If you love a good DIY project and a touch of smart home magic, you’ll be blown away by what YouTuber DIY With Vinny pulled off. His YouTube tutorial transforms a simple closet into a fully automated, jaw-droppingly smart space, from leak detection to mood lighting and robot-friendly automation.
The best part? It’s powered by some seriously smart Zooz Z-Wave gear that makes everything run seamlessly behind the scenes. All of the Zooz devices featured here support the new Z-Wave Long Range protocol, so your smart home stays connected and responsive, even across floors, garages, or detached spaces.
Let’s take a tour of this build and peek at how you can recreate it in your own home.
Right under the new sleek washer/dryer combo sits the Zooz ZSE42 Leak Sensor, a tiny but mighty hero. This little device monitors for leaks 24/7 and instantly reports any trouble to your Z-Wave hub. No more wondering if a hose is dripping or a fitting came loose, you’ll know before there’s any real damage.
What else it can do:
This leak sensor can go anywhere water shouldn’t: under sinks, water heaters, dishwashers, or even in your basement near a sump pump. It runs on a long-lasting battery, works with most Z-Wave hubs, and thanks to Z-Wave Long Range, it can stay connected even in those hard-to-reach spots where Wi-Fi struggles.
To make it even smarter, consider adding the Zooz ZAC36 Titan Water Valve Actuator at your main water line. If any leak sensor on your network ever detects a leak, the Titan can automatically shut off the water supply to prevent a flood, saving thousands in potential damage.
What else it can do:
Beyond laundry rooms, the Titan can automate your entire home’s water control — ideal for vacation mode or remote shutoff while you’re away. And since it also supports Z-Wave Long Range, you can install it at your main valve, even if that’s tucked away in a basement or utility area far from your hub.
This smart setup doesn’t just hide the robot vacuum, it gives it a full-on garage to call home! The custom hidden cabinet features a swing door that opens and closes automatically, thanks to the Zooz ZEN53 DC Motor Controller.
The DC Motor Controller is the brains behind any project using 12V DC motors, like doors, drawers, or even pet flaps. This setup is running a 12V DC motor on a 12V power supply, and he programmed it to open the cabinet when it’s cleaning time and close it when the job’s done.
What else it can do:
The DC Motor Controller is perfect for creative makers. You can use it to automate sliding windows, vents, or even hidden compartments. Its Z-Wave Long Range connectivity means it can handle projects placed in garages, sheds, or outdoor enclosures, keeping your automations strong and reliable wherever you build.
Inside, he added a Zooz ZSE11 Q Sensor , a 4-in-1 motion, light, temperature and humidity sensor that reports to his hub when there’s movement inside. It’s a clever way to confirm that the vacuum’s in its dock and that the door automation worked perfectly.
What else it can do:
The ZSE11 can fit just about anywhere, from hallways to cabinets, to trigger smart lighting, security alerts, or temperature-based automations. And because it supports Z-Wave Long Range, it stays reliably connected even when tucked inside tight spaces or across your home.
Smart, tidy, and oh-so satisfying to watch in action.
Another layer of wow was added with gorgeous RGBW LED strip lighting inside his upper and lower cabinets. While a Shelly controller was used for this particular build, we’d recommend trying the new Zooz ZEN56 RGBW Controller.
It’ll give you full color control through Z-Wave, so you can sync your lights with scenes, schedules, or motion, all right from your smart hub. Perfect for setting a calm glow for laundry time or a vibrant hue when showing off your space.
What else it can do:
The ZEN56 is ideal for accent lighting under cabinets, stairways, or crown molding. It supports RGB, RGBW, single-color, or dual-color analog, non-addressable LED strips (without built-in Wi-Fi or Bluetooth capabilities) with 12–24 V DC input for dimming and scene control, plus Z-Wave Long Range, which ensures smooth, responsive color control even in larger installations.
To tie everything together, a standard wall switch was swapped out for the versatile Zooz ZEN71 On/Off Switch — and it’s more powerful than the sleek design suggests. He even upgraded to a black paddle to match his decor, giving the whole room a custom, modern vibe.
But here’s where it really shines: scene control.
Each paddle (top and bottom) supports up to five taps, hold, and release and every interaction sends a unique scene number and key attribute to your hub. That means you can assign different actions to each press — like:
What else it can do:
The ZEN71 supports instant scene triggers, and can replace nearly any existing light switch. With Z-Wave Long Range, it can communicate directly with your hub even in larger homes or across thick walls, ensuring lightning-fast response and rock-solid reliability.
The closet’s overhead light is a Commercial Electric Smart LED Flat Panel, wired to the ZEN71 and connected directly to Home Assistant. Here’s a cool trick that all Zooz switches support: by disabling the relay in the switch, you can ensure the light always stays powered.
Why? Because that keeps the smart bulb features active even when the switch is “off.” In this smart bulb mode, the paddles on your ZEN71 act like remotes — not just switches. You can turn the light on or off, adjust brightness, or even trigger different colors using multi-tap actions.
What else it can do:
This relay-disable feature is perfect for any setup using smart bulbs. It prevents accidental power cuts, keeps your bulbs responsive, and turns your ZEN71 into a hub-friendly button controller for limitless automation creativity, with Z-Wave Long Range ensuring that every tap is instantly recognized, no matter where your hub lives.
No more choosing between “smart bulb” and “smart switch”, with Zooz, you can have both.
This smart closet is the perfect blend of style and substance: clean lines, hidden tech, and practical automations that make everyday living easier. Share your DIY Z-Wave projects in the comments below!
Smart home tech isn’t just for indoors anymore—it’s transforming yard care too. While we’re used to voice assistants and smart thermostats, outdoor tools like sprinkler systems are catching up. Instead of wasting water on rigid schedules, smart systems adapt to the weather, skip rainy days, and keep your lawn healthy with minimal effort.
Smart sprinkler control makes it easy to upgrade your existing irrigation system with a device like the Zooz ZEN17 Universal Relay. Compatible with SmartThings, Hubitat, Z-Box, Home Assistant, and HomeSeer, it fits into most smart home setups without locking you into one platform. This post covers the benefits of automating your sprinklers, how to set up the ZEN17, control options, and real user tips to help you get the most from your system.
Imagine this: it’s a stuffy summer night, and you’re already in bed when you realize the ceiling fan is off. Or maybe you’ve left the house and can’t remember if the bathroom fan is still running. What if your fan could turn on automatically when the room gets too warm—or shut off when no one’s around?
That’s the beauty of smart fan control. It’s not just about convenience (though turning your fan on with your voice or a tap on a smart remote is pretty great). It’s about making your home more energy-efficient, more responsive, and just... smarter.
Home Assistant is slowly but surely becoming the ultimate platform for comprehensive home automation. It allows users to create a truly customized and connected environment with the most integrations we've ever seen. Home Assistant has a pretty powerful automation engine too so you can program anything from simple lighting control to complex, multi-device routines. And it's open source which means we can all contribute and the basic software is free.
The secret to making your Home Assistant set-up better than ever? Add Z-Wave to it! You can instantly increase the functionality, reliability, and device compatibility of your smart home environment. Z-Wave brings a vast range of new device options that can communicate securely and consistently. They are feature rich with tons of advanced settings to choose from so you can find a good match for any use case.