both SmartThings and Hubitat.  

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@doubleedged10 new app only?  

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@tenpenny As far as I know

Answer 2

For Zwave, I really like the Zooz switches.  

Comments

@unclothe1851 just switched from Leviton to Zooz. Have 30 in the house and the way 3way works saved so much. No issues so far, not using dimmer.  

Answer 3

Zooz and inovelli

Answer 4

I'm in the same boat! Had GE zwave plus and never had issues but interested to see what people say

Answer 5

I’ve used GE, Wemo and recently Inovelli. GE is ok, expensive for what you get and you need to use one their proprietary switches for 3 way use. Wemo has been horrible and I would never recommend a WiFi switch anyway. Inovelli has been flawless, lots of features, well made and can be used in 3 way circuit without purchasing special switches.  

Answer 6

The Jasco Honeywell ZW+ are $29  
https://amzn.to/2I1mX24

Answer 7

I've had good luck with zooz switches

Answer 8

GE here all the way, have one that once a month or so needs to be tapped on and off to get it to behave but no issues otherwise in three years.  

Answer 9

Hey Billy! I'm happy to help get your questions answered. Let me know if I can help. @bitolj CSO | Inovelli

Comments

@bitolj thanks. I do have a question. The new house we are moving into has ceiling fans wired for one switch for the lights and one switch for the fan. Do your switches control the fan? Can we set the speeds of the fan in the switch?  

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@becalmed Right now we do not have a fan switch. We are currently working on them and looking to have them done in the next few months.  

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@bitolj thanks.  

Answer 10

I have GE, Leviton and Shelly. The Shelly will fit behind any switch including doubles & triples, inside a ceiling fan shroud, they are quite versatile.  

Answer 11

The latest Inovellis are quite feature-packed, reliable, and a good value. I certainly prefer them over my GEs or Levitons .  

Comments

The Inovellis are only a good value if you want white switches. For any other color, add $5 per switch.  

Answer 12

Inovelli, no question.  

Answer 13

TP-Kasa WiFi. Replaced all the others and never a single problem now.  

Comments

That is not a good choice with SmartThings - with TP-Link, you are relying on yet another third party cloud. One of the major points of a ST hub is to use zigbee/zwave devices to get things off of wifi! If TP-Link has an outage, your switches will stop working. Zigbee/zwave devices all have a "local" API so they do not depend on their manufacturer.  

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@unclothe1851 I don’t disagree but I tried GE zigbee and zwave both were terribly unreliable.  

Answer 14

Awesome. Thank you everyone. I will read over all the comments and start doing some homework. I really appreciate all the feedback.  

Answer 15

Caseta wireless. Buy on eBay for the $30 price point

Answer 16

TP Link Kasa

Answer 17

Lutron Caseta are my favorite switches, dimmers and fan controllers. While NOT <$30 apiece, they “just work”, all the time, every time. They integrate with SmartThings, Hubitat(requires the PRO bridge), Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Logitech Harmony Hub, Apple HomeKit, etc.  

Comments

Another happy Lutron user here.  

Answer 18

Zigbee or wifi would be safest bets. Who knows what ones will survive the HA standard war, but those seem to be winning right now.  

Comments

The difference is. with either zigbee or zwave devices, you are not dependent on another cloud service (most wifi devices do not have a local API). So it doesn't matter if they 'win', everything will continue to work.  

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@unclothe1851 the question I have is would it require new hardware for a company to implement that? What if a wifi HA company started selling a device that would sit on your network and give you local functionality when remote capabilities are interrupted? Perhaps giving you local storage options if you didnt want video to go to the cloud.  

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@commandant "What if a wifi HA company started selling a device that would sit on your network and give you local functionality when remote capabilities are interrupted? " Not possible, you can't "add" a local API to a device that doesn't have it.  

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All HA wifi devices communicate with a remote server. Why would you think it's not possible for that company to sale a local device that sits between the HA device and remote server that could function without internet? That is what Samsung does with its Smartthings hub, the only difference is its using a different frequency in your house.  

