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That the lead engineer of Home Assistant (HA) doesn't have an actual functioning HA setup, because he likes tinkering apparently, explains a lot about why HA is

That the lead engineer of Home Assistant (HA) doesn't have an actual functioning HA setup, because he likes tinkering apparently, explains a lot about why HA is so awful to use for anyone who doesn't want to pick it up as a constant tinkering hobby.

californical 1y ago
Yeah, as someone who will soon be starting some basic smart home configurations, this whole article reads like “why not to use HA”. I want a system so reliable that I can completely forget it exists. I have been leaning towards setting up a few basic automations with Apple Home and calling it good, since it seems like the Apple version can handle simple things like “turn on the lights at 8pm for 3 hours when I’m out of town” or “open the blinds when my morning alarm rings”. Other than that, probably don’t need a ton of smartness besides grouping things into zones that can be turned on/off together
- ipv6ipv4 1y ago
  If you want to enjoy the adventure I can't recommend Lutron Caseta switches enough. They are rock solid and work independently of any smart home setup (for when the smart home inevitably fails). I don't like smart bulbs but if you prefer them, Philips Hue is widely loved, as far as I can tell. Whatever you do, don't skimp on the lighting smart devices. It usually ends in tears.
- ewoodrich 1y ago
  The fact that this guy is running four separate Home Assistant instances should make it pretty clear that this experience far from the normal use case. My automations for lighting and other "core" stuff is rock solid, the fun tinkering with ESP 32 stuff less so but that's because it's really an extension of my electronics hobby.
- anon7000 1y ago
  This is exactly what HA has been for me. I had several smart bulbs on Apple HomeKit which were… unreliable to say the least. After switching everything to Home Assistant as the main brains, it’s been rock solid, and a LOT faster. I even have an Apple TV which should have helped HomeKit be better. You can still use Apple’s automations to do stuff in HomeKit. I mean all the rooms & devices “just show up” in Apple HomeKit seamlessly. “Siri, bedroom off” works perfectly with no setup, for example. Apple home is ok, but automations / iOS shortcuts are unfortunately extremely difficult to write unless they’re very simple. As a technical user, it’s nice to have the option to do something deeper if I want. But the biggest problem for me was the reliability, even for bulbs allegedly fully supported by HomeKit. I originally only set HA up to bridge in non-homekit devices (like my Govee LEDs), which is also a good use case for HA. I’ve been fiddling with my smart home less than ever now that HA is set up.
- rwyinuse 1y ago
  For basic automations like you're mentioning, Home Assistant is pretty much rock solid. Bad devices are far more likely to give you trouble than HA itself. Don't buy anything cloud-based if you can avoid it (though many of them do work well with HA). A zigbee dongle with HA and Zigbee2Mqtt integration should cover most of your use cases.
- troupo 1y ago
  HA has been "set and forget" for me for a few years. Unless I start tinkering with it :)
- pmlnr 1y ago
  Domoticz. They have an entirely different mentality on longevity, on where and how it can run, plus it supports scripting instead of the utterly disgusting YAML thing in HA.
- microtonal 1y ago
  Agreed. We used to use Homekit, then we switched to SmartThings because it supports Z-Wave and Zigbee and that's about it. I rarely look at the app at all, but it does useful things like warning me when the humidity is too low (which is an issue in our apartment), automatically switches off the infrared heat panel when I leave home and I forgot to turn it off, and something SmartThings or Hue changes the light intensity/tint based on the time of the day. The robovac also works from SmartThings (which is nice, because I don't have to deal with another platform). For most people that I know that use HA, it's more of an hobby than a thing you set up once and then blends away in the background. I tried HA a few times and it was way too much effort for something that I do not want to spend a lot of time on.
iforgotpassword 1y ago
Huh, I've been using HA for over a year. The only issue I had was the very first version I was on sometimes stopped firing timers. It was fixed in the next release. Since then, I occasionally add or change an automation as I see fit, other than that it's working the way it's supposed to. Doesn't mean I have a wishlist, but everything else I looked at seemed more complicated and technical.
- starky 1y ago
  This is pretty much my experience. Depending on what I'm setting up it can be different levels of pain, but other than adding a device or reorganizing my dashboard on occasion the majority of my setup is unchanged from when I first set it up and automated a couple things.
- pmlnr 1y ago
  > over a year It's building automation. When it's over a decade, then it's starting to be OK.
octo888 1y ago
I'm wondering if it would be better just to create Home Assistant Simulator, the game
baq 1y ago
Au contraire set and forget is what HA excels at… if you can stop yourself from tinkering. The most useful automations are very simple: turn on some lights around sunset, turn off radiators when windows are open, etc.
atoav 1y ago
You can build a house with a set of Lego, but don't blame Lego if you can't stop afterwards. I haven't (had) to touch my HA assistant since I set it up which is now roughly a year ago and it is running fine. If you feel the constant need to optimize stuff that is a bit on you..
eterm 1y ago
Yeah, HA is a bit of a nightmare, you quickly get thrown into YAML-hell, and without much real guidance. I gave up trying to do much with it. It still runs my MQTT broker and basic automations, but for anything tricky I no longer try.
- baq 1y ago
  Tricky stuff is best handed off to the pyscript custom integration - or maybe it’s easy enough to make your own custom integrations, haven’t tried that yet. It’s like GitHub actions - yaml shouldn’t be doing too much.
Helmut10001 1y ago
I have a completely opposite experience. My home automation (HA) system runs stably with around 50 Internet of Things (IoT) devices (mostly Shelly). The Docker container updates automatically via cron job and `compose pull`. There has been zero admin work in the last 5 years. All Shelly devices can easily be updated via the integration. What more could I ask for?
jamesponddotco 1y ago
I have the complete opposite experience, as for me and my wife Home Assistant has been excellent. I mostly use Zigbee though, as it can’t phone home, and that may be related. Heck, I even set up the HomeKit bridge so my wife can use Siri or the Home app to control everything, and she still prefers the dashboard I built on Home Assistant. I only have two problems, which aren’t even Home Assistant problems: 1. Some door and window sensors I got from Sonoff become unavailable at times, which is a problem since I use them on the security system. Haven’t had the time or money to replace them yet, but I’ll probably go with Aqara next. 2. While my wife loves the dashboard, I like to thinker with it, and am never satisfied. I’m still looking for a way to expose all devices and controls in a visually pleasing way. Actually, three. My only cloud integration, which controls my LG air conditioner, recently started to give me problems and I can’t turn the units off from Home Assistant anymore. But I’m sure this will be fixed soon, so, meh. All in all, I’m very pleased with Home Assistant. Wish they had a better design, but themes fix that, so, overall, very pleased.

