Internet-of-Trash

Table of Contents

• Works With Home Assistant
• Hall of Shame
• Reformed
• Contributors

A list of IOT devices to avoid.

Some of the reasons things get listed here:

• A device had an open API, then switched to requiring you to use their application instead of directly scraping the API
• Devices which are cloud-only
• Anything that requires you to use their application and doesn't document their API so it can be integrated with other ecosystems

Works With Home Assistant

Home Assistant has the Works With Home Assistant program that lists companies actively working with Home Assistant the developers to provide the best experience for HA users. I recommend checking the integrations list and choosing partner brands to see the current list when buying new products.

Support the vendors that support us.

Hall of Shame

Device	Reason it's garbage	Date	Workarounds if any
Ariston Remotethermo	continuous disconnection of API. Not only did they break the integration, they log you out of their own crapware for as long as you're trying to use the integration.	2024-11-15	None.
Arlo Cameras	Per reddit actively blocks attempts to access them. Uses rolling short-lived tokens to make it even more annoying to integrate.	2024-11-15	None
Astral Pool Halo Chlorinator	Per DanielNagy/astralpool_halo_chlorinator and community.home-assistant.io, firmware versions newer than 2.3	2024-11-16	None
Blink Cameras	Per reddit thread, randomly marks videos as seen in their app when connected to HA	2024-11-15	None.
Chamberlain MyQ Smart Garage Door Controller	Chamberlain shut off all access to its APIs. See Chamberlain's Press Release The Verge's coverage	2023-11-07	Replace with a better solution: opengarage.io - Their hardware design and software code (including both firmware and app code) and API documents are publicly available in the OpenGarage github repository ratgdo is another solution with open source firmware that works with Security+ 2.0 openers. Konnected.io Smart Garage Door Opener is based on ESPHome and has an HA integration
Ecobee thermostats	"As of March 28th, 2024, ecobee is no longer accepting new developer subscriptions, nor are existing developer accounts able to create new API keys. There is no ETA for when they will be allowed again. Existing API keys will continue to function."	2024-11-15	Their HomeKit integration still works, so your HA can connect via that. It's less robust than a real connection, though.
Eight Sleep Beds	Locked part of the API behind a paywall.	2024-11-15	Lucas Clarke's integration. Subject to breakage if they change their API again.
Eufy cameras	Per reddit, the community integration is hit or miss due to flakiness on the Eufy side. Disables RTSP if you don't let it phone home for more than 48 hours. Requires disabling a bunch of security stuff to access the RTSP stream even when it does work.	2024-11-15	None
Genie Aladdin Connect	Removed their API access citing licensing issues, supposedly a fix is on the way, but it's been months now and they seem to be letting it die quietly	2024-07-02	If you don't want to replace the opener, there are two add-on solutions to smarten the opener: opengarage.io - Their hardware design and software code (including both firmware and app code) and API documents are publicly available in the OpenGarage github repository ratgdo is another solution with open source firmware that works with Security+ 2.0 openers. Konnected.io Smart Garage Door Opener is based on ESPHome and has an HA integration
GM OnStar	GM changes or voids API keys, which makes it really hard for the integration developers	2024-11-15	OnStar JS is an unofficial NodeJS library to make OnStar requests. Instability is because the devs have to chase GM changes.
iRobot Roomba j7	Per reddit, cannot be added directly through the HA integration. Firmware version 3.20.7 stopped reporting tracking and broke realtime maps.	2024-11-14	Reportedly you can use koalazak/dorita980 to hack it into compliance, but it doesn't work with the stock roomba integration
Jaguar / Land Rover	Per reddit, they've changed their API authentication and broken API access	2024-11-15	None
Kasa light bulbs	The KL135 (and probably others) reset themselves every 10 minutes if their internet is blocked, which makes them go offline for a minute during the reset	2024-11-15	Let them phone home.
Mazda. Yes, Mazda.	The Home Assistant Blog has the details. TL;DR they sent a cease and desist order to the Mazda Home Assistant Integration's Author	2023-11-09	None
Ooma VOIP	No API, no integration.	2024-11-15	None
Philips Hue	Philips is forcing users to "upgrade" to a version of their Philips app that requires login to a cloud account. See How-To Geek	2023-11-07	Use a generic Zigbee coordinator instead of the Philips one
RecTeq Smokers	Tuya based, but per reddit, they pushed an update that locked people out of their smokers	2024-11-15	None
Shark Vacuums	Shark has altered the API and broken the SharkIQ integration. See sharkiq/issues/51. This is an vendor problem, please don't harass the sharkiq maintainer.	2024-11-14	None
Tesla	Charging for API access	2024-12-15
Wyze Cameras	Wyze used to have a RTSP firmware which worked well (I have one) but then they abandoned it.	2024-11-15	Thingino has some open source firmwares which may work. Additionally, the wz_mini_hacks firmware works well with many of their cameras.

Reformed

These vendors were in the Hall of Shame but have worked with the community to re-enable lost functionality.

Device	How they reformed	Date	Workarounds if any
Haier Europe	Haier Europe is now working with the HON developer - see his timeline.	2024-01-18	Update to v0.12.0 or later to include the polling changes requested by Haier Europe.

Contributors

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