Advice needed on some devices

If you’re willing to rewire, there are several options. See the community FAQ. (It says Alexa in the topic title, but it also applies if you are not using a voice assistant.)

FAQ: 2018 Ceiling Fan and Dimmer light wall mount control compatible with SmartThings and Alexa?

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Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. There are several options that can do this, two of which I’ve outlined above. In a bit more detail with added pictures:

You could do what I did, which is tie the line and load together in the switch box, essentially bypassing the switch, install the Hampton Bay/Wink controller in the canopy, and then a battery operated RF remote where the wall switch was. The controller that goes in the canopy also comes with a handheld remote. This is a more expensive option, and requires using custom device handlers that don’t work very well in the new app (they work fine in classic app though). If you don’t want to spend the money on the separate wall mounted controller you could always just put a blank cover over the switch box (and even velcro the handheld remote to the blank cover). The components look like this-
Controller and handheld remote:

Wall mounted remote:

Another option would be to install a smart dual relay (rated for the fan load) in the canopy and a smart switch at the switch box. You could use any smart switch since you could change the wiring in the fixture box to run a hot and neutral to the switch box (you don’t need to control any load with the switch, you just need to power the switch so that it can send push events to the hub). If you want dimming control of the lights you’d probably want to get two single relays instead of one dual relay (one dimming relay and one on/off relay rated for the fan load). This is because you don’t want to connect a dimming relay to a fan because if it ever gets dimmed it could damage the fan motor or even cause a fire. This is the option I would choose if I were to do it all over. There are many options for the smart relays, but they’re all very small (much smaller than the Hampton bay module) and most are z-wave:

Just to clarify: all Zooz switches require a neutral connection. The new Inovelli dimmer doesn’t require a neutral but their on/off switches need a neutral connection as well.

The Fibaro Dimmer 2 is another option that can work without a neutral wire.

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Thanks for the clarification, post above edited to reflect that. For some reason I thought there was a Zooz dimmer model that didn’t require a neutral.

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Neutral is definitely needed to accommodate the 3-way solution that’s implemented in the Zooz switches to allow them to communicate with regular mechanical on/off switches in 3-way and 4-way installations.

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