Hi
I'm currently planning the construction of a house and I'm trying to decide if I should go with Insteon or Z-wave for automation (have no experience with either). After a lot of reading, I think that Insteon would be a better match in terms of the available devices (I would use a bunch of dimmers, switches keypandlincs and fanlincs, approx. 30 devices total). What keeps me from ordering is this:
- Reports / reviews about the failure rate of Insteon devices (fanlincs and keypadlincs in particular). I read about many instances where they failed right out of the box or after a short time. Are those isolated incidents? Just a few bad ones of thousands of devices that "just work"? I would expect an average lifespan of at least 5 years. Am I being unrealistic?
- One of the big selling points seems to be the dual-band technology. However, I read somewhere that if the communication fails through powerline, the devices will also seize to communicate over RF and vice versa. Is this really correct? Wouldn't this turn an apparent advantage of the technology into a clear disadvantage? Did I misunderstand something?
I'd really love to go the Insteon route. If it was working as advertised it would be perfect for my application. However, reliability is paramount to me, so I don't want to buy into an ecosystem that requires constant troubleshooting and replacement of components.
Thanks
I'm currently planning the construction of a house and I'm trying to decide if I should go with Insteon or Z-wave for automation (have no experience with either). After a lot of reading, I think that Insteon would be a better match in terms of the available devices (I would use a bunch of dimmers, switches keypandlincs and fanlincs, approx. 30 devices total). What keeps me from ordering is this:
- Reports / reviews about the failure rate of Insteon devices (fanlincs and keypadlincs in particular). I read about many instances where they failed right out of the box or after a short time. Are those isolated incidents? Just a few bad ones of thousands of devices that "just work"? I would expect an average lifespan of at least 5 years. Am I being unrealistic?
- One of the big selling points seems to be the dual-band technology. However, I read somewhere that if the communication fails through powerline, the devices will also seize to communicate over RF and vice versa. Is this really correct? Wouldn't this turn an apparent advantage of the technology into a clear disadvantage? Did I misunderstand something?
I'd really love to go the Insteon route. If it was working as advertised it would be perfect for my application. However, reliability is paramount to me, so I don't want to buy into an ecosystem that requires constant troubleshooting and replacement of components.
Thanks
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