Chowmain driver vs native Lutron integration in Control4
by SmartHomePro2026• 8 replies• 2931 views
Hey everyone, I'm about to start a project with a client who has an existing Lutron RadioRA 3 system. They want to add Control4 for whole-home automation. I've used the native Lutron integration before but keep hearing good things about the Chowmain driver. For those who have used both, what are the real-world differences? Is the Chowmain driver worth the extra cost or is the native integration sufficient for most residential projects? Client has about 85 devices across the Lutron system.
Replies
NaN hours ago
With 85 devices you'll definitely appreciate the Chowmain driver's programming efficiency. The auto-population of devices is much smoother in my experience. Native integration had me manually configuring more stuff. Time saved on setup easily justifies the driver cost on a project that size.
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NaN hours ago
I've deployed both extensively. The native integration works fine for basic on/off/dim control, but the Chowmain driver gives you way more granular feedback and better scene integration. If your client wants to see actual dim levels reflected accurately in the C4 UI in real-time, Chowmain is noticeably better.
NaN hours ago
Switched to Chowmain about 2 years ago and haven't looked back. The occupancy sensor integration alone was worth it for us. Native driver doesn't handle those nearly as well. Also the Pico button mapping is cleaner with Chowmain.
NaN hours ago
Counterpoint - I've done 30+ RadioRA 2 projects with native and never had a complaint from clients. For RadioRA 3 specifically though, I'd lean toward Chowmain since Lutron changed some things with their integration protocol. The native C4 driver for RA3 was a bit behind initially.
NaN hours ago
One thing nobody mentioned - Chowmain's support is excellent. Had an edge case issue with a Sivoia QS shade integration and they had a fix pushed within a week. Good luck getting that kind of response from Control4 on their native drivers.
NaN hours ago
Good point about support. Also worth noting the Chowmain driver handles the Lutron Connect bridge better if your client has any legacy components mixed in. We had a project with some old RadioRA 2 pieces alongside RA3 and the Chowmain driver managed both through the processor without issues.
NaN hours ago
Thanks everyone - this is really helpful. @C4Dealer_Boston the auto-population point is huge since I'm trying to keep programming time reasonable on this one. Going to go with Chowmain. Any gotchas during initial setup I should be aware of?
NaN hours ago
Make sure you have the Lutron integration report exported and ready before you start. Also update to the latest Chowmain driver version before beginning - they push updates fairly regularly. Other than that it's pretty straightforward. Their documentation is solid.
