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.
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.