GE 12722 smart switches. Are they junk now?

Devices & Integrations Connected Things
1

My local liquidation store has a huge pallet full of these GE 12722 smart switches and well I went nuts and bought a bunch of them! 21 total.
Now I tried two today to wire them up to my baseboard heater in our room so I could turn it off during the day and back on before we get home…
I’m wiring them to some old meier baseboard heaters I’d guess 12ft long maybe so should be under the 1800watts max rating hopefully but them being so old I have no idea what there power draw is!
Well I wired them up so the switch was before the heater and I’m prettt sure I wired it correctly because I did a dimmer switch last week or so that worked great after I replaced a defective plug that I got which was old stock I guess at lowes because the part number was different when I returned it from the new one that works still now.

I tried two different switches and both never worked or had blue light lit up. I’m not sure if these models are just garbage and that’s why the liquidation store has them so cheap. Well they had them priced at 15$ but cashiers didn’t know that I guess and Only charged me 5$ each… so yeah I went back and bought more several times lol
I’m about to make a test setup in my garage so I can somewhat quickly test these switches on a light source before I mess org any more! Bootlegging wiring all different to make the smart switch work on a baseboard heater still takes awhile. I don’t wanna give up on it cause I already cut the dang cover for a wirebox and wires to run thru :frowning:
I’m almost tempted to just put a plug into the wall and just use a smart switch cause the wemo smart plug I have says it’s good to same power 1800watts. I just have to put in a wall outlet and put a cord on the baseboard heater instead of it being direct wired as it is now.

I’d love to do the smart baseboard heater units themselves but those like 90ish each and my house has 4 normally used baseboard heaters I’d love to remote control them and another 5 that are hardly used sure don’t wanna spend 400-900$ to do all munch heaters to smart turn on and off units !

I know the red wire is wrong color… I had to extend wires for the new outlet box and then go to the switch and heater.
Heater worked fine before hand. I put in a new thermostat cause old one was bad and got way hotter, set to 70 and room was like 82 a lot. Works fine without the smart switch and just it’s normal on off switch Inplace.

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2

Don’t guess.

A 12 foot baseboard heater in the US would typically be 2,700 W, and older models might be even more. So it’s quite likely that you fried the switches. :disappointed_relieved:

1 Like
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Well dang bet your right then. Just setup a quick test station in my garage and two other new switches I test work fine, checked the first two switches I tried on the heater and they still dead. I never even seen the blue light on them, or smelled anything burnt.
Things must be super sensitive! :frowning: is there any cheaper version to handle such high current besides the 100$ baseboard heater ones? I just need to turn them on and off on really need to change temperature

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4

If they were $5 each and there was a pallet I would have bought the entire pallet without a second thought. Where did you find them at?

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SPECIFICATIONS
ZW4005
Power: 120 VAC, 60 Hz.
Signal (Frequency): 908.42 MHz.
Maximum Loads: 960W, incandescent, ½ HP Motor or 1800W (15A) Resistive

6

Well they where prices 15$ each but with the man house cashiers guess they thought they was 5$ and that’s all they charged me. Trust me if i had The cash and thought I could get them all for 5$ each I would have. Lol but surely if I bought the whole pallet the boss would be looking and check the price I paid lol I’ll try again tomorrow to buy a few more but I don’t get paid till Thursday. If I can still get them for 5 Thursday I’ll buy a bunch more and start reselling them! Lol but they will probably be wise to the post price of 15 by then :frowning:

7

So if I get a new baseboard heater and its under 1800 watts would the switch probably work fine? It’s almost tempting… get new baseboard heater or heaters and I’d be able to smart it up. :slight_smile:

8

Bulldog liquidators? I just picked up a box :slight_smile: there were several boxes left (16/box)

9

Not $5 but should cover your 1800 watt baseboards.