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@commandant "All HA wifi devices communicate with a remote server. " No. Zigbee or Zwave devices only communicate with their hub. A hub doesn't have to communicate with a remote server. . What you are describing involves breaking the SSL protocol and performing a "man-in-the-middle" attack. To do this you would have to modify the firmware of the device so that it trusts your local certificate authority, then you would have to replicate the command & response of the remote server, which is different for every brand. If you are modifying the firmware, you might as well just give it a local API instead! That is not what SmartThings is doing. Zigbee and Zwave are both wireless protocols *and* local command sets. wifi devices do not have a local command set / common language that they speak.  

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@unclothe1851 first zigbee and zwave aren't wifi. Secondly, everything you describe is completely accessible by the manufacturer. I wasnt talking a homebrew device. The company that makes the HA device also makes the add on/wifi hub device or partners with someone who does.  

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@commandant "first zigbee and zwave aren't wifi. " Correct, where did I say they were? Note that I do this stuff for a living (write HA APIs). Yes, I'll concede that when done in partnership with the device manufacturer, that would be possible. Note that you basically just described HomeKit :)

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Homekit is Apple isn't it?  

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@commandant Yes.  

Answer 19

I have mostly Zooz switches/dimmers (at least 5 different models) and they have worked great except for 2 that got taken out by a lighting strike last summer (along with some other electronics). I also have several GE switches/dimmers a 4-5 HomeSeer Dimmers and one Inovelli dimmer as well as several Qubino modules . The HomeSeer and Inovelli products are the most feature-rich in most cases the added cost is not worth it in my mind over Zooz. The GE products are not really up-to-date with current expected feature set and are also much more expensive than Zooz. The Qubino modules are useful when missing a neutral at the switch box. All of them have worked well except for one GE switch that sometimes flickers as I walk by (need to retighten connections? ) and the fact that Alexa sometimes reports that the Qubino modules are not responding even though they execute the command fine.  

Answer 20

Zooz switches

Answer 21

Zooz and Inovelli, no more GE - installed 3, 2 went bad a little over a year. No failures or issues with Zooz or Inovelli yet.  

Answer 22

I really like the features of inovelli switches especially the red series but they are over $30. Worth it though!  

Answer 23

What ever you get I strongly suggest it works with a HUB like Smartthing or Hue or anything else. Do not get the ones that connect with WIFI. what a nightmare that turns out to be.  

Answer 24

Wi-fi does not communicate with other devices. Example: motion sensor turning on light switch.  

Comments

You can accomplish through routines though. I do this in Google home

Answer 25

For everyone suggesting Z-Wave devices. What is your prediction on what will become of Z-Wave. With it going open source and with the Zigbee alliance do you see it as a safe investment? Especially for someone like myself who has ALOT of switches to replace if I go in that direction and go full smart switches in my home

Comments

My background: First SmartThings featured community developer. Lead engineer for Stringify (now defunct iOS/Android home automation app) Currently a principal engineer for a large company working on smart home. that has a lot invested in zigbee :). My $. 02 on the ecosystem Many hubs support both zigbee and zwave. I've had zwave switches in my house for 7 years. Zigbee has definitely had a resurgence lately. CHIP is the most interesting new protocol to enter the race. backed by Google/Amazon/Apple/Zigbee alliance. Regardless, it's not like the switches will stop working. Even if hubs stop becoming available, I have no doubt that open source projects like HomeAssistant will, when paired with a zwave USB dongle, will continue to integrate zwave switches into any other ecosystem for many years to come. That said, I bought a house a year ago and went with Lutron Caseta for switches and am very happy with it. Requires its own bridge, but rock solid and compatible with everything (Google, Alexa, Homekit, SmartThings, etc etc etc). I love the fact that I can put a "pico remote" in a wall gang plate. and stick it to the wall with command strips. Looks identical to an actual wall switch (and it mirrors an actual switch, so you put these in rooms where the actual switch is in an inconvenient location) and no holes in the wall. Pico remote batteries last 10 years.