On/Off Paddle Switch for Bathroom Exhaust Fan

Hello,

I am looking for something that will allow me to connect a smart switch to a bathroom exhaust fan.

Currently, the fan is powered by a single dumb switch that controls both the exhaust fan and light fixture.

I was looking at the Zooz ZEN26, however when researching further, they recommended not to connect this switch to any type of fan, including exhaust fans. Is there anything else that I might be able to use? Maybe one of the GE Z-wave Plus switches?

Thanks!

I use a GE Jasco ZWave plus SWITCH ( not dimmer) in this exact use case. It has a relay that gives a hard ‘off’ (Some people don’t like the click, but it’s reassuring to me. :slight_smile: )

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I don’t mind the click. I have the GE Jasco Z-Wave Plus switches, dimmers, and fan controls all throughout most of the house. I wouldn’t mind putting those in the bathroom but there’s a pretty good deal going on right now for the Zooz switches and assumed they would be mostly identical but was told not to use them on exhaust fans. Seems odd that the GE one would work fine but not the Zooz as the specs are pretty similar.

Has anyone actually tried one of the Zooz switches in this use case for a bathroom exhaust fan?

The folks at @thesmartesthouse definitely recommend against using the ZEN26 switch with fans.

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I use the GEs on 4 different exhaust fans for the same purpose. Been fine and one is even in the attic.

We definitely don’t recommend using the light switches on fans. We’ve seen them fail over time when used with high-inrush current devices like fans, that goes for all brands we’ve ever sold or serviced. Most GE/Jasco or Aeotec failure complaints are for installation with fans or other inductive loads. You can be lucky and use the switch with a fan for years but one day, the electronics may fail dur to a high spike or low drop in power. The ZEN26 is an especially poor choice because it only comes with an 8A relay as opposed to a 15A relay in the ZEN21 or a GE/Jasco model.

We’ll be releasing a Double Switch with an on/off button designed for use with fans in a couple of weeks and would recommend that model (ZEN30) for exhaust fans instead.

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There are only 2 things that concern me about the upcoming ZEN30:

  1. They are 2 separate switches whereas I would like for it to be just 1 switch to control both light and exhaust fan as it does currently. I assume this can be easily remedied by creating a rule or scene to turn on both when the paddle is pressed…

  2. …which brings me to my 2nd issue. The light switch portion appears to be a dimmer which is totally and completely unnecessary in the bathroom and will most likely just introduce flicker of some sort. If it was a simple on/off for the light portion then this might have been a doable solution. However as it stands now, these are the 2 deal-breakers that I currently see with the new ZEN30.