Tried installing GE 14291 after 12722 stopped working...help

Glad you made this point. There is a misconception that the master always has to go in the box where the line enters.

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Yep but with line and load being in two separate boxes you have the ability to do either.

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In terms of location the two boxes are 10 feet apart so either will work

I didn’t know this was a misconception. The switch brands I’ve used always show the master in the box with line.

OK here goes. I will call your first picture Box 1 and your second picture Box 2. Lets put your master in Box 1 and the Aux in Box 2, but again either could work given you have line and load split into two boxes.

Box 1:

  • Master switch will be installed here
  • See picture above for wire designations
  • GE switches have two wire holes per screw terminal, insert both white wires into the neutral terminal
  • Red wire will be your travler
  • Black wire coming from the 14-3 Romex (called out as Line) is your line power
  • Black wire coming from the 14-2 Romex (called out as Load) is your load to fixture

Box 2:

  • Aux switch will be installed here
  • Your GE switches should have come with a short white pigtail wire, add that to your white wire bundle and connect other end to the neutral terminal of your Aux switch
  • Connect the red wire from the right 14-3 that is currently hooked up to your existing switch to the traveler terminal on your Aux switch
  • Now we need to get line power to Box 1.
    • Disconnect the black pigtail wire that I called out in the picture from the black wire bundle as you no longer need it.
    • Add the black wire from the 14-3 Romex that currently hooked up to your switch (and called out) to the black wire bundle

Thats it and it should now work.

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That is just the line from the breaker being distributed to both switches. Normal in multi-gang boxes when multiple switches in the box are on the same circuit breaker.

That is probably because it is easier to document it that way versus a bunch of “what ifs”. As you can see in my wiring instructions above, we could have bundled the black wires in Box 1 to “send” load over to Box 2 and hooked up the master there where line power is. I hope that makes sense.

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Got it, thanks. I understand what you did for this situation.

Makes me even happier that all my 3-ways so far are Zooz models that don’t require rewiring.

I do have in my future four sets of lights where I’d like to be able to dim from either side of the 3-way. I’m thinking I’ll use Leviton dimmers with their matching add-on aux. That puts a dimmer control at both sides of the 3-way.

Thanks!! I’m going to try it now.

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Any switch that has an add on usually supports dimming from all locations. GE and the new Inovelli switches support this, Inovelli uses the GE add ons. Not sure if the latest Zooz support add ons yet but I have seen them mention they will have them for this very use case. Setting dim from one location is so “yesterday”.

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This worked on the first try!! I would have never figured this out!!

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Awesome to hear and happy to help.

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Props to @ritchierich . . . I learned the “send the line” trick from him.

Rick, this works because the GE with the add-on only needs one traveler. I am guessing that with the Innovelli or the Zooz paired with a dumb switch you still need both travelers? I’ve only used their two-ways so far.

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You’ll need one traveler for the ZEN21-ZEN24 models, but you do need another wire to send the neutral connection over and sometimes also the line/load connection over so depending on your situation you may or may not get away with having just 2 wires running between the boxes. But the set-up above is the most standard 3-way you can imagine, with line coming to one box and load coming to the other using 14-2 and 14-3 wires so you could use any of the Zooz models here (ZEN21-ZEN24 or ZEN26-ZEN27) with the differences being:

  1. When using ZEN21-ZEN24 models you could install it in either of the boxes and just send line or load to the master box, just like with GE BUT you would need to rewire the regular switch according to the Zooz diagram as well
  2. When using the ZEN26-ZEN27 models you would need to install the switch in the box with power (so Box 2 in the set-up above) but you wouldn’t have to make any changes to the regular switch on the other side.
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Exactly!

I like the Levitons because they’ve got a “mini-paddle” on both the primary and add-on that operates the dimmer. Makes it more obvious and convenient. Just ordered 2 sets.

I also found that Amazon has the GE/Jasco Enbrighten 2nd generation available in a set of primary plus add-on for only $48. Ordered one of those sets too.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07X5F2XW4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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