I am really hoping someone here might have some answers. We recently moved into a new house that is equipped with the GE Zigbee smart switches. I think the model that is installed throughout most of the home with the exception of a few is now discontinued.
The problem we’re running into, is that while we don’t have smart hub yet (we are planning on getting one… hopefully soon) some of the switches have stopped working completely and don’t even work manually. Some of them have no LED light on at all, some of them it’s blinking. Either way they do not turn the light on and off like they should be - there is no clicking sound as if they are even trying. One of our breakers flipped last night or early this morning and now MOST of the switches that are connected to that particular breaker don’t work. There’s a panel of 3 of them, 2 are blinking like a dance party and the third has a solid LED but isn’t turning the light on.
Does anyone know why this might be happening and whether there is anything we can do to fix them or prevent it from happening to others? I gave up and called an electrician to come look at them and see if they are salvageable. I am somewhat technically inclined but have 0 experience dealing with electrical issues so this is totally beyond me. Just wanted to see if anyone knows what the heck might be going on because I cannot find ANY information on this issue anywhere. Are this many of the light switches really failing back to back like this? That seems impossible or just like the worst luck ever, but who knows it is 2020 after all.
Thank you in advance to anyone who might have information!!
So bad news first. Both issues you describe indicate issues with the switches exhibiting the symptoms. (Its seems according to a couple teardown videos ive seen on the subject, with the 12xxx series GE switches, either electrostatic discharge or heat damage a specific capacitor which in turn to knocks the device out. I’m sorry to say one variant of the issue has lovingly referred to as the ‘click of death’ because of the clicking ths switch makes as the LED blinks on and off with the switch relay certain switch models)
So first - if any can come back. Kill the power to the circuit at the breaker and leave it off for a few minutes. Pop it back and see if the switches start behaving (doubtful it will but i have been suprised more than once with my own switches)
If that fixes it - consider it temporary because most switches i had that exhibited either of these problems recurred within 5 months. Plan accordingly.
If it does not fix the issue, you’ll probably have to replace them - dont throw the switches in the trash immediately. Contact Jasco customer support. Theyve always been generous with thier warranty at least for me and have replaced a number of them with only proof of the device (picture of a certain view of the device and its serial) without even asking for the old device back. Normal warranty for those is 2 years. But since youre new to the home you don’t know how old they are. It. May be fruitless, but still its worth asking.
Finally i had a leg in my home thwt dropped two of these switches, found a sparking wire somewhere else in the run that was causing surgea and noise on that circuit that we assume was knocking out the devices. Fixed it and havent lost another on that leg since. (and yes, I still have an old 12xxx series switch on that run)
Thank you so much for your response. I assumed the news wouldn’t be great but figured I would try! Interesting that leaving the circuit breaker off for a few minutes can bring some back - we may have to try that out tomorrow just to see.
I’ll reach out to their customer support, I wasn’t sure if since the switches are now discontinued how that would work as far as replacement. Luckily the switches do not make a clicking noise with the LED blinking. That sounds like it would get very annoying very quickly.
Honestly this whole thing does have us debating whether it would be worth it to replace them with the newer model of smart switches (which would not be cheap at all based on how many of them aren’t working) or just buy a bunch of regular light switches in bulk and replace them all and lose the “smart” functionality. I appreciate your insight thank you!!
So heres hownIm handling it… I have 36 switches. A little less than half (15-16) are probably a 12xxx series GE device. I now lose one of those about 1 per 8 months.
I now keep one Inovelli Red Series Dimmer in my toolbox at all times and order another when I replace a dead 12xxx GE with my spare…
all hardware features completely controlled / configurable through zwave commands (remote programming, for geeks this is a pretty big deal - this thing had a boat ton of features…)
Is a dimmer
Can work in switch mode
Can bypass the load
can work in no neutral
can three way with regular dumb switch
can three way with Jasco style aux switch
Can do scene control
Can do central scene control
Can do direct associations
Is a direct drop in fit for the Jasco so if you’ve already trained the wires…
There’s more but… I’m a fan Others will have favorites for other reasons.
