I use a lot of Zigbee devices in my smart home. For my needs, Zigbee still offers the best combination of low cost and utility. The truth is that Zigbee isn’t perfect; it has plenty of frustrating issues.
2.4GHz vs Bluetooth: Which Wireless Technology Is Better?
2.4GHz is great as long as you don’t lose that tiny dongle.
Your Wi-Fi is killing your Zigbee network
Wi-Fi and Zigbee don’t play nicely
Most Zigbee smart home devices operate in the 2.4GHz band. Unfortunately, so does your Wi-Fi. If your Wi-Fi router is on a common default channel, it can directly overlap with the Zigbee channels that your devices are trying to use. The result is interference that can cause your Zigbee network to become less reliable.
The annoying thing is that this isn’t something you can see. You may assume that the poor reliability of your devices or the slow response to commands is just the way that Zigbee is, when a lot of your problems could simply be down to channel overlap.
If you suspect overlap between your Zigbee and Wi-Fi networks, you can try changing the Zigbee channel to see if this improves things. Channels 20 and 25 are common choices to reduce interference.
Your mesh is only as strong as your weakest link
Lose a router, and things can fall apart
One of the key benefits of Zigbee is that it uses a mesh network. Unlike a traditional Wi-Fi setup in which every device talks directly to the router, many mains-powered Zigbee devices can act as routers themselves and can pass information back and forth to the other devices on the network. This can help to provide a stable connection even to devices that are a long way from your Zigbee coordinator, as they can communicate through any other router devices on your network.
There is a significant downside to this, however. If one of your router devices goes down, the path that was previously being used to communicate with a distant device disappears, so an alternative path needs to be found, which may take some time, or the device may drop off the network completely.
It’s all too easy for routers to go missing from the network. Zigbee smart bulbs make useful routers as they’re often placed all around your home, but if you power them off at the switch, they drop off the network entirely. Plug-in routers can also be unplugged if someone wants to use the outlet to plug in the vacuum cleaner, for example. This then throws your network into disarray.
There’s a lot of maintenance
Batteries, batteries, batteries
A major benefit of Zigbee is that it’s a low-power protocol. Unlike Wi-Fi, which uses more power, Zigbee devices can often be powered by batteries. This makes them far more versatile, as you don’t have to worry about placing them near power outlets.
The downside is that having a lot of battery-powered devices means having a lot of batteries. While many Zigbee devices can offer good battery life, the batteries won’t last forever. Eventually, you’re going to have to change them, and the more Zigbee devices you have, the more onerous this becomes.
The trouble is that since the devices are battery-powered, once the batteries die, so do the Zigbee devices. You may be completely unaware that your battery-powered Zigbee device is no longer doing its job. If it’s not a vital device, it’s not such a major issue, but for something like a water leak sensor, the device lying dead is far from ideal.
Pairing is a dark art
No two devices seem to pair the same way
This is something that really annoys me about my Zigbee devices. You would think that pairing them would be easy enough to do. Maybe there would be a button that you would hold down for a second to put the device into pairing mode, and the same trick would work for every single device.
Sadly, this is far from the truth. The reality is that pairing Zigbee devices can often be akin to witchcraft, requiring you to hold down a button while standing on one leg and facing magnetic north in order to enter pairing mode.
While you can usually find the information somewhere online, it’s still frustrating that it isn’t always obvious how to do something as necessary as pairing the device. Even when you do manage to pull it off, if your device drops off the network, you may be forced to go through the whole process again.
The industry seems to be moving away from Zigbee
Big brands are all in on Matter
This is one of the biggest issues with Zigbee right now. While there are still plenty of Zigbee devices available, some brands are starting to move away from Zigbee. Companies such as IKEA and Nanoleaf have begun transitioning new product lines from Zigbee to Matter. Matter is a smart home standard backed by big players such as Apple, Google, Samsung, and Amazon, so it’s no real surprise that smart home brands are pushing Matter more and more.
The trouble is that in its current form, Matter isn’t yet as mature as Zigbee, and there are still a lot of features that it can’t offer. For example, with Zigbee, you can directly bind a Zigbee switch to a Zigbee light bulb and have them work even if your smart home hub is down. While Matter has binding in its specification, current support for the feature remains limited.
Zigbee also offers a feature called Zigbee Green Power, which allows you to use devices that don’t contain any power source at all. For example, a switch can use the kinetic energy of clicking the button to generate just enough power to send out a Zigbee signal and turn on a light. This is something Matter can’t offer.
Zigbee has problems, but I can live with them
Zigbee isn’t perfect, but neither are the alternative options. Wi-Fi is far from an ideal option for smart home devices, Z-Wave devices tend to be more expensive, and Matter still isn’t ready for the big time. For now, despite its issues, I’ll be sticking with Zigbee.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
