SmartThings causing broken leg & divorce (or how to delete switch)

I have built a new house, and have fully committed to Aeotec dimmers and dual switches everywhere plus a few Fibaro RGBW switches, using the wifi hub. It’s been a complete disaster and my wife is absolutely fed up. The latest incident is that my son fell down stairs and has a possible fracture because the step lights could not be turned on. I will push all of the emotion and frustration down and try to ask a single constructive question…

I am unable to delete Aeotec or Fibaro switches. I have gone into the new app, have pressed “Delete device”, and have pressed the momentary switch connected to S1 (or IN1) 3 times in rapid succession (I’ve tried ~300ms and 1s between presses). It always fails. Retry fails. Force delete fails. Repair Z-Wave network doesn’t help, and nothing found in Z-Wave exclusion mode.

I haven’t tried pulling the devices out of the wall to press the action (or B) buttons. It’s illegal in Australia for me to access the wiring as I don’t have an electrical licence. Also, as I need to do this for about 20 devices now, and surely many times in future, it’s just not practical to dismantle a wall switch and pull wiring out of the wall every time.

Why am I not able to delete these switches?

I would suggest logging into the SmartThings IDE, go to “devices”, locate your switch, and delete from there.

Thanks for the suggestion. It didn’t help with the Aeotec dual switch I’ve been trying to delete. I mean, it did disappear from the list of devices, but I’m not able to find it using a different hub, and Z-Wave exclusion didn’t show it either.

Nor did it help with the Fibaro RGBW switch. I pulled it out of the wall and did the reset procedure which made it findable using the second hub. It’s 24V so I think I did not break any laws.

I am still stuck on the first Aeotec switch on 240V.

SmartThings Z-Wave Exclusion Mode is used to remove Z-Wave devices. Once enabled follow the devices instructions:
Removing Nano Dimmer from a Z-Wave network using the Internal Button.

Your Nano Dimmer can be removed from your Z-Wave network at any time. You’ll need to use your Z-Wave network’s main controller. To set your Z-Wave controller/gateway into removal mode, please refer to the respective section within your controller instruction manual.

  1. Set your Z-Wave controller into removal mode.

  2. Press the Action Button on the Nano Dimmer.

  3. If the Nano Dimmer has been successfully removed from your Z-Wave network, its RGB LED will remain colourful gradient. If the removal was unsuccessful, the RGB LED will still be solid (following the state of the output load), repeat the instructions above from step 1.

Removing your Nano Dimmer to Z-Wave network using the External Switch.

Using this method, you will never have to remove the external switch to get to your Nano Dimmers button to perform an exclusion.

  1. Set your Z-Wave controller into removal mode.

  2. Toggle the External Switch 2 times within 1 second (If using a momentary push button tap the button 2 times within 1 second).

  3. If the Nano Dimmer has been successfully removed from your Z-Wave network, its RGB LED will remain colourful gradient. If the removal was unsuccessful, the RGB LED will still be solid (following the state of the output load), repeat the instructions above from step 1.

Hope this helps you out, I just copied it from the support pages; never actually used these dimmers.

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Thanks Marcus, though I am using the dual switch, and was pressing the button the correct 3 times.

I found the problem though - it was in a 2-gang switch setup, and the electrician must have wired the momentary button I was using to S2 of the device (instead of wiring both switches to S1). When I went to the other switch, presumably wired to S1, when pressing it 3 times I was able to delete it using the Z-Wave exclusion utility.

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