Wink WNKHUB-2US 2 Smart home hub, White

EDIT 5/13/2020:Today is the day that Wink died. As of 5/13/2020, Wink is requiring (extorting) a $4.99/mo fee from it's existing customers to keep a service that was previously included as part of the upfront cost paid for the hub. The "no subscription fees" they touted in the past, which was probably a big reason many people bought these hubs, is no more. I came to this Amazon listing to see the backlash in the reviews and was embarrassed to see my glowing review prominently displayed. I forgotten that I had written it, and now I'm cutting it down.The company is clearly on the way and out this reeks of a quick cash grab before it completely disappears. To give existing customers only one week to pay up or lose control of their devices is shady as hell and a great way to alienate your user base. Wink doesn't seem to realize those who set up a smart home in the first place are going to be more technologically-savvy than the average consumer and will have no problems fleeing to a different ecosystem.You can't even log in to your account on the website anymore without subscribing first. The Wink app seems to still let you sign in. I have no idea if anything still works without a subscription as I moved my devices off my Wink Hub last week, unplugged it, and threw it in my closet of by-gone electronics that I think may be useful again one day but will realistically just end up in electronics recycling in about 5 years.For those who just purchased the hub within the return period before the announcement to the subscription model, you need to return it and get your money back. The product you bought is not the same as the product it is now.For those who are thinking of paying the monthly fee because you are stuck in the ecosystem, it's only a matter of time before the ship sinks and service stops entirely. I predict within 6-12 months. Better to buy a new hub and get out while you can. Preferably a hub with local control so that even if the cloud service ceases to exist, you'll still have control of your devices. Internet searches will lead you to some good options. I've already moved to a Hubitat, which has a much steeper learning curve and much worse interface, but is already acting more reliably than the Wink ever has.If you are worried about being able to access your devices to move them off your Wink, know that any hub is be able to send commands to unpair/exclude your devices and you don't need to subscribe to Wink to do that. If that fails, every third-party device has a way to do a factory-reset. Don't give them money just to regain control of your devices. If you want to keep using your Wink-exclusive devices, I guess you have no choice but to subscribe, but I'd start looking at alternatives soon before Wink completely dies.ORIGINAL REVIEW:I bought the Wink 2 when setting up a smart home system about 5 months ago. After a little bit of troubleshooting to get my devices setup, it's been completely stable the entire time I've had it. You have to research first and make sure whatever switch/outlet/light/sensor you're buying is compatible with the hub and not just assume it's going to work. Even if the device isn't listed specifically in the app's setup, most of the time you can connect to things as a generic switch or sensor and get it to work.The first thing to do if any device doesn't pair with any smart hub is to execute a command to exclude the device first because it could have been paired with a different hub previously (like testing at the factory or a refurbished customer return). Once you do that, pretty much everything will pair.I really like that it's both wired and wireless. Range has not been an issue, but if I need to pair a new device and it's acting up, I can just plug the hub closer to the device and it will still communicate with the network by wifi. I use only Z-wave devices and each can act as repeater/node to extend the network's reach. Between the 15-20 devices in my 4000 sq ft two story home, everything works both inside and outside. With any smart hub, the key is to have devices overlapping so there aren't choke points in your setup that would cause total system failure in a part of your house if that one device goes bad.The robots make automating things really easy. Here are examples of how I use it:- The main reason I bought this was because I was tired of having to adjust my 5 outdoor landscaping light timers as the days got longer and shorter throughout the year. At first I had the old fashioned plug in timers where you have to reset the pins to change the time, then I had them on a wifi timer, but that platform wasn't robust enough to do more than just allow you to change on/off time by the app. With the Wink, I can have it set to turn on at sunset and off at a specified time and never have to adjust it throughout the year. That alone makes it worth it.- I integrated it with my Arlo Pro cameras and installed Z-wave smart switches to my door lights. This allowed me to create another robot to automatically turn on the lights at night if the cameras detect motion if someone approaches the door as a security feature.