More INSTEON quality control issues!

[ingeborgdot]

Going and looking at the isy and simplehomenet and their devices and all the things out there gets to be a little overwhelming. How did you guys know so much about the isy before you bought it? I know some things but it does not seem I know much or enough like you guys do. I hope you can enlighten me if you don't mind. Thanks. biggrin.gif

 

[oberkc]

Going and looking at the isy and simplehomenet and their devices and all the things out there gets to be a little overwhelming. How did you guys know so much about the isy before you bought it? I know some things but it does not seem I know much or enough like you guys do. I hope you can enlighten me if you don't mind. Thanks. biggrin.gif

I did not know that much about the ISY before I bought it. I knew I wanted a central controller. I knew I did not want to run a PC around the clock. It appeared folks were happy with their ISY. Good enough for me. What do you need to know that you don't already know in order to make a decision?

 

[Digger]

Going and looking at the isy and simplehomenet and their devices and all the things out there gets to be a little overwhelming. How did you guys know so much about the isy before you bought it? I know some things but it does not seem I know much or enough like you guys do. I hope you can enlighten me if you don't mind. Thanks. biggrin.gif

The ISY series are very well planned out controllers for INsteon products supported by a staff that actually keeps up with a probably 98% of the constant changes of Insteon devices. The ISY controllers make up for many of the shortcomings of Insteon devices and pulls everything together. If you have more than a handful of Insteon devices an ISY controller is almost an absolute necessity in my opinion.

Since it is a standalone device you do not need to have a PC running 24/7 to have automation of your Insteon devices. It plays well with the ELK and Homeseer etc. but works extremely well on its own.

I think they have a 30 day money back if you are not satisfied policy. If your budget permits you should give one a try.

I absolutely hated Insteon because of the high failure rate of devices (and the denials at the time by SH of the problems) and lost a ton of money on the Insteon money pit, however, I found absolutely nothing wrong with the ISY 26 and the series has come a long way since then.

I hope that UDI can expand and come out with controllers for other lighting systems but it seems that Insteon is very high maintenance and limiting their resources for branching out.

 

[ingeborgdot]

I guess I will give isy a try. What types of devices do you have other than light switches, and lamp lincs or appliance lincs. Do you recommend any software? What other insteon devices do you recommend or like? I just like to hear it from people that use it. Thanks.

 

[oberkc]

I guess I will give isy a try. What types of devices do you have other than light switches, and lamp lincs or appliance lincs. Do you recommend any software? What other insteon devices do you recommend or like? I just like to hear it from people that use it. Thanks.

Perhaps we are getting a little off-topic for this post. Perhaps you should start a new post with more applicable topic to ensure broadest response. Many people may look at the title of this post and ignore it.

 

[ingeborgdot]

Probably a good idea. I will start a new one and ask that question. Thanks.

 

[HeyYou]

It's been a LOOOOONG time since anyone replied regarding Insteon. I've sat here this afternoon reading through all 16 pages learning more about SH's history and problems regarding their products. I've just recently jumped into the HA game and started out buying a handful of Insteon products...hoping I'm not going to regret it. But after reading this thread, I'm nervous. Unfortunately, I did not find this forum until AFTER I made my first purchase.

In my first purchase, SH sent me the wrong device for one of my parts. They offered to send me a replacement provided I paid for the new device and they would reimburse me the cost when they received the wrong device back. I'm not sure I agree with that policy but I guess it's the way they do business. It's left a bad taste in my mouth.

That being said, it HAS been a while since folks have replied on this thread, is it safe to swim in the Insteon waters now or am I better off returning everything I got and going with a different technology?

 

[WayneW]

You will find some folks still have strong opinions against it, but there are lots of happy, quiet users. Since you have the stuff in hand, give it a try and decide some things for yourself. Some don't like the product style, feel or design, which probably isn't going to change soon. But, if you like the appearance and functionality, then it isn't a bad way to go. If you don't already have plans for your control/configuration tool, I suggest the ISY-99i.

 

[Digger]

To be fair a "handful" of Insteon devices may not work depending on what you bought. Insteon needs to form a "mesh" and you may or may not have enough devices to work (depending on how far away from each other the devices are etc) if many or all of the devices are powerline carrier devices (RF and Dual Mesh devices would have less of a problem most likely) since they are like X-10 and only have a 5 Vpp signal level.

It has been nearly 9 months since the comments in this thread and "maybe" SH has fixed some or all of their problems by now. I havent seen as many problems on their forum lately, however, that may just be because of heavy moderator activity/censorship over there.

 

[ingeborgdot]

I have over 40 insteon devices in my home now and all are 100% and have used insteon for over 3 years now. I have had to replace 3 switches but SH replaced them, no questions asked and my system works flawlessly. I use my devices with an isy99 and love it. You can pay twice the price if you want for something else but until I have problems I will stick with insteon .

 

[HeyYou]

My BIGGEST concern after reading this thread, is the quality control with SH. No, I am not a former poster of any kind. I'm 100% new to this stuff, I just don't understand how I could have gotten the wrong product if they are DOING quality control checks.

As for the 99ISYi, I did buy one of the Smartlinc's and I've been playing with that...is that the same thing? Should I be staying away from the Smartlinc controller and use the 99ISY? If so, do I really need the IR as well? Sorry for the newbie questions. Just figured I'd kill that bird while I was at it...lol.

 

[WayneW]

As for the 99ISYi, I did buy one of the Smartlinc's and I've been playing with that...is that the same thing? Should I be staying away from the Smartlinc controller and use the 99ISY? If so, do I really need the IR as well?

No, the SmartLincs are different than the ISY-99i. I have never used the SmartLinc or any of SmartHomes software, so I cannot compare them. If you like the Insteon stuff, but are having trouble with it, you may want to consider switching from the SmartLinc to the ISY-99i before giving up on Insteon. The ISY is very well supported on the UDI forum.

Quality control in the shipping department is the least of your worries :mellow: That can happen in any shipping department. Product quality control has been one of Insteon's black eyes in the early years, but I am hoping that is mostly behind us all.

 

[Deane Johnson]

I'm sort of surprised anyone can get comfortable with Smarthome products. My issues started back with X-10. All of my X-10 Smarthome stuff went to the land fill and had to be replaced with PCS dimmers which have never failed.

When Insteon came out, I thought here we go again. Sure nuff.

I know some have been happy, but at this point anyone moving into Insteon surely does so at their own risk.

Deane

 

[pete_c]

Most of my HAI X-10 controlled Light switches today are Insteon (from the initial SH sell). I had a few with paddle problems and SH replaced them. A couple of switches were never used manually (just via HA) so I wasn't even aware of the paddle problems. (no flash and burn or any major problems). The development of a product that could do both X-10 and a newer meshed two way protocal was great for those that started with HA/X10 (1978 or so).

That being said I am currently migrating over to UPB and slowly replacing all of my Insteon wall switches.

I am also "testing" Z-Wave and to date have had one lamp module do a "flash and burn" and have taken out of service 4 Z-Wave appliance modules because they were tripping breakers when turning on. Having seen these problems within only a couple of months of use is not good for me.

 

[ingeborgdot]

I think anyone that gets their newest stuff will be very happy with it. I have not had anything fail in the last two years. The 3 switches I had that failed were the ones that most complained about. I don't see many if any people complaining about it at all anymore. Do you? If so, where?