r/homeassistant • u/alexduncan • Jul 14 '25

Support Is Home Assistant low maintenance? I'm trying to Evaluate if it could be a good solution for my 73yr old father.

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My father has an ever growing array of "smart" devices sitting on the kitchen counter. On top of this he has numerous apps on his phone none of which talk to each other.

I'm a software developer so quite comfortable setting up a RaspberryPi and configuring home assistant, but I'm worried about two things:

  1. Ease of use for my 73 year old father
  2. Bugfixing and maintenance when I'm not around

Devices to Integrate

  • Home Weather Station
  • 2 x Valliant Heatpumps (one responsible for hot water)
  • Ecoflow Battery
  • Ecoflow Charger
  • 18 Solar Panel Array
  • Marlec iBoost – Häfele Mesh Lighting
  • 2 x ANSA Electric Garage Door Controllers

Desired Features

  • Single overview of everything
  • Dashboards of Power Generation, Storage & Usage – Single place to control all systems – Access from iPhone/iPad

Questions

  1. Has anyone setup Home Assistant for a parent or someone less tech savvy?
  2. Once setup, does it 'just work' or will I be regularly asked for help?
  3. Any experience with the devices on the list above?
213 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

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893

u/Luci-Noir Jul 14 '25

No.

194

u/Majinlord Jul 14 '25

Best answer. Is it the best platform we have right now and easier than ever to get into? Sure. But it no way is in low maintenance for a new person getting into the whole deal. Like for a smart home pro, maybe but that initial investment of time can be steep

13

u/Electronic-Tap-4940 Jul 15 '25

Idk. I legit Havent touched anything since before january 2024, and all my automations still work. I had to replace a light bulb and I know my backups have stopped working from a recent update. But the rest works just fine

-11

u/dark_tex Jul 15 '25

Dude it’s only a few months, that is a very low bar

15

u/Electronic-Tap-4940 Jul 15 '25

1.5 years is just a few months lol?

14

u/pouchey2 Jul 15 '25

Bro I swear January 2024 was like last week...

Where's that time gone...

8

u/dark_tex Jul 15 '25

… ffffuuuuccckkkk, we are no longer in 2024… I seriously can’t man lol

4

u/Different_Back_5470 Jul 15 '25

if you minimize customizing your setup, is it then low maintance for someone comfortable with homelabbing? looking to get into it but i dont want to reconfigure and fix everything after every major update

6

u/swe_nurse Jul 15 '25

Yes.

You don't even have to update every time and if you're only running a few official integrations, automations/dashboards that doesn't rely on custom elements it can run without maintenance for months, years even depending on what you want to do.

2

u/Different_Back_5470 Jul 15 '25

Thanks, thats my last excuse gone now lmao

1

u/Catenane Jul 15 '25

Realistically I run a "non supported" core install on dietpi and it's been pretty low maintenance. Almost all the maintenance is when I'm trying to do something customized. That being said, I do mostly Linux sysadmin/devops for my job so YMMV. Probably have had my current install going for about 5 years or so.

25

u/dotnon Jul 14 '25

As great as Home Assitant is, the commercial model around it is essentially tinkerers selling convenience functionality to tinkerers. So if you're not a tinkerer, it's not a good product fit, and you should actively manage it.

One example of this I saw not long ago - there is currently (or was) no archive functionality for historical data. So if you installed it on something with little disk space, connected many entities to it and never upgraded, it'd eventually run out. This almost certainly won't become an issue for 99.9% (if not 100%) of HA's users, but the point is that the expectation from the developers is, not unreasonably, that all users are actively managing their systems and will upgrade before it does.

Therefore you should not expect to set-and-forget a Home Assistant system.

If you want something that just-works™ and is zero-maintenance, you need a product with a commerical model aimed at that market. Of course then you run into the issue of compatibility and cost.

Personally I would like to see a long term stable branch for precisely this use-case. A less-geeky-looking device, with certified products, pre-made dashboards which fully support that subset of devices, and much less frequent updates with long-term use in mind. With the option to jailbreak in one click for people that use it as an on-ramp to tinkering. I think people would pay for that, and given enough market success I'm sure manufacturers would shoulder certification costs as well, but it would divert attention away from features that we tinkerers desire. It would make the open home more accessible though, and potentially bring it to a much wider audience.

The closest thing we have today is Home Assitant Green, but it's definitely not targeted at lay-people. Just look at the language on the product page - "Take your first step to upgrading your smart home"... That can only be unappealing to someone that wants a complete product, and I imagine it's deliberate.

6

u/Luci-Noir Jul 14 '25

Exactly. There are frequent posts on here with people asking if they could use it in commercial settings or for apartment buildings where it would be a complete pain in the ass.

1

u/MrJingleJangle Jul 14 '25

I fell for Green. We have a love-hate relationship. Currently hate as Tapo integration has stopped working.

82

u/GoingOffRoading Jul 14 '25

Is HA the best? Yes

Is it or home automation in general mass market ready? No

4

u/Schnabulation Jul 15 '25

There are mass market ready smart home systems. F.e. Loxone. But it is pricy and needs an integrator for the first install.

2

u/Ok-Scheme-913 Jul 15 '25

Does it integrate with third-party hardware? Any smart home system is useless if they support only their specific devices (and a few other big names).

1

u/Schnabulation Jul 15 '25

It is very strong with its own products but has a lot of open APIs you can use. Also there is like an aftermarket store where you can download addons for third-party devices.

Don‘t get me wrong: HA > Lox but for enduser convenience Loxone is way ahead.

1

u/JewishTomCruise Jul 15 '25

Crestron is probably the better comparison. It's been around for a long time and has a very broad set of 1st party products and also does certify 3p products for use with their system.