californical 1y ago

Yeah, as someone who will soon be starting some basic smart home configurations, this whole article reads like “why not to use HA”. I want a system so reliable that I can completely forget it exists. I have been leaning towards setting up a few basic automations with Apple Home and calling it good, since it seems like the Apple version can handle simple things like “turn on the lights at 8pm for 3 hours when I’m out of town” or “open the blinds when my morning alarm rings”. Other than that, probably don’t need a ton of smartness besides grouping things into zones that can be turned on/off together

ipv6ipv4 1y ago
If you want to enjoy the adventure I can't recommend Lutron Caseta switches enough. They are rock solid and work independently of any smart home setup (for when the smart home inevitably fails). I don't like smart bulbs but if you prefer them, Philips Hue is widely loved, as far as I can tell. Whatever you do, don't skimp on the lighting smart devices. It usually ends in tears.
ewoodrich 1y ago
The fact that this guy is running four separate Home Assistant instances should make it pretty clear that this experience far from the normal use case. My automations for lighting and other "core" stuff is rock solid, the fun tinkering with ESP 32 stuff less so but that's because it's really an extension of my electronics hobby.
anon7000 1y ago
This is exactly what HA has been for me. I had several smart bulbs on Apple HomeKit which were… unreliable to say the least. After switching everything to Home Assistant as the main brains, it’s been rock solid, and a LOT faster. I even have an Apple TV which should have helped HomeKit be better. You can still use Apple’s automations to do stuff in HomeKit. I mean all the rooms & devices “just show up” in Apple HomeKit seamlessly. “Siri, bedroom off” works perfectly with no setup, for example. Apple home is ok, but automations / iOS shortcuts are unfortunately extremely difficult to write unless they’re very simple. As a technical user, it’s nice to have the option to do something deeper if I want. But the biggest problem for me was the reliability, even for bulbs allegedly fully supported by HomeKit. I originally only set HA up to bridge in non-homekit devices (like my Govee LEDs), which is also a good use case for HA. I’ve been fiddling with my smart home less than ever now that HA is set up.
rwyinuse 1y ago
For basic automations like you're mentioning, Home Assistant is pretty much rock solid. Bad devices are far more likely to give you trouble than HA itself. Don't buy anything cloud-based if you can avoid it (though many of them do work well with HA). A zigbee dongle with HA and Zigbee2Mqtt integration should cover most of your use cases.
troupo 1y ago
HA has been "set and forget" for me for a few years. Unless I start tinkering with it :)
pmlnr 1y ago
Domoticz. They have an entirely different mentality on longevity, on where and how it can run, plus it supports scripting instead of the utterly disgusting YAML thing in HA.
microtonal 1y ago
Agreed. We used to use Homekit, then we switched to SmartThings because it supports Z-Wave and Zigbee and that's about it. I rarely look at the app at all, but it does useful things like warning me when the humidity is too low (which is an issue in our apartment), automatically switches off the infrared heat panel when I leave home and I forgot to turn it off, and something SmartThings or Hue changes the light intensity/tint based on the time of the day. The robovac also works from SmartThings (which is nice, because I don't have to deal with another platform). For most people that I know that use HA, it's more of an hobby than a thing you set up once and then blends away in the background. I tried HA a few times and it was way too much effort for something that I do not want to spend a lot of time on.

