Thanks for everybody’s help. I’m going to order my switches today and believe I am going to try z-wave first.
Is there an easy way to identify Z-wave plus? I’m ordering from amazon so links are welcome. Also - are there specific models you would recommend?
Thank you!
http://products.z-wavealliance.org/regions/2/categories This link should help just remember some of these are not being sold yet. Ordered some of thes yesterday so I have not used them yet http://www.thesmartesthouse.com/collections/zooz.
You should/would see a logo like this on the packaging and/or on the device itself:
While I don’t use any of the plus devices yet, I can’t provide a recommendation. I know GE/Jasco has zwave plus devices, but I don’t know if they’re for sale yet. Here are a few more. Hopefully some other community members will chime in too.
Other sites will show devices and sometimes put the zwave plus logo on the advertisement as well:
The GE/Jasco zwave plus devices have been announced, but are not yet available for sale. Their support has said they’ll probably be out in December 2016.
Leviton also has a line of zwave plus devices coming, but not yet available for order. Same with Enerwave and GoControl
Current Z wave plus switches that you can order in the US include Zooz, homeseer, and dragontech. It’s not uncommon for the smaller companies to bring a new technology to market first, as the older ones may want to sell down their existing stock first.
I would expect to see a lot more available in January 2017.
( By the way, “fifth GEN,” “series 500” and “zwave plus” all mean the same thing. The fifth generation of zwave uses the series 500 chip and is marketed under the catchier name of “zwave plus.” )
Also prices on Amazon are often a higher ( sometimes much higher if it’s a small company and the items are being offered on Amazon by a third-party) than prices at the specialty retailers, particularly if you are going to buy at least 6 and are looking for a bundle price. so definitely shop around. For example, last time I looked, the Homeseer switches cost almost double on Amazon compared to buying them from the Homeseer site.
Most people who have the homeseer switches seem to like them, but some people have reported that the double or triple tap processing is taking too long. It’s hard to tell whether that’s a local mesh issue or not.
The DragonTech pocket sockets seem to be good, but there have been some complaints of an unusually high number of defective units among the wall switches. (The wall switches and the pocket sockets are made by different companies, then rebranded.)
I haven’t seen any reviews one way or the other on the Zooz switches, they are very new.
So as always my recommendation is to only buy from places with a good returns policy.
@JDRoberts Thanks for the reply. The first switch units I’m replacing with smart switches is through one wall and around 25 feet away. I’m considering just getting the Z-wave (non-plus) to get this project started. I’m guessing I’ll be ok with that distance. There will also be other switches between the 2 points soon.
It always depends on local architecture – – if that wall happens to be cement with chicken wire lathing, you might not get signal through. 
Or if it has heavy flocked and foil wallpaper on both sides.
But in general, the older zwave (the third and fourth generations are now collectively called “classic Z wave”) should be fine at that distance.
The old role of thumb was “around 40 feet” for one hop in a typical U.S. House whether it was zigbee or classic zwave. Z wave plus is significantly longer, maybe around 60 feet. But barring some weird architectural feature, the next room over shouldn’t be an issue. 
Thanks @JDRoberts One final question. My Smartthings unit may be arriving after my switches. If I install the switches in the wall, will they work like a standard switch until my smarrthings hub arrives? I’ll just need them to function as standard on/off, dimmers, and fan controls.
They are the GE Z-Wave units.
They sure will. Once your hub arrives and you get it up and running (wait a little bit before you start adding devices and monitor the event log via the IDE), all you need to do is go the the Marketplace → Things and “start looking for things”. You do not need to drill down into the individual areas.
Looks like this thread went cold.
a. Yes you can install a zwave switch without having your hub yet and it will work fine.
b. On the topic of GE Zwave plus switches, I just bought one but couldn’t get it working. Not sure if the driver is totally different or if it’s the switch itself. When I chose the standard GE Switch it failed act as a trigger for other activities and it kept showing that the light was on in the Mobile App when it wasn’t.