TRV devices based on Z-Wave in a sorry state

Devices
1

Small comparison of TRV’s based on hands-on testing; Aqara, Eurotronic and Danfoss (Z-wave).

I am disappointed by all 3 brands (or possibly Homey PRO integration) and the lack of quality in TRV’s available (at least in Sweden);

I read the HP Best Buy guide, but only found these 3 choices available (in Sweden).

Only 1 of 3 was acceptable, the other 2 brands were returned;

Aqara Smart Radiator Thermostat e1 - best look, features, connection worked fine BUT it was too noisy and woke us at night time, plus HP app was buggy and gave null pointer exception sometimes - returned!

Eurotronic Comet Z-Wave - worthless, could not connect to Homey Pro - returned!

Danfoss Ally Thermostat (Z-Wave). It connected quite well to Homey PRO after some initial glitches. It works, or at least partly;

  • 1000 ms timeout every time I change temperature (even though I bought Aeotec Z-Wave extender)
  • Often the ”set” temperature (manually or flow based) is ignored (maybe due to Z-Wave com problems?)
  • Ugly, and bad LED display that’s hard to read.
  • But it works good enough, so keeping for now

Or is it just my bad luck?

2

I just connected the comet 700 Z-Wave with the eurotronic Experimental App. Works good.
I am using it with the homey heating sheduler App.

3

I have the impression manufacturers are backing away from Z-Wave, at least for TRVs, which is what I am looking for. Many of the TRVs on the Z-Wave product list seem no longer made or otherwise are unavailable.

I am about to start from scratch with a new HA project to sort out my heating. I want a network that is rock solid and won’t become a lifelong hobby. I spent my Christmas holidays reading everything I could find on various forums and concluded Z-Wave was more stable than Zigbee. But now I am finding it hard to find Z-Wave devices and keep coming across horror stories about Z-Wave controller firmware being buggy and bricked USB - Z-Wave sticks.

I am not yet fully committed to Z-Wave as I have not yet invested in the 35 TRVs plus other stuff I need. I know this community has lots of experience, some of which acquired the hard way, no doubt. I’d be grateful for any opinions on this.

I should have said: I live in Belgium in the Kempen and my house has all brick internal walls and concrete floors and is quite big. So I thought Z-Wave would be best due t its wall penetration. Is that correct?