Help with confusing 3 way GE smart switch wiring

Devices & Integrations
1

Hi All. :slightly_smiling_face:

Getting deeper into smart house improvements with my SmartThings and glad to have found these forums.

I’m not new to electrical work, having wired rooms from scratch and wired in sub panels to outbuildings, but this one has me scratching my head.

Have a hallway with 2 overhead lights (red C and D in diagram) in it with a 3 way wall switch at each end. The (black/white/ground) line comes in at the south end wall switch. See attached drawing.

When I hook up the primary GE smart switch at that south end switch box where the power comes in (red A in diagram) and out with the 3-wire (red/black/white/ground) the way I’ve done all the others successfully in the house (minus the red wire so it functions like a single switch to try to figure out what it controls) it controls power to the wires at the north end switch location (red B in diagram) and sends no power to either of the overhead lights. Flipping the smart switch on actually does nothing with either light but sends power to the other switch. The lights worked with the traditional 3 way switches hooked up as you’d expect.

Any input would be great. This has me quite confused. Wish I could see through the drywall.

lights
lights.gif1421×609 32.3 KB

2

It sounds like you need to change the wiring in the 1st overhead light fixture ©. The previous wiring used one of the wires, most likely the white wire, as the load output of the 3-way circuit from switch B.

The GE Aux switches don’t connect to the load, the load output comes from the main switch, A. Connect the red wire to the optional traveler output on the switch, and the black from the 3-wire to the “load” output.

In B, connect the white to the neutral input and the red to the traveler input. The GE add on switch doesn’t handle power pass-through, so you can cap the black wire in box B.

In the overhead light box, leave the red wire pass-through and connect all of the neutrals (white wires). You may find that the white wire from B has electrical tape on it to note it carries power and is connected to the fixture and 2-wire going to D. Connect the black 3-wire from A to your fixture in C and the black 2-wire going to D.

3

Which diagram do you have here?