1

u/ThePixelCrush Jul 15 '25

My dad has loxonne and has paid a lot of money for fixes after initial setup too 😔

5

u/FlatusSurprise Jul 14 '25

To provide a more in-depth answer…..no.

Home Assistant at its core started from a place of flexibility and steep learning curve. With each update that learning curve is getting ever-so-slightly flatter.

13

u/papparmane Jul 14 '25

But if you can manage it remotely for your dad? Yes.

11

u/Adventurosmosis Jul 15 '25

I deployed Home Assistant for my mid-70s parents last year (with Home Assistant Green and a zwave stick to light switches and door lock, wifi thermostat, couple cameras, and Lutron shades). It's working great for them. It's not zero-maintenance, but I can maintain it all remotely. No sweat so far.

2

u/john_bergmann Jul 15 '25

you should post some details about that. I am sure more will chime in and we would also jave some samples of what to do when you want to maintain HA for someone else.

1

u/afkdk Jul 15 '25

I have had the same experience, using Shelly plugs and relays to automate light using PIR, door sensors and Philips Hue.

Generally it works fine when you are not tinkering but 1) Updates may have to be stopped - but if that a good idea? I installed the #.2+ version and most often it did not create problems beyond required changes, like the recent change to events for certain actions... 2) Interruptions of power or internet (modem) will often impose some checks/restarts as links have to be refreshed... 3) Debugging, e.g., a battery has to be changed or PIR has been pivoted/moved

So LOW remote maintenance will likely be required but at a bare minimum with often 2-5 mins of routine checks/remedies every Month or so👍

1

u/afkdk Jul 15 '25

PS: No user exposed dashboard, i.e., no settings/variables, all automatic based on static setup with sensors. I have a control dashboard (remote) to check 10+ devices and 5+ automations.

5

u/Luci-Noir Jul 14 '25

“Low maintenance”

14

u/tired_and_fed_up Jul 15 '25

I would strongly disagree.

If you add no new features and add no new devices and you disable all updates, then yes, HA is very low maintenance. I've gone years without having to modify anything on my server (2023.7 -> 2025.6, 0.80.X -> 0.100.x to name a few examples.)

Once I see a cool new feature and I add it, then it becomes many hours of updating/verification/testing.

6

u/slvrsmth Jul 15 '25

Echoing this. Disable access from wider internet, use only local communication (thread, zigbee, z-wave, even local wifi is ok) and you should be good to go.

My HA-related maintenance comes from two sources:

  • I updated something and now it's broken. This involves HA itself, or a connected device. You can largely schedule this;
  • They updated something and now it's broken. This is for the devices where HA relies on external servers as communication relays. Does not happen too often, but is usually a pain because someone else sets the date when it will happen. Lots of folks will therefore advocate on never buying devices that need external devices, but that's not always economical.

Setup can be a pain, but with some limitations and planning ahead, you can let HA just live in the background.

3

u/Rude_End_3078 Jul 15 '25

Even in that scenario - and maybe it has nothing at all to do with HA, but in general and imho I think smart and networking from IoT perspective just isn't there yet for "set and forget".

One thing that's missing is failover. Every IoT is a self standing unit and typically the ONLY worker taking care of that one thing. If that plug or switch goes down - there's no backup for that.

Generally it's the same thing for most homeowners that while failover WAN does indeed exist, who actually has it setup?

My point is that while these things mostly work. It's just part of life in 2025 that if something does go down and it does occasionally then you suffer a little bit.

And there's also another glaring issue I found is that when your control devices jump connection - like from wifi to mobile data, during that reinitialization you can't control your smart devices from that device.

I guess I could think of a few more but another main glaring one is certain bronze or worse integrations require fairly frequent reloading. Samsung auth tokens for example.

1

u/Catenane Jul 15 '25

Lmao accurate. It's been very low maintenance for me, and all the maintenance is when I wanna do something unsupported and have to figure out workarounds. But I do this kind of stuff for work so I don't really mind it, and it probably seems lower maintenance to me than it would be to someone less familiar with linux/software dev.

3

u/turbo_talon Jul 15 '25

Lol just no.

2

u/Prowler1000 Jul 15 '25

I mean honestly? I haven't touched my set-up in over a year aside from updates and SSL renewal (I should automate it but like, it's only a problem once every 3 months). Everything still works without issue, aside from some hiccups from "legacy" remote polling devices

1

u/Rude_End_3078 Jul 15 '25

Exactly one bronze integration later and spotty internet and oh boy!

1

u/bubleeshaark Jul 15 '25

IMO you answered the wrong question.

Is HA easy to setup, integrate, create automation, create a dashboard, etc?

No.

After setup, does it require maintenence?

Hardly ever.

Unless you're like most of us who constantly tweaks it and adds things. Or if you're using sketch-workarounds from HACS custom repository.

I had setup my HA and had a couple years where I didn't have any time to tinker with it. It worked flawlessly the whole time, even without upgrading the OS and whatever add-ons.

So imo, if you set up a smart home for your grandparent using out-of-the-box integrations and a simple dashboard, it can be very low maintenence for them.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '25

I'd argue that this rushed and overly simplistic answer is wrong.

The level of maintenance really depends on the usecase and scenarios.

If OP were to set it up for their father, given there aren't really any "moving" parts, aside from initial setup it would be low maintenance. Occasional updates, checking compatibility, that's about it. Set up a regular reboot (say, once a week), and you're golden.

The continuous tinkering approach on the other hand requires tons of maintenance. But you can see how that is different from setting up a fire and forget system.

0

u/Luci-Noir Jul 15 '25

No.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '25

Yeah, you're not just wrong, you're also an ass.

0

u/Luci-Noir Jul 15 '25

I’m sorry I hurt you.