iforgotpassword 1y ago

Huh, I've been using HA for over a year. The only issue I had was the very first version I was on sometimes stopped firing timers. It was fixed in the next release. Since then, I occasionally add or change an automation as I see fit, other than that it's working the way it's supposed to. Doesn't mean I have a wishlist, but everything else I looked at seemed more complicated and technical.

starky 1y ago
This is pretty much my experience. Depending on what I'm setting up it can be different levels of pain, but other than adding a device or reorganizing my dashboard on occasion the majority of my setup is unchanged from when I first set it up and automated a couple things.
pmlnr 1y ago
> over a year It's building automation. When it's over a decade, then it's starting to be OK.

octo888 1y ago

I'm wondering if it would be better just to create Home Assistant Simulator, the game

baq 1y ago

Au contraire set and forget is what HA excels at… if you can stop yourself from tinkering. The most useful automations are very simple: turn on some lights around sunset, turn off radiators when windows are open, etc.

atoav 1y ago

You can build a house with a set of Lego, but don't blame Lego if you can't stop afterwards. I haven't (had) to touch my HA assistant since I set it up which is now roughly a year ago and it is running fine. If you feel the constant need to optimize stuff that is a bit on you..

eterm 1y ago

Yeah, HA is a bit of a nightmare, you quickly get thrown into YAML-hell, and without much real guidance. I gave up trying to do much with it. It still runs my MQTT broker and basic automations, but for anything tricky I no longer try.

baq 1y ago
Tricky stuff is best handed off to the pyscript custom integration - or maybe it’s easy enough to make your own custom integrations, haven’t tried that yet. It’s like GitHub actions - yaml shouldn’t be doing too much.

Helmut10001 1y ago

I have a completely opposite experience. My home automation (HA) system runs stably with around 50 Internet of Things (IoT) devices (mostly Shelly). The Docker container updates automatically via cron job and `compose pull`. There has been zero admin work in the last 5 years. All Shelly devices can easily be updated via the integration. What more could I ask for?

jamesponddotco 1y ago

I have the complete opposite experience, as for me and my wife Home Assistant has been excellent. I mostly use Zigbee though, as it can’t phone home, and that may be related. Heck, I even set up the HomeKit bridge so my wife can use Siri or the Home app to control everything, and she still prefers the dashboard I built on Home Assistant. I only have two problems, which aren’t even Home Assistant problems: 1. Some door and window sensors I got from Sonoff become unavailable at times, which is a problem since I use them on the security system. Haven’t had the time or money to replace them yet, but I’ll probably go with Aqara next. 2. While my wife loves the dashboard, I like to thinker with it, and am never satisfied. I’m still looking for a way to expose all devices and controls in a visually pleasing way. Actually, three. My only cloud integration, which controls my LG air conditioner, recently started to give me problems and I can’t turn the units off from Home Assistant anymore. But I’m sure this will be fixed soon, so, meh. All in all, I’m very pleased with Home Assistant. Wish they had a better design, but themes fix that, so, overall, very pleased.