Insteon vs Zwave vs Zigbee vs UPB Comparison 2011

[sorka]

I have a fairly large insteon installation consisting of 60+ devices. I was an early adopter years ago starting with Icon. I had the paddle issue eventually effecting all of my switches and they all failed. However, communication was very reliable even without access points (back then it was rf lincs). I was just about to abandon the entire thing and restart with z-wave or UPB. I really didn't want to because I'd done a lot of research on both and neither alternative was as flexible in setup, cross linking, status reporting, etc. Also, z-wave, at the time had major incompatibility issues across manufacturers and no one manufacturer made a line as extensive as insteon.

Just as I was being forced to abandon Insteon, SH stepped up and retroactively warrantied all the Icons and replaced them with Insteon at no extra charge. Additionally, a new company, Universal Devices, had just released the ISY-99i which was designed as a low power dedicated central controller just for Insteon.

I'll say this now. Had it not been for the great folks at UD with this awsome controller and more importantly, their ability to truly debug SHs firmware bugs and actually get SH to fix them for real, Insteon would be a dead product today no question. UD *saved* SHs but with Insteon and turned them around. SH owes UD BIG TIME.

Now having said that, I bought the ISY and installed it along with all the replacement switches. I had communication reliability issues. I bought my first access points. I actually ended up buying 6 of them along with the new motion sensors. I still had communication problems. SH insisted that I must have added a signal suck somewhere which I hadn't. I also had filterlincs on all UPSs and anything that could be a signal suck like my home theater equipment including flat screens etc.

UD eventually figured out what the problem was and it was a bug in the Insteon firmware. They got SH to admit and fix it. They also got SH to warranty the defective devices when requested. I called SH after being told this by UD, explained the situation, and once again every single device effected(switchlincs and dimmers) was replaced at no charge. Finally my communication was 100% again even with the access points removed. Finally after all this time(been about 2 years now), things have been perfect.

I also use Homeseer to talk to the ISY, but I leave the low level stuff and simple timers and occupancy logic up to the ISY including scene programming and such. HS is used only for initiating programs or scenes due to other other inputs from either my alarm system or video surveillance system. i.e. turning off all lights when arming the alarm in away mode during the day or if at night turning on certain lights I want left on. Or running occupancy simulations while away from home at night for the appearance that someone is home.

I also use HS for ipads and android phones and for external access.

 

[apostolakisl]

I have a fairly large insteon installation consisting of 60+ devices. I was an early adopter years ago starting with Icon. I had the paddle issue eventually effecting all of my switches and they all failed. However, communication was very reliable even without access points (back then it was rf lincs). I was just about to abandon the entire thing and restart with z-wave or UPB. I really didn't want to because I'd done a lot of research on both and neither alternative was as flexible in setup, cross linking, status reporting, etc. Also, z-wave, at the time had major incompatibility issues across manufacturers and no one manufacturer made a line as extensive as insteon.

Just as I was being forced to abandon Insteon, SH stepped up and retroactively warrantied all the Icons and replaced them with Insteon at no extra charge. Additionally, a new company, Universal Devices, had just released the ISY-99i which was designed as a low power dedicated central controller just for Insteon.

I'll say this now. Had it not been for the great folks at UD with this awsome controller and more importantly, their ability to truly debug SHs firmware bugs and actually get SH to fix them for real, Insteon would be a dead product today no question. UD *saved* SHs but with Insteon and turned them around. SH owes UD BIG TIME.

Now having said that, I bought the ISY and installed it along with all the replacement switches. I had communication reliability issues. I bought my first access points. I actually ended up buying 6 of them along with the new motion sensors. I still had communication problems. SH insisted that I must have added a signal suck somewhere which I hadn't. I also had filterlincs on all UPSs and anything that could be a signal suck like my home theater equipment including flat screens etc.

UD eventually figured out what the problem was and it was a bug in the Insteon firmware. They got SH to admit and fix it. They also got SH to warranty the defective devices when requested. I called SH after being told this by UD, explained the situation, and once again every single device effected(switchlincs and dimmers) was replaced at no charge. Finally my communication was 100% again even with the access points removed. Finally after all this time(been about 2 years now), things have been perfect.

I also use Homeseer to talk to the ISY, but I leave the low level stuff and simple timers and occupancy logic up to the ISY including scene programming and such. HS is used only for initiating programs or scenes due to other other inputs from either my alarm system or video surveillance system. i.e. turning off all lights when arming the alarm in away mode during the day or if at night turning on certain lights I want left on. Or running occupancy simulations while away from home at night for the appearance that someone is home.

I also use HS for ipads and android phones and for external access.

