Reliability is indeed crucial, and you are absolutely right—once a system runs smoothly, it often becomes something we can set and forget, without needing a fancy interface. That said, as someone who enjoys tinkering with my setup, I tend to interact with the interface more frequently for review and optimization purposes.
While Hubitat has been consistently reliable in my experience, there are a few limitations that, while not deal-breakers, can cause some frustration. Specifically, the only officially supported TRV has posed ongoing issues for me. Despite setting the desired temperature and mode correctly, my Spirit TRV will sometimes overheat, even when set to 22°C. The only solution I’ve found is to remove and reinsert the batteries. Additionally, these units are prone to malfunctioning—about one of my ten units fails annually—and replacements are often hard to find.
Another challenge is that the TRV’s logic involves listening to the network for a brief period, then going into sleep mode. As a result, there can be delays in responsiveness—sometimes it reacts immediately, but other times I have to resend commands multiple times. My previous system handled these delays gracefully, always setting the correct temperature, even if with a slight delay. Hubitat, unfortunately, doesn’t seem to manage this as well. To mitigate this, I’ve created a custom rule that loops through commands, setting the temperature, waiting 10 seconds, and verifying until it’s correct.
Given that this is the only officially supported TRV, I believe it would be helpful for Hubitat to address these issues more effectively. I’ve raised this in the community forums several times, and while staff have responded, we have yet to see changes or broader support for other TRVs.
