User Guide

Fixing this depends on whether we are working with ZigBee or Z-Wave devices.
For ZigBee devices, things have to get worse before they get better. The device has to completely lose communication with its parent (the Hub in the example
above) for it to look for a new, better parent. Fortunately, this is easy to do: turn off the Hub.
In about 5-10 minutes, the device will give up trying to talk to its missing parent and find a new one—the repeater we added halfway between the device and the
Hub!
Finally, when you turn the Hub back on, the repeater will establish a link with the Hub, and all will be well.
Unfortunately, this process does not work for the Z-Wave network, since Z-Wave devices do not automatically look for new parents. Instead, there is a tool called
the Z-Wave Network Repair to help ensure that devices are talking to the strongest repeaters. You can run the repair from the mobile app—just follow the steps in
the article How do I make sure my Z-Wave devices are routing optimally? (/hc/en-us/articles/200981864-How-do-I-make-sure-my-Z-Wave-devices-are-routing-
optimally-)
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Obstacles and Detours
A wireless signal ideally follows a straight path from source to destination. When companies try to impress you with their product’s wireless range, they will
undoubtedly quote this line-of-sight straight-path distance (measured on an open field in North Dakota, away from anything that emits noise, away from any radio
stations, with the devices pointed directly at each other, etc.) as the best-possible-case range.
The reality is that in a typical home, devices often do not have a clear line-of-sight path to the Hub or their parent. Wireless signals have to travel through mostly-
transparent (well… electromagnetically transparent) floors and walls, and reflect off mostly-opaque surfaces such as concrete and metal, to find their way from
source to destination.
Even mostly transparent materials, such as wood and drywall, still introduce some power loss in the wireless signal, leading to potential range issues if many floors
and walls have to be crossed.
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Here are some tips for thinking about wireless range in terms of obstacles and detours:
Visualize the paths
Try to visualize the paths that wireless signals take from devices to their closest parent. If you have the flexibility, arrange devices and repeaters to have line-of-sight
between each other, or at most one floor or one wall between them.
Watch out for barriers
If there is an obstacle between a device and its parent, especially if they are already somewhat far from each other, consider repositioning so that the wireless signal
does not have to travel through the obstacle. Obstacles include:
metal objects or sheets (e.g., refrigerator, garage door)
cinder block
concrete walls
bodies of water (e.g., aquaria, water beds)
Use repeaters
Do you have a Samsung SmartThings arrival sensor tag in the glove box of your car? (I do!) You really have to give it credit for how hard it works to get its wireless
signal out from a metal-body car, through the glass of the windshield or windows, and have it bounce around just-so in your garage to find a path to your Hub. You can
make its life easier by placing a repeater in or near the garage, so the signal only has to make it from the glovebox to the repeater.
Don’t place your Hub on a metal table or metal shelf
Metal surfaces interact with the Hub antenna radiation pattern and reduce its effective power. Therefore, you should ideally keep the Hub a couple of feet away from
large pieces of metal. If this can’t be avoided, you know what to do… use a repeater!
(https://smartthings.com)