Can the Zooz ZEN20 Smart Power Strip Hold Up on Z-Box, Home Assistant, and the Qolsys IQ4?
Five individually controllable outlets, two USB charge ports, and per-plug power monitoring over Z-Wave: is the Zooz ZEN20 Smart Power Strip the upgrade your bookcase, network rack, or holiday lights have been waiting for? I put the ZEN20 through its paces on the Z-Box, Home Assistant, and the Qolsys IQ4 with Alarm.com to see how it actually behaves on each.
The Setup
The ZEN20 is an 800-series Z-Wave Long Range smart power strip with S2 security, per-outlet power monitoring (watts, voltage, amps), configurable overload protection (1500W default), per-outlet auto on/off timers, and power-failure recovery. The two USB ports do not have Z-Wave switching, but they do report charging state. I tested it three ways:
- Z-Box
- Home Assistant (Z-Wave JS UI)
- Qolsys IQ4 + Alarm.com (multi-channel beta)
What Worked
- Clean inclusion on all three platforms
- Five outlets controllable independently everywhere
- Per-outlet power monitoring reports on every platform
- The IQ4 exposes all seven endpoints: five outlets plus the two USB charge-status entries
- USB plug and unplug updates reliably on the IQ4 panel
- The old multi-channel “phantom channel one” bug appears fixed on the IQ4
- Sensor-triggered automations work in Alarm.com (door open turns on an outlet)
What Didn’t (and the Surprise Fix)
- USB charging reports were silent on the Z-Box out of the gate. There is a quick workaround that gets them flowing, and it took some trial and error to land on. (Walk-through is in the video.)
- Home Assistant could not get USB charge-state reporting to fire at all in my test, even after trying the trick that fixed the Z-Box.
- The Z-Box hides the master “all off” entity from the main device list. It exists, but only if you know where to look.
- Outbound direct associations on Alarm.com still do not work for multi-channel devices. Inbound associations are fine.
- Sensor-triggered automations run through the cloud in Alarm.com’s multi-channel beta, so reaction time landed around 30 seconds in my test. Functional, not snappy.
Verdict
The ZEN20 itself earns an A+. The hardware is solid, per-outlet power monitoring is the headline feature, and 800-series Z-Wave Long Range future-proofs it. Integration is fully usable on all three platforms, with caveats: the IQ4 with Alarm.com surprised me with the cleanest USB reporting (slower automations are the tradeoff), the Z-Box runs the strip beautifully once you sort the USB quirk, and Home Assistant handles the five outlets without complaint, just not the USB ports.
Watch the full bench test on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt8hq-NjJ60
I’d love to hear from you. Got a use case for a Z-Wave power strip in your setup, whether that’s holiday lights, a network rack, or remote-rebootable gear? Drop your build, your headaches, or what you would like to see hit the bench next in the comments. I’m always looking for the next experiment.