3 way wall switch suggestions for kitchen fluorescent fixture?

Hello,

I have an overhead florescent light fixture in my kitchen.

I want to add it to my smart home line up of devices.

I use Smartthings and Amazon Echos for voice control.

The kitchen light is a florescent light fixture with 4 tubes.

There are three doors into the kitchen and a standard wall switch at each door.

So I think these are 3-way switches.

My house wiring does have the neutral wire on other switches I have replaced.

I intend to have an electrician out to do the work.

But I am not sure what hardware to buy.

Can I replace one of the three wall switches with a smart 3-way switch or do all three need replacing?

Would you do zigbee, zwave or wifi?

The electrician seems to think he can wire whatever I want but he has no advice on what kind of hardware I should buy.

I sure would appreciate any thoughts you folks might have.

Thanks

What you have is a 4 way switch. It has two 3way and one 4way switch. You just need one 3way switch to control the light with ST and Echo. I use Tp link Kasa Wifi Smart 3way Switch, I can control it with both ST and Echo. Easy to install and setup. Comes in pack of 2.

1 Like

The Zooz ZEN26 from @thesmartesthouse can be used in a 4-way. You’ll only need to replace the single switch with line from the breaker.

I’m not positive the ZEN26 works with fluorescents, though.

2 Likes

Thank you :slight_smile: Just ordered from Amazon. It will be nice to put an end to the kitchen light always being left on.

We don’t recommend using our switches with tube lights since they can draw up to 40 times the power they’re rated for at start-up and that can easily damage the electronics in smart switches. If you had LEDs in the tube fixtures instead and they were under a 100 W, you could use either the ZEN26 or the ZEN21 here.

1 Like