I am in complete agreement with you on all of this, especially the stuff about universal devices. My experiences are pretty much identical and so is my setup. I like the Insteon stuff quite a lot. . . now. Prior to the ISY and when I was replacing all the bad paddle switches, I just about trashed it all. The current stuff looks good, feels good, and works well. With ISY and the awesome (and I really mean that) guys at UD this setup is so versatile and relatively simple to use (learngin curve of course) I would not change now, even if it were free. Plus, UD keeps making things better and better, at no cost to me.

 

[drozwood90]

I am in complete agreement with you on all of this, especially the stuff about universal devices. My experiences are pretty much identical and so is my setup. I like the Insteon stuff quite a lot. . . now. Prior to the ISY and when I was replacing all the bad paddle switches, I just about trashed it all. The current stuff looks good, feels good, and works well. With ISY and the awesome (and I really mean that) guys at UD this setup is so versatile and relatively simple to use (learngin curve of course) I would not change now, even if it were free. Plus, UD keeps making things better and better, at no cost to me.

I admit, I always did like the "feel" of the Icon switches...but I got out of the game before all the "fixes". I think the only two ICONs I have left as at my father's house. He uses them linked to each other to turn a light on in the garage (as well as being able to see from inside if the light is on or not).

--Dan

 

[Digger]

I have a fairly large insteon installation consisting of 60+ devices. I was an early adopter years ago starting with Icon. I had the paddle issue eventually effecting all of my switches and they all failed. However, communication was very reliable even without access points (back then it was rf lincs). I was just about to abandon the entire thing and restart with z-wave or UPB. I really didn't want to because I'd done a lot of research on both and neither alternative was as flexible in setup, cross linking, status reporting, etc. Also, z-wave, at the time had major incompatibility issues across manufacturers and no one manufacturer made a line as extensive as insteon.

Just as I was being forced to abandon Insteon, SH stepped up and retroactively warrantied all the Icons and replaced them with Insteon at no extra charge. Additionally, a new company, Universal Devices, had just released the ISY-99i which was designed as a low power dedicated central controller just for Insteon.

I'll say this now. Had it not been for the great folks at UD with this awsome controller and more importantly, their ability to truly debug SHs firmware bugs and actually get SH to fix them for real, Insteon would be a dead product today no question. UD *saved* SHs but with Insteon and turned them around. SH owes UD BIG TIME.

Now having said that, I bought the ISY and installed it along with all the replacement switches. I had communication reliability issues. I bought my first access points. I actually ended up buying 6 of them along with the new motion sensors. I still had communication problems. SH insisted that I must have added a signal suck somewhere which I hadn't. I also had filterlincs on all UPSs and anything that could be a signal suck like my home theater equipment including flat screens etc.

UD eventually figured out what the problem was and it was a bug in the Insteon firmware. They got SH to admit and fix it. They also got SH to warranty the defective devices when requested. I called SH after being told this by UD, explained the situation, and once again every single device effected(switchlincs and dimmers) was replaced at no charge. Finally my communication was 100% again even with the access points removed. Finally after all this time(been about 2 years now), things have been perfect.

I also use Homeseer to talk to the ISY, but I leave the low level stuff and simple timers and occupancy logic up to the ISY including scene programming and such. HS is used only for initiating programs or scenes due to other other inputs from either my alarm system or video surveillance system. i.e. turning off all lights when arming the alarm in away mode during the day or if at night turning on certain lights I want left on. Or running occupancy simulations while away from home at night for the appearance that someone is home.

I also use HS for ipads and android phones and for external access.

Without UD keeping SH honest about things Insteon would be dead as you say. The problem is that if there is a problem SH usually does not admit it (its always the customers fault and they never heard of such a problem etc) until forced to and by that time many people have wasted time and money.

If SH would run their Beta units through UDI first it would probably minimize a lot of the grief that SH customers see. Perhaps that has started now.

Insteon Keypads are probably the nicest I have seen appearance wise but I can not trust SH to consistently put out a quality product like the mfg's of other lighting protocals. Granted any mfg can have an occasional problem but SH track record was horrible and I guess improving somewhat.

 

[blasians]

Zwave

 

[sanders2222]

UD's Elk module is awesome. Homeseer is useless if you have the ISY!

 

[firstone]

I have to say I'm in Insteon camp because I have an SDK and all the documentation. But looking at Z-Wave protocol, it's appears to be a lot more robust and well thought out. I wish they'd make their commands documentation available for a reasonable price. I really don't need their classes (nor can afford to pay $5k for them), all I want are docs. Also, seems like Insteon has a lot more device types available. So not switching to Z-Wave any time soon. Although I will be using multi-protocol setup.