# AlCalzone's Device/Manufacturer Review {docsify-ignore-all}

## Disclaimer

?> This is an alphabetic list of manufacturers from which I would buy devices or not. It is highly **subjective**, but I'll give explanations for each recommendation - positive or negative. My review is based on 4 years of tech support in this repository, personal experience with some of the devices and information others in the community have posted about them.
Take everything with a grain of salt and do what you want with it.  
_– AlCalzone (the maintainer)_

## The list

| Manufacturer | Buy (👍🏻) / Do not buy (👎🏻) | Reasons                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            |
| ------------ | :--------------------------------------------- | :--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Aeotec       | 👍🏻 definitely                                  | ✔ Great support<br />✔ Frequently in contact with us to make sure their devices work in Z-Wave JS<br />✔ Well thought-out functionality                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            |
| August       | 👎🏻 no                                          | ❌ Glaring firmware bugs making devices unusable, no interest in fixing them [[1]](https://github.com/zwave-js/zwavejs2mqtt/discussions/828#discussioncomment-580904)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              |
| Fibaro       | 🤷🏻‍♂️ maybe                                       | ✔ Devices are generally of good quality...<br />❓ ...but some are problematic<br />❌ No free firmware updates, must buy (!) HomeCenter to do that<br />❌ Official support for non-HomeCenter gateways is **very** limited                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| HeatIt       | 👎🏻 no                                          | ✔ Nice devices...<br />❌ ...but anecdotally very buggy [[1]](https://github.com/OpenZWave/open-zwave/pull/2458) <br />❌ Can flood the network in response to some commands [[2]](https://github.com/zwave-js/node-zwave-js/pull/1341)<br />❌ Tend not to acknowledge mistakes, seek blame with others                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           |
| HomeSeer     | 👎🏻 no                                          | ❌ Tend not to acknowledge mistakes, seek blame with others<br />❌ Recommend buying new devices instead of fixing bugs [[1]](https://github.com/zwave-js/node-zwave-js/issues/3543#issuecomment-953968137) [[2]](https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeSeer/comments/qgfyq9/comment/hi69ss5) [[3]](https://github.com/zwave-js/node-zwave-js/issues/2464) [[4]](https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/homeseer-products-services/homeseer-z-wave-products/homeseer-dimmers-switches/hs-wd200/1453727-wd100-wd200-supervision-bug) [[5]](https://github.com/zwave-js/node-zwave-js/issues/3403) |
| MCOHome      | 👎🏻 no                                          | ✔ Devices make a good first impression<br />❌ Negative hands-on experience: I have two thermostats for electrical floor heating (MH7H-EH2). Software is very unstable, can lock up while heating (!)<br />❌ No response from support, haven't seen any firmware updates yet                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      |
| Schlage      | 👎🏻 no                                          | ❌ Anecdotally, too many weird issues caused by erratic device behavior                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            |
| Shenzhen Neo | 👎🏻 no                                          | ❌ Glaring firmware bugs are not fixed after years [[1]](https://github.com/zwave-js/node-zwave-js/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aclosed+WR01ZE+label%3A%22cannot+fix+%E2%9D%8C%22) [[2]](https://github.com/zwave-js/node-zwave-js/issues/4592)<br />❌ Terrible device manuals, sometimes not even matching the hardware revision they are enclosed with                                                                                                                                                                                                                               |
| Zooz         | 🤷🏻‍♂️ maybe                                       | ✔ Nice devices<br />✔ Cooperative support<br />❌ No bug fixes despite many reported issues affecting the network                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  |

<!-- | ABC | 👍🏻 | Why? | -->

## Undecided

?> I don't have enough experience with these, so here are some preliminary thoughts...

-   **GE** - I'm not US-based, so I can't test. Very popular, but many reports of these just breaking after several years. No firmware updates ❌. Probably 👎🏻
-   **Inovelli** - Very popular, some issues here and there, but support seems to be interested in fixing bugs. Firmware updates ✔. Probably 👍🏻
-   **Linear/Nortek** - Anecdotally some reports of them being very tricky to include in the network.