Performance (Continued):
Hubitat also has an app called Lock Code Manager. This allows you to control and set pin codes for your compatible door locks or keypads. In my case I was able to use this to set codes for Iris Gen 2 keypad and it functions just like it did on that platform. But what I like is that you can create other codes to provide to a contractor or something and terminate it later. No fears of them knowing your main code or having to constantly change it. One change I would like to see is having access to this app remotely. Currently there is no Hubitat offered solution. You can set up VPNs to have complete access remotely but this does scare away a lot of people.
As mentioned at the start, Hubitat also allows you to connect devices via IFTTT. This really opens up the platform to additional devices that are not natively controlled or to add features like getting a call when water is detected which is not a native option. Using this I was able to set up automations that were not possible before. For instance, I have a Bond device controlling several ceiling fans. In my initial set up I was able to tie these to my Ecobee thermostat but I was surprised to see I couldn’t access each rooms temperature. Now I can pick a device temperature from each room to directly control the fan in that room. One thing to keep in mind is that while Hubitat runs locally, this is only for ZigBee and Z-Wave devices connected directly to the hub, all of these IFTTT automations are dependent on the cloud. But none the less this is an incredibly useful tool.
Hubitat does offer several other apps which I didn’t get a chance to utilize yet, but if they are anything like the ones I used they will be quite powerful and for some they will be somewhat intimidating. There is also no shortage of 3rd party apps you can install to really customize this platform to your needs. You can even purchase additional hubs and link them all together should you have a very large home. I would however like to see page that shows system resources. As mentioned, occasionally pages take a few seconds to load, my fear is that with all these apps, rules etc. running you may get to a point where you are unstable. It would be nice to see how these affect the overall performance.
The mobile app is a great addition and serves as a great stop gap. This provides much of what the entry level users will need to feel comfortable with managing the system remotely. I would like to see additional features come in the future, if not full on access to rule machine and other apps, at least the ability to pause automations that may be misbehaving. I would also like to see the app automatically log you back in after an update so presence detection still functions.
In the several weeks that I have had Hubitat running I have seen very few issues. All of them go back to my own errors rather than a device issue sans one. A few weeks back I saw an update was available so I upgraded. In the next couple days there were two more updates which I also did. It wasn’t until after the third update that my wife mentioned her Iris Gen 1 key fob wasn’t working. When I looked into it I realized all battery operated Gen 1 devices were no longer connected. Working with tech support and user suggestions on the forum I was able to get my system back up and functional. It was more work than I would have liked but the worst part is all of this could have been avoided.
Ultimately the problem stemmed from a software bug on their end, but the real failure was my own. Hubitat offers a back-up and restore function which is great if you use it. The system currently only keeps copies of the last (3) images though they are looking to increase this in the future. Of course the three images I had were all containing the bug that dumped my devices. Had I been smart enough I would have kept a local copy of the image prior to upgrading, and I would have been able to roll back to that state. So learn from me, get your image then upgrade. But while I take responsibility for this failure I do think Hubitat could make a change that would have eliminated this from happening. With Iris and with ST you can quickly and easily determine if a device is offline. With Iris I got push notifications when this happened. A single device dropping off I would probably ignore, but 30+ devices in a 4 hour window would get your attention. I really hope in the future something like this is added. I realize you can log devices and see the activity on each device page but this is not something most people will be doing unless they know they have a problem.
