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Is Insteon the way to go?

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    Is Insteon the way to go?

    I've sold my current home with a very expansive Insteon array, and we've moved into a much bigger home in which I am starting from scratch. I use the insteon sensors for activating scenes, have many 3 way setups (haven't done a 4 way, but this will happen in the new home). I have had one device failure in about 4 years. The hub failed, but they did the migration for me last month.

    With that said, I'm looking at building a new system from the ground up. So, with that said, if you were building a new system from the ground up, which requires dimming switches, sensors to control multiple scenes, ability to integrate with Alexa, what would you choose? I don't want cheap crap or stuff that relies purely on wireless. I've found the insteon system, once it is well populated, to be extremely reliable. My only concerns about this new setup is that I have a 400 AMP home, with multiple panels and 2 main structures. I don't know how many repeaters I am going to end up needing.

    #2
    I am up to 68 devices (lights, motion, leak sensors, ceiling fan/light, etc) on two power legs, one repeater in between, Alexa integration and very seldom any failures. Tuning with Alexa took getting the naming simple enough, but once it is dialed in, it is solid. I have followed IoT for years and what you will see if that hubs are dying (except for Insteon). So it will be tough to find a non wireless based solution unless you go full custom with the systems like Crestron or Savant. But hey, I am biased since I started with X10 and have been growing with Insteon since.

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      #3
      Personally I would go with Insteon for my lighting and zwave for everything else coupled with using the ISY. For the DIY market insteon can't be beat when it comes to lighting. I like zwave for everything else however. Depending on how you integrate your sensors you can use either insteon or zwave.

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        #4
        I've wondered about this too. I'm currently at 80-90 devices at a new home and all is working well. But I decided to use 2 hubs (west and east) under the same login and that is working well with alexa. I can even create an alexa group that can tie two scenes together from both hubs. Another advantage is if one hub fails the whole house doesn't go down (but that being said I have each device on one or the other hub depending on which one it's closer too.

        I think newer houses are less "noisy" - I have less transmission issues than my 70's house.

        My friends says I should have gone with samsung smartthings but I really like the look and feel of insteon switches and their LED's including the dimming capability of the LED itself. Is there a z-wave switch for the DIY that works similarly? It seems insteon is better for the dual powerline and RF transmission. I have noticed that a few TP link casa wifi-plugs I have actually are very reliable (and I'm using an ORBI wifi mesh to have good wifi signal).

        I too wondered if Wemo or Lutron Caseta or Smartthings would have been a better choice.

        Caveats: Insteon's hubs fail about 1-2 years (more recently one failed at 6 months) - good thing that they have a new hub migration program and they sent a new hub to assume the Insteon ID of the old one and all scenes were transferred. It did take 5-7 days to get the replacement hub (free). I hope they can make a more reliable hub. Another flaw with insteon is broken links - the old Houselinc tool could fix broken links. They need to add something to the smartphone app to clean up dead links etc. Innovation wise: insteon seems to be awfully quiet lately - is this product going to be abandoned at some point or bought out? I hope not but it is a concern when investing in a large number of devices.

        I'm happy with insteon and all is working well. Maybe they could open the insteon standard up somehow or if they want to be like apple : just come out with an updated hub even and a better app to clean up links / diagnostics etc.

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          #5
          Insteon per say was sold a little over a year or so ago and new ownership promised big and better things.
          Still waiting. I have not seen anything new and some items gone. With the lack of new announcements and all quiet for so long, sure looks dismal to me.
          I know there are some die hard fans of this stuff, and I also like it very well except for any of the cameras, but I am also a die hard Dallas Cowboy fan and I haven't seen anything different in 22 years.
          If it weren't for the Insteon related forums, I think the ship would have already sailed
          Here is a link to a good article but its over a year old also.
          https://smarthomegearguide.com/insteon-review/
          Last edited by rajung; 03-28-2019, 05:18 AM.

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