- I'm prone to forgetting to turn off outdoor lights a certain times. I have a robot set up to turn off all the door lights in the morning in case I left something on overnight (or in case I meant to leave something on overnight but forgot to turn it off during the day).- I installed a garage door tilt sensor and a Z-wave switch for my garage lights. When I get home after dark, the overhead garage lights turn on automatically and off again when I close my garage door. The sensor also helps to answer the question of whether or not I forgot to close the garage door when leaving for work.- I integrated it with a smart deadbolt which will lock the door under certain conditions.So if I like this so much, why not 5 stars instead of 4? Wink has decided as a "security feature" that they will not allow unlocking of doors as part of automation. If you have a door lock installed, you can create a robot to lock them automatically, but you cannot unlock them. I suspect it is so that they cannot be held liable if someone triggers a sensor maliciously which allows the hub to lock the door. This is a level of oversight I can live without. If I decide I want my doors to unlock automatically and something happens, that's on me for trusting the system, which (although it hasn't happened to me yet) is obviously susceptible to failure. If someone breaks in, I'm not going to sue Schlage or Kwikset or the manufacturer of the door or doorjamb for allowing it to be broken, but I suppose there are people out there who would.I don't have the Wink integrated with a smart speaker like Google Home or Alexa, so I have no idea how it works with those. I'm not ready to start talking to my electronics yet.

I been doing home automation projects since the X10 system was the BMOC. More recently I installed a Smartthings (ST) hub. After awhile is seemed I more tolerated than enjoyed my current Home Automation system. ST was slow, a whole host of lights would randomly go offline and whenever there was a power outage I lost total control of my lights among other things. The whole interface was clunky. Even the much slicker Hue interface couldn't help keep me looking for alternatives because most of my automation was through the ST hub.Today,. I moved to a Wink hub and I am loving Home Automation again. After installing the Hub 2, I added some GE Link lights. While the system does seem to work pretty well, except for the interface improvements, I was not wowed. Then I moved to the Wink Relay. The instructions were VERY clear. I had to look up who to determine the load from the line wire but that took just a minute and in about 10 minutes I had replaced the original ST scene controller (which I could never get to work) with the Wink Relay. Once connected to the my local WiFi the Relay updated itself and walked me through the set up and no time I went from useless blue lights to a very cool touch pad on the wall that controls lights in both my den and my home office. There are two hardware switches on the Relay, in addition to the touch scree that control lights in the switch box, or set to control other Wink linked devicesNot only were the instructions ridiculously clear and easy to follow but the tools needed to most of the install came in the box. About the only thing they didn't mention was to remove the screen cover on the Relay before using it. I might have to talk myself into another one of these for the upstairs!After getting the Relay installed I moved back to the Hue lights, the rest of my non GE lights and wall switches, Removing them from ST and immediately installing them on Wink was easy. I was able to replace 25 devices in about 2 hours. Most of it fussing with the darn GE lights can be fussy.Alexa, Hue, Wink Relay and oh yeah the remaining ST devices are working quite well. Voice automation has been restored to most of my main duties, I have created a couple of robots already and tomorrow I will finish replacing the remaining ST devices and then remove the ST hub FOREVER!To be fair, I started with ST early and liked what I saw. I made it work for me but after countless system failures and seeing more than a few promises broken, using the ST system was like driving with a slow leak in a tire. You know you'll get there eventually but the rough ride and worry about what might happen until it gets fixed took all the air (if you'll pardon the pun) out enjoying the system.The system isn't perfect, I wish robots worked with Hue devices but I think that might happen soon. Another small thing is the group names used for lights get transferred into the Alexa app and can cause some confusion. Other than that my initial impressions of the Wink system are very positive.I am excited about home automation again and looking for more places to add devices. If you're on the fence about Wink or looking to move to a system that appears to be ready for prime time then check the Wink system out.For the record I have absolutely no connection to Wink or even know anyone else that has a Wink system. The excitement expressed in this review is from the smoothness I found replacing my ST system and having things actually work!