Add full native support in zha for the Valve entity (device type exposed in Home Assistant)? #528

Could you add zha application platform support for valve entity as native device type in Home Assistant for valve devices? See:

• https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/valve/

and

• https://github.com/home-assistant/core/tree/dev/homeassistant/components/valve

Update: Sounds as if this upstream Home Assistant core could also need a device class for "timed open" to the valve entity. See discussion:

• Add "timed open" to the valve entity home-assistant/architecture#1491

This native Valve entity device type expose valves as more than a switch to show a valve in different states (Open, Opening, Closed, Closing, Stopped, Unavailable, Unknown, and current valve position), with device class for water, gas, or none.

• https://developers.home-assistant.io/docs/core/entity/valve

It it primarly intended to replace switch/cover entities used today for these type devices as workaround, providing a dedicated entity type for controlling fluid/gas valves (water, gas, irrigation), not only allowing for states like open, closed, opening, and closing, but also supports partial opening (set_valve_position) for percent control, so that a valve state does not always need to be open or close (like a switch is always either ON or OFF) but can also optionally expose opening percentage in the device preferences, (however that is one one of the key difference between non-Zigbee valves is that some non-Zigbee devices have a better ways of exposing Valve open percent control).

Anyway, currently the Valve entity looks to only be supported in the zha integration as an extension of the switch or cover entiry as an such is not presented in Home Assistant as a "Valve" entiry but instead as a switch or cover entiry.

(The workarounds that users are using now because this is missing in ZHA is to change the entity type from swich to valve in the entity settings or use the "Change device type of a switch" helper integration).

The native Valve entity device type was introduced as a new new entity type in Home Assistant 2024.1 (January 2024) release:

• https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2024/01/03/release-20241/#new-entity-type-valve

Initially this new Valves so far support the following device classes:

• None: Generic valve. This is the default and doesn’t need to be set.
• water: Valve that controls the flow of water through a system.
• gas: Valve that controls the flow of gas through a system.

Ideally, we want to combine this with ZHA device handlers to present correct device type of each product model in Home Assistant to know if something that today just expse a switch should instead in the future really be exposes as a valve in ZHA. As relevant to the the roadmap work on the upcoming improving experience when add device class to a new device via a device database:

• First device setup wizard focusing on Matter devices OpenHomeFoundation/roadmap#31

  • https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/valve/#device-class

As an proof-of-concept and code example see Matter Valve:

• https://github.com/home-assistant/core/blob/dev/homeassistant/components/matter/valve.py

Another one with more features/functionality is the MQTT Valve (which is part of the mqtt component in Home Assistant code):

• https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/valve.mqtt

  • https://github.com/home-assistant/core/blob/dev/homeassistant/components/mqtt/valve.py

Yet another integration with the Valve entiry is SmartThings:

• https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/smartthings/

  • https://github.com/home-assistant/core/blob/dev/homeassistant/components/smartthings/valve.py

Update: And also Shelly too now:

• https://github.com/home-assistant/core/blob/dev/homeassistant/components/shelly/valve.py

Currently, many other integrations also have native support valves and now provides a valve entity (which also means that the valve entities also work with Home Assistant Voice, Amazon Alexa, and Google Home).

• https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/#valve

Many new existing new products include valves for pools, sprinkler systems, garden watering, and main water lines, or house gas valves.

Most are just generic shut off valves products that that simply expose either state and position or just on and off via a switch, but quickly looking through list of other water shutoff valves on Z2M supported devices it seems some expose it differently:

• https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/supported-devices/#s=valve

  • https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/devices/SWV-ZF2.html

  • https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/devices/ZVL-DUAL.html

  • https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/devices/ZVG1.html

  • https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/devices/TS0601_water_switch.html

  • https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/devices/ZVL-DUAL.html

  • https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/devices/QT06_2.html

  • https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/devices/GX02.html

  • https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/devices/VA4220ZB.html

  • https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/devices/LYAI-14.html

  • https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/devices/L14.html

Then that "valve" device type will compliment the other device types entities that the ZHA integration already supports as application platforms within Home Assistant, i.e.:

• Alarm control panel
• Binary sensor
• Button
• Climate (beta)
• Cover
• Device tracker
• Fan
• Light
• Lock
• Number
• Select
• Sensor
• Siren
• Switch
• Update

PS: Off-topic here, but FYI, for reference, noted that there are a few others as well that are starting to ask for a new device type component for "irrigation system" as well in Home Assistant as that is a new device type now supported by the Matter standard and the HomeKit specification, (i.e. an additional new device type that is specifically used to control a group of irrigation zones for watering landscapes with multi-zone sprinklers or gardening beds, with the main difference that a single "irrigation system" device will have several device entities for zones which are sub-components the main device, but do not act as a hub managing multiple separate devices).