I am in the process of converting my home into a “smarter home” with the addition of various z wave devices. I am leaning towards the replacement of all my light switches in the main living area with GE Z Wave controllers. As of right now, the hardware required is somewhere in the neighborhood of $600 for 19 switches. I am hesitant about replacing them all with one brand of at once, but it would solve a lot of my automation desires. So, the question is, does anyone have any long term experience with these GE in wall switches? Have you had any problems? Are you satisfied with your purchase? Would you consider replacing all of your light switches with GE controllers based on your experience? What are the biggest negatives you have experienced? Have you purchased a different brand of in wall switch that you prefer? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!
Over the past couple years, I have replaced almost every switch in my house with combination of GE, Leviton, Lutron & Wemo. The only ones I would NOT recommend are the WeMo do to their instability.
GE or Leviton is a matter of personal preference as the physical switch operates differently. Leviton you press once to turn on and then press again to turn off, and there is an LED bar to adjust dim level. GE are press top for on, press bottom for off, Press and hold to adjust dim level.
GE has recently added a new ZW+ model that also include a built in motion/presence sensor. The PIR part currently does not work in ST, but if I was going to start replacing switches now, I would probably go with that newer model.
Thanks @RLDreams. I did some additional research and was hoping you could answer some questions. It looks like the threads comparing most of the switches are sometimes two years old. Do you prefer the Leviton? I see where it supports “instant status” and seems like a more premium product. Do you prefer it to your other switches?
The reason the threads are all 2 years old, is because until the new ZW+ switches came to market there wasn’t anything to talk about except for when they went on sale, or people having problems wiring 3-4-5way switch setups properly
With the latest FW updates & polling the GE are a lot closer to instantaneous than they once were. I do prefer the Leviton, but I have mostly GE just because the GE could be found on sale for <$20 and the Leviton are at least twice that.
I like the dimmer bar on Leviton over the press & hold of GE, but I’m not sure a visitor would even know what that LED bar was for. GE are more visitor friendly as well, since people are accustomed to up on, down off for wall switches.
The instant status only applies to the GE switches. GE dimmers don’t have instant status reporting.
As for the GE motion detector + dimmer/switch, I definitely recommend it. It’s a slightly different design for the paddles, but the clicky mechanism is a lot smoother than the classic GE switches.