GE 3 Way wiring help please I'm lost in the sause

First I apologies if my specific question has been asked. I’ve been looking and cannot find a solution, my ignorance with wiring may well be the problem.
I am trying to replace the traditional three way switch with a GE Z-wave 12722 switch and a GE 12723 add on switch
What I think is the line switch (Primary) is by its self. There is a three wire in the box, the black wire has a constant 122 volts, and it’s attached to the black screw on the switch. On the top two screws there is a white and red wire
What I think is the Load switch (as-on) in in a box with three other switches. On the black screw there is a red wire that only has power when the light is on. On the top left there is a red wire that has 122 volts all the time and on the top right had a white wire without power. In the box there is a bundle of black wires, a bundle of white wires, and a bundle of ground wires
I’ve tried to wire it up but failed miserably. I’ve wired z-wave switches before but I can’t seem to figure out these three way ones.
Thank you for the help
Dan

Did you look in this thread to see if what you have is given as an example?

Hopefully the FAQ will help you with your questions. I did have one thing to contribute however. I have several GE switches for my ceiling fans. The ground on all of mine had to be attached to the screw on top of the switch. None of them would work by putting the wire into the hole on the back. It took and electrical contractor coming to my house for me to find that out.

I didn’t mention the ground, however I did attach the ground. Right now I’m looking through TN_Old man’s link to see if I can figure my problem out.

If you are still having issues using @TN_Oldman s link then check out GE’s Youtube video on the installation here.
https://youtu.be/Fx1luE9llSQ

I suggested that thread because they have drawn all the options. It’s easier to understand your own logic and drawings to compare. If you figure out which one (drawing) you have almost everyone will try to help.

@Dan79 From your pictures it looks like on the ligh switch they used white wire as a traveler, not as neutral. You probably have neutral at the light.
It also looks that on the bigger switch on the left as well as in the box(as a bundle) you have white wire as neutral. If it’s on the same circuit as the light, you could use that togather with black wire.
On your hand sketch you have one light switch with red, white and black. Black is line in (Hot) white and red are travellers.
On the other light switch yo have red, red and white. Red and white on the same side are travellers coming from the other switch. The other red (hot) is your line in from (I think and hope) from the breaker.
IF MY ASSUMPTIOS ARE RIGHT (you have to check with a meter) easy solution would be to repurpose the two travellers as white as neutral and red as traveller for the slave GE (you also have to cap black-hotat that location) and pick hot and neutral from the Hall switch.
Again, this will only work if the Ligh and Hall switches get power from the same breaker. If not, you also have to bring the common neutral to the light.

I’ll be trying this. the switch with red/red/white is giving me a headache. I know I need to ignore the colors and go by the volt meter, but I am but a simple man:stuck_out_tongue:

TN_Oldman, PhilB, Graffix3001, and NomadTech Thanks for all the help

What makes @NomadTech assumptions on your existing wire strange (but possibly correct) to me is why would the electrician wire it that way when the Live Hot is sitting right there in the box?

Just for my clarity, are the pictures before you did any attempts correct? And if yes then these pictures are of an actual working 3-way light setup BEFORE you attempted to make changes so you are wanting to replace the switch you labeled “Lights” in the 3-gang box with the primary and the lone single switch in the photos to be the add-on? If yes then we are trying to verify what you probably have is a variation of line-switch-load-switch-2 example in the GE 3-Way FAQ with that red wire of yours being the primary hot. So IF when you meter out that red wire and confirm that is a direct feed from primary breaker power you can wire it like shown in the FAQ but where the image’s black line power is your red.

Yes it is a working three way switch before I attempted to install the GE z-wave switches. Somehow I got the switch set up on the box with three switches working, but I couldn’t do anything on the other side. I’ll look at your solution after work today. Thanks :+1:

It was the only way for that to work, based on the pictures and hand drawn sketch.

One of the circuits could’ve been a late addition by a different electrician. It’s an older house based on the brown color of the electrical box.

I had a lot of issues when I bought my house 20 years ago and just to eliminate them I rewired everything by the code. I also separated lighting from outlets. Any room in my house has 2 breakers, except bathrooms and kitchen which have more. Never had any issue since. Not even a tripped breaker.
People focus on wires when they have a problem but don’t look at functionality. You need power and neutral to the load. Switches are just applying power to the load. You can rewire anything for as long as you get the functionality you need. Just make sure you do it in a safe way and without overloading the circuit. Per NEC any load on a breaker should be max 80% of the breaker capacity.

Sorry for the confusion on the way I made my statement, I totally agree with you based on the pictures and sketch! :slight_smile:

I was referring to the strange way to pick up the hot for the 3-way circuit. I was just trying to get a handle on it in my head that the hot feeding the 3-way switch is coming in from the hallway switch light fixture location which is what must be happening in this case.

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