Several useful diagrams with 4-way wiring diagrams like Wiring Diagrams for GE Smart Switches, but unfortunately - like several other circuits in our home - one switch has no dedicated neutral. All that’s coming in is a single romex with your standard black/white/red/ground.
The line comes into a 3-way switch (it also powers several other switches for different loads) that goes down to a 4 way with the blacks pigtailed and the reds and whites into the switch, then one romex goes out to another 3-way switch so that last switch has no dedicated neutral.
Can this be made to work with the GE add-ons? It seems the whites aren’t the neutrals on the 4-way, so I guess the blacks are? The red was at least the traveler between the powered 3-way switch. So would I pigtail the whites, and jump the reds and blacks to the add-on (I’d put some white electrical tape on the black wires as well).
The various diagrams have been helpful in understanding what the wiring should look like if our house wasn’t wired by some cheapskate (I’ve had to repair a lot of half-arsed things), but this house doesn’t fit any of those diagrams.
I have a similar setup. One switch has the load/line and traveler wire,but there is not a bundle of neutral wires. The other switch boxes contain the neutral wire bundle. Will I be able to wire in the GE Z-wave smart dimmer with the neutral unavailable in the one switch box?
This isn’t possible. Line from breaker will always have the neutral. I assume you are measuring hot in this box? It’s likely coming from another box that has the neutral. Take clear pictures of your boxes noting all the Romex wires in there and we can help determine how to make this work.
The key to 3/4 way switches is the actual 3 way switches, the ones with 3 wires so ignore the one with 4 wires for now. On the 3 way switches will be a bronze/brown screw that is different than the other two. One switch will have load and the other will have line. It is important to mark those and call them out in the pictures.
I believe I have the same issue as the guy above. My 4-way switch (which is the second or middle switch on the circuit) only has 2 wires (white and black +GRD) coming in and 2 wires (white and black +GRD) going out. Both white and black are used as travelers, there is no common neutral.
I’m planning on re-configuring the wires in this box, the black wire will be the load line pig-tailed passing through the box to power the lights from the master switch and the white wires will become the low voltage travelers that go to the remote switch.
Am I going to have to fish a new wire to this box just to get a common neutral to it?
The 4way isn’t important, it’s the 3way, switches with 3 wires, that you need to figure out. One switch will have line from breaker in common terminal and other will have load to switch on common terminal. Pictures and a multimeter will help you.
I know which black wire is the line in the first box and which black wire is the load in the last box. Its the middle box which only has two travelers coming in and going out that’s giving me problems. There’s no common neutral to power the middle switch. I really need 3 wires going in and out of the middle box, one to pass the load line through to the light, one low voltage traveler from the two add-on switches and one neutral. I’m using the GE Add-on ZW2004 switch.
Without running another wire, I don’t know how to do it with the GE switches that I have.
So you have confirmed load wire is in a separate box than line? If so then I agree you don’t have enough wires to make the GE switches work. Zooz and Inovelli work with your existing wiring and dumb switches but require load and line to be in the same box. Unfortunately you are out of luck without pulling another wire between your master and the other box with the load wire.
Bummer. Thanks for confirming. If the line and the load were both in the same box I could re-use the original travelers as the neutral and low voltage traveler. But in my situation I’d have to run a new wire to the middle box.
We’ll be releasing new switches in a few weeks that will have that functionality so you can get in touch with our support to get on the waiting list: https://www.thesmartesthouse.com/pages/contact-us