Wink Hub 2

by people ...

Product Specifications

Wink allows your diverse collection of smart products to speak the same wireless language so you can easily control them from the free Wink app
Auto-discovery and a revamped setup process make getting your smart home up and running easier than ever
A more powerful Wi-Fi radio and Ethernet port connect your products smoothly, while a stronger processor and more memory make your smart home faster
For owners of the original Wink Hub upgrading to Wink Hub 2, you can easily transfer your ecosystem of connected products using the Wink app in under a minute
Sleek, modern industrial design of Hub 2 makes it worthy of standing alone on your coffee table or bookshelf.Control products from iOS, Apple Watch, Android, and Android Wear. Works with Amazon Alexa. Program recipes with IFTTT.

Product Description

Style:Hub Wink is the quick and simple way to connect you and your home. Manage hundreds of smart products from the best brands in one simple app. Faster, more reliable and more secure, Wink Hub 2 is the next generation of the Wink Hub. Hub 2 is compatible with more smart home technologies, so you can buy the devices you like from the brands you trust and know they’ll work seamlessly with Wink.

Product Reviews

So much more reliable!

Update 4/12/2017: After working with tech support in troubleshooting this issue for a few weeks without success, the delay issue mentioned on my previous update kind of went away by itself and I haven’t experienced it in the last 2 of weeks. Just today, I was contacted by Wink tech support, telling me that they wanted to install a new update that may resolve this issue permanently. I did mention that this has been good, but asked to go ahead and install the update anyways. I will update again in a few weeks to advise if the issue was resolved for good.Update 2/16/2017: Over the last 2 weeks, I have been experiencing a significant delay when controlling z-wave devices. Turning off lights now takes an average of 6 seconds. I have been in touch with Wink support and they have had me run a “Z WAVE NETWORK REDISCOVERY” 3 times now, but this has not helped. The response time will sometimes be normal again without explanation. I have called Wink support 3 times now and what frustrates me is that each time, it is me who needs to follow up with them. They have asked me to respond to their support email to let them know if what we tried the last time addresses the issue, and I do, but I never hear back from anyone. Downgrading my review from 5 to 2 until this issue is addressed. I will update when it is.ORIGINAL REVIEW:Picked up at the local home depot last week. I had been using the first generation for a while and a huge complain was that it would occasionally lose connection to my wifi router. I have had this version plugged in for almost 2 weeks now and it has not lost connection once!If you have the old hub, this hub will detect and do mostly a good job at transferring your devices and settings over to the new hub. In my case it worked almost for everything. The only thing that did not transfer over was my schlage smart door lock, so I had to re-add it manually.The Wink app to control this hub is still the same app you use to control the old hub. I don’t think there is much to improve on this app. The interface is very intuitive and offers several ways to automate tasks ( Robots, Shortcuts and Schedules). Below is a quick summary of each:- Robots: Performs one or more actions when a specified trigger happens (e.g. Turn on the lights in the living room when the front door is opened between 7pm and 11pm)- Shortcuts: A way to group actions together for convenience ( e.g. Create a shortcut named “Movie time” which turns off or dims some lights )- Schedules: A way to setup schedules for things to be on or off (e.g1: Schedule Thermostat upstairs to turn heat on and set the temperature to 72 Mon-Friday at 7pm, e.g2: Setup outside light to turn on Sunset and turn off at Sunrise). Sunset and Sunrise are actually options when choosing times!I noticed that the response time when communicating with my devices seems significantly faster with this hub. Turning lights on and off works almost instantly for me ( I have 15 smart lights ), which is a huge improvement compared to the old hub.I would love to see the new Wink hub integrate with the new Google Home. I know it integrates with Amazon Echo, but Google Home does so much more…. Wink hasn’t officially announced if this will be supported, but this would be the one thing that makes this hub, the best hub in the market for me.Please see the video video below for a quick demostration of the responsiveness of this hub when controlling devices and also when using Amazon echo dot.READ MORE

Much, much better than the original! Seamless

The original Wink hub is great but it seems only tinkerers and DIY’ers like myself feel that way. It’s understandable because the original Wink takes patience, patience and some more patience. It’s outstanding if you’re willing to reconnect it, re-pair lights and be willing to forgive some times it disconnects. All that said, the price is outstanding and it’s worth it if you like going that route. I didn’t have a lot of issues but some growing pains that were easy to handle. I’ve not experienced (knock on wood) these same issues with the Wink Hub 2 and it’s been intelligent in adding items (it automatically added a Wink Relay I just got whereas I’d have had to add it manually on my old hub). There have not been connection issues and it is a TON faster than the original. More on that later…Migrating my hub to the new one took 10 minutes and it was so simple and intuitive. Hooking it up via Ethernet cable is a MUST to me at least (something the first iteration could not do). This version is ready for the masses (if only all the bulbs and such by other companies were as well).Pros:Hub migration from the first is easy and fast. I didn’t have to re-pair anythingSleek designHooks to router via Ethernet (hardline) to avoid spotty connectionsAutomatically pairs to new itemsSo simpleA good deal for the priceCons:Not much so far…Philips Hue lights are faster but they still have to go to the cloud I am pretty sure and take longer than Z-Wave items…by orders of magnitudeIsn’t hooked up to Google Home (yet?)Give us Bluetooth!! I would love for this to pair to Bluetooth light switches already in my possession!This hub is great because unlike the original for me, robots work flawlessly and so does IFTTT.If you want to have a great smart home experience without the growing pains, go with this version of the hub and I don’t think it will disappoint you. Plus the customer service is very helpful and local to the USA. I had an issue with the Wink Relay I just got and them coupled with Amazon did an Amazing job getting me taken care of!Highly recommended!!!READ MORE

Wink Hub 2 much improved

Performs well with supported devices. Being Wi-Fi connected allows flexibility of placement. I use this as an alternate for some home devices and Smartthings Hub for others.

Works as advertised

This is my go to alarm system, I would have love for it to have 4G capabilities.

Five Stars

Great customer service at Wink!!!

Five Stars

Much better than the old hub. Much more reliable.

The Wink Hub 2 hardware is ok - everything else needs work … .

The hub itself does work just fine. BUT, you cannot use the hub just by itself - you need the app and you need the Wink network/servers which is access over the Internet.

Good for all and great user interface

Best hub for beginners and for intermediate. Works amazing and has so many features. It has such a consumer ready and fleshed out user interface.

Insecure and requires cloud account… don’t want my house pwned

The wink hub requires an external account, which, like Insteon, means (1) if the external service is down, your local devices don’t work; (2) people have access to your home…