GE Z-Wave On/Off Relay and Aux in 3 Way setup HELP!

I have a GE Z-Wave On/Off Relay along with Aux switch and I am having trouble wiring it to this 3-way switch.
If you notice in the photo in BOX A there is already a GE Aux switch that runs the other 3 way switch and it works perfect however this one is wired completely different than that one and for the life of me cannot figure it out.

Anyone have any suggestions? It seems upon using my tester that the Capped off black wires in BOX A have power. Upon switching the switch up and down on Box B then 120v gets supplied to the white and red wires in BOX A depending on which way it is flipped. Any help would greatly be appreciated and save me from losing my hair.


I ran into some strange 3-way switch wiring recently, and found that instead of trying to understand how theirs was working, I just unhooked everything, identified the load, line, neutral, and traveler wires, then connected the GE switch the normal way. The aux switch just needs the neutral and the traveler, so as long as that red wire goes from the one switch to the other, you should be good there. It looks like switch 1has the line there, so you just need to figure out which one is going to the load (to the light).

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Thanks! How can I test to see which wire is the load wire in Box A which seems to be the master since the hot wire is there.

I used one of these - http://www.homedepot.com/p/Sperry-LAN-Tracker-Wire-Tracer-ET64220/202520187. If you don’t have one, you may just be able to look at the wires, one of the blacks is probably coming from the same bundle with the red, so you know that one is going over to the other switch. Be careful and if you aren’t sure, call an electrician. Don’t forget to turn off the breaker when messing around in there! Good luck.

* I am not an electrician

@obycode Yes, I can see that the white wire that is connected to the switch in box A is going to the other switch along with the red wire. The black wire that is wired to the switch in Box A is going directly to the light. The two black bundled wires, one is coming in 120v from the line and the other one is going to the other switch. Now to figure out what to do with all that :slight_smile:

Thanks for your help. I am not an electrician either and 1 thing I do know it is to shut the breakers off :slight_smile: Thanks so much again!

See modified Diagram…

Ok, great, then you should be good to go. Connect the load, line, neutral and traveler to the master switch in Box A, then connect the white wire heading to box B in with the neutral bundle and just cap off the black wire going to box B, you won’t need that one. In box B, connect white to neutral, red to traveler, and cap off the black. Should be good to go!

@obycode IM going to try it now. Which neutral should I use? Tie a wire into the one in the bundle or the one going to box b?

Scratch that. I get it. BRB. Let you know :slight_smile:

Yeah, if you have an extra piece of white wire, tie it in to that neutral bundle you point out in the picture and into the switch. The white going over to the other box should also go into that bundle of whites.

@obycode Progress! Further than I ever have before. Main switch is now lighting blue and switching the light on and off. The aux doesnt work but this is farther than I ever have been with this 3 way. Thank you!

Excellent! So for the aux, in Box A, you should tie the white headed to Box B in with the other whites, and the red wire should connect between the traveler on switch 1 and the traveler on switch 2. Is this what you have?

{engineer joke: cue the JAWS theme music… :wink: }

Yes, The white wire that is headed to box B is bundled with the other whites. The red is also connected from Box A to Box B. I noticed the other switch on BOX B no longer works. It seems that black wire that was tied to the 120v line on Box A was supplying power to Box B since those two were wired together?. May be related? Again I appreciate your help!!! We are getting somewhere!

Hmmm… interesting. I’m not sure what’s going on there. Anyone else have an idea?

I agree, Its a strange setup. Arizona track homes… What do you expect :slight_smile:

Also just checked the traveler wire in Box B, when Box A switch is turned on it is sending the 100v over…

Ok, so that group of red, white, black, ground must not be going directly between those two switches… You may need to get one of these wire trackers to figure out what is going on.

Ok, I meant the 100v is being sent properly it seems to the traveler wire on Box B (Aux Switch) when Box A switch is turned on.

No, I don’t think that’s right. I may be wrong, but I didn’t think the traveler wire gets high voltage, just low voltage signals. I’ll check mine later if no one else knows for sure.