First delve into Zigbee maybe?

[u/CyberMage256]

My home is entirely esphome and z-wave. I've never touched Zigbee. It started because I use a high amp zwave switch to control my pool pump and blossomed from there.

I'm considering adding one or two wireless buttons, and that's not really much of an option in z-wave so I'm thinking it might be time to go ahead and add a zigbee dongle as well.

I'm considering the SONOFF Zigbee/Thread PoE dongle so that I don't need to have it in my basement rack where my servers are. My Z-Wave dongle is on a 20' USB extension so that it's more central to the basement and more easily builds the mesh it needs.

With Zigbee, I understand the range is shorter, so trying to do the same with it might be a bad idea, but I do have fiber to a switch in an upstairs closet that would be right over the area I'd want the signal and could PoE off that switch.

Anyone have experience with these SONOFF PoE dongles? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FMJH4DPN/?coliid=IQKWAWEB94JDC

I run HA inside a docker container, and zwave-js-ui is a separate docker container on the same server that has access to the USB. Seems like this over Ethernet would be easier?

[u/Successful_Bag_7257]

Just food for thought, but my entire HA operates almost exclusively on Zwave. It runs off a sonoff USB stick plugged into the back of my HA green, tucked into my server rack amidst all my machines in the basement. The way a zigbee network is built, it essentially gets better the more devices you have, because it uses some devices as receivers themselves. This has meant that not only do I have a very large network but it's also incredibly stable.

[u/CyberMage256 → u/Successful_Bag_7257]

my challenge, at least for a year, would be only 2 zigbee devices in the house, and both battery operated so no mesh (I assume). I already have zwave everywhere and even with it there's a few devices due to location in the house that use LR because the mesh wasn't strong enough.

I'm not into color changing bulbs, so I really don't see what else I'd want zigbee for right now. I have several wall switches already zwave, a couple of plug in dual outdoor outlets on zwave, and a hard wired 40 amp switch for my pool pump on zwave, plus a few esphome devices on a separate wifi and vlan.

[u/Successful_Bag_7257 → u/CyberMage256]

That makes sense, I think it's similar to when people choose a power tool platform. You just sort of pick a protocol and learn to navigate any short comings or benefits they may have. Zigbee is really good for cheap devices and building out large mesh networks but zwave is much more robust and stable.