So long story short… I somehow managed to blow my dimmer switch while correcting a poorly wired 3 way. It no longer physically switches any power. However, it seems to be perfectly happy on the zwave network acting like it works. It receives commands and updates the status, etc.
I was about to throw away the switch when I realized that it may still be useful for something. I guess it could be used to remotely dim lights that are already on another dimmer perhaps? Maybe there’s something more creative it could be used for?
I will defer to the electrical experts in the community like @Navat604 , but my own personal assumption would be that unfortunately once you have short-circuited the switch, it won’t be safe to wire into your electrical system even if the radio is still working. But again I will defer to the electricians who will know better.
I’m assuming it should be ok since I won’t have a load wired to it. But that’s a good point. I don’t recall if the switch works without a load wired to it. I think it will, but frankly, I just put my wall switches back together after spending hours going insane as I tried to wire a 3 way that refused to work not thinking that I had fried the dimmer switch early in the process. I’ll investigate that when I have my face plates off again. (When amazon delivers my replacement dimmer switch.)