Goodbye.
Unfortunately my Homey (end 2019) broke down over a month ago. Trying an RMA only resulted in a very slow response from Athom, basically saying that the warranty of the device is expired. They offered a new one with a small discount, but this is still an investment of over € 300.
Disregarding my opinion that I should be able to rely on a € 324 (incl. AF)device longer than 3 years, especially in case the product is hardly subject to wear and tear, I now decided not to replace my Homey device. I have a long history with my Homey related to the reliability of the device (and especially in the often non working z-wave functionality) and the disappointing cross functionality of the various comm protocols (RF and IR appeared to be unusable). Also having read the recent problems with the 2023 edition related to Z-wave, I respectfully pass. My first belief that Homey would be a low effort maintaining home automation device proved to be wrong.
In my efforts to find a solution to improve the z-wave reliability and Homey device performance, I earlier agreed with Athom that they would test the device thoroughly. I started to transfer all my devices to a temporary solution (HA) which I already owned for the P1 energy meter. I added a Z-wave stick and created new flows using automation and Node-Red, which is similar to the Homey Advanced flows but more difficult to configure. Agreed, HA isn’t a solution as easy to manage the Homey device, but if I have to choose between reliability and required efforts in setting up I will choose reliability. Because of the complicated setup and modification of HA on an RPi, I was required to improve my tech skills significantly (Debian/Linux, Docker, JS, etc.). I have now reached a point that the HA alternative is an acceptable and manageable alternative, and more important, is reliable. No more slow responding devices, flows, or other issues. The options in HA to create your own dashboard is significantly better than Homey.
Anyway, I would like to thank the community in their support in the several apps and customisations. This really helped me out in several occasions and I’m convinced other users will benefit from this as well. Too bad the Homey device isn’t working for me any longer, despite the nice design.
For those who are interested, my Homey is for sale on Marktplaats. Look for “Homey Early 2019 (defect)”.
