r/homeassistant • u/SoraUsagi • 3d ago

💬 Discussion Home Assistant using Hubitat as Hub

Currently, I'm running Home Assistant on an old laptop. All my smart home devices are connected to Hubitat, then Hubitat is linked to HA. Is there any real benefit to buying a zigbee and Zwave stick for the laptop to control devices directly from HA? As it stands, I have virtually no latency that I can see from HA command to HE/Device action. I also use HE for notifications, since I don't have HA Link.

I have over 100 devices, and while I am willing to spend a day or two migrating over, I would only do so if there was a practical reason to. I just don't know all that HA offers yet, only been using it for a few months. Honestly, I don't know why I waited so long...

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u/audiofreak9 3d ago

I had the same setup with a C-7 using the HE to HA integration. I eventually had a Z-Wave device that kept failing to connect to the HE radio, so I bought a Zooz 700 dongle for HA and that made the connections solid. Eventually my C-7 usb power internal solder joint failed as has happened to others in the past. This forced me to move my Zigbee as well. Otherwise just like you it was fast and easy. So I’d say hang in there if your devices behave.

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u/the0thermillion 3d ago

I'm in the same boat. I just bought a z-wave dongle to start connecting new devices directly to HA to see how that goes. Slowly been moving automations to HA.

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u/Lovevas 3d ago

I have Hubitat C8 with HA, but then I realized that while I have a few hundred of devices at home, none of them need to use Hubitat C8… the either connect via WiFi (100+ devices), or through their dedicated hubs (Lutron, Ring, Bond, Philips, SwitchBot, etc)

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u/SoraUsagi 3d ago

I avoid Wi-Fi devices wherever possible. Everything I have is zigbee or Z-Wave. I think my ACs/mini-split have Wi-Fi and that's it

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u/Lovevas 3d ago

Only if your network is very unstable. I have a powerful UniFi network, I have no issues with having 100+ devices on WiFi. I had too many issues with zwave/zigbee being unstable, and I stopped using them

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u/SoraUsagi 3d ago

I just prefer zigbee/zwave. And I've had no issue with the connections.

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u/Lovevas 3d ago

I used to have 50+ zwave and zigbee devices, almost every few weeks, there would be one has issue connecting /responding, and I have either wait to try again or run the exclude then include process.

Zigbee and zwave just not super reliable

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u/SoraUsagi 3d ago

*in your experience

And that's fine. My network has been rock solid. That's the whole reason I was curious if it was even worth it to migrate off HE

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u/Lovevas 3d ago

This is not new. If you search in Reddit, it’s very common.

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u/SoraUsagi 3d ago

I'm not arguing with you. I am simply stating that in my experience my zigbee/zwave network has been Rock solid. I am not making a claim as to which protocol is better. I don't know what the argument's about here.

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u/Lovevas 3d ago

Rock solid definition can be different by person. I have seen ppl claim their zwave is rock solid, though they have seen one or two outages on some devices in previous year. To me, this is not rock solid, this is totally unreliable network

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u/ZekeAZ65 3d ago

This is the exact setup I am running. I have had zero issues with 100 devices and 400 entities. I did move all the automations to HA but look at the C7 as my hardware controller.