- Looking for smart in-wall switches to
enhance your smart home?
Today we're gonna look at the new Z-Wave plus
smart switches from GE and Leviton.
And the new kid on the block, which is Zooz.
Stay tuned.
(tech music)
This video is not a paid endorsement and I receive no
compensation for making this video.
All product links in the description below are affiliate
links and I may receive commissions if you purchase
products from these links.
Some of the switches shown in this video were provided
to me for free from manufacturer, however the video should
not be considered an endorsement for any of these products.
Hi again, John Stone the DIY smart home guy on
the channel that's all about helping you make
intelligent home automation decisions for your
affordable smart home and if you're looking
for an in-wall smart switch, this video is for you.
Last year I made a similar video about the GE
and Leviton Z-Wave switches and include the Lutron
Caseta switch for good measure.
Since GE and Leviton have released Z-Wave plus versions,
I decided to update the video.
There's new stuff going on so even if you've
watched the old video, it's worth your time
to see what's new.
Mainly because there's this new kid on the block.
The folks over at thesmartesthouse.com were kind
enough to send over their entire line of Zooz Z-Wave
plus smart in-wall switches.
Zooz is the house brand for thesmartesthouse.com
and so far, these switches seem pretty cool.
They also have a number of other products that you
can check out on their website.
It's also important to note that since my last video,
Leviton has updated their switch design
which makes me pretty happy.
In short, the new design encompasses a true
rocker panel instead of the old switch that
was pretty much stuck spring loaded in the on
position and to turn the switch on and off
you always had to push down to the off position.
And in case you're wondering, let's get
into why Z-Wave plus is better than regular old Z-Wave.
I left a link to a video that goes into more detail
about Z-Wave plus in the description,
but in short, Z-Wave plus is comprised of a new
Z-Wave standard and a new chip.
The chip offers a 67% improvement in range
which makes your mesh network stronger.
It also boasts a 50% increase in battery life
and a 250% increase in bandwidth.
These features should help improve the response speed of
the device as well as improve the signal reliability.
Now I don't plan to run out and change all of
my normal Z-Wave switches all at once,
but I do plan to replace them over time.
Each of these switches costs between 30 and 45 bucks,
so let's break down the prices as found on
a popular shopping website.
So when we're looking at the standard paddle-style
switch for the on/off, you can find the Zooz paddle
switches for about $33, the GEs for 38,
the Levitons for 45, that Lutron switch
is usually gonna be 50 to 60 bucks so I put
it down for 55.
Now all three of these have a three-way on/off
capability, but the nice thing about that Zooz
switch is you can use a regular three-way
switch as the add-on switch.
Now what that means is for the GEs and the Leviton,
you're gonna be paying anywhere between 10 to 18 dollars
for that add-on capability.
Where with the Zooz you can just reuse that three-way
switch to make your three-way configuration with
the Zooz smart switch.
On the Lutron side, you're gonna need a pico
remote if you wanna three-way configuration.
When we look at those paddle dimmers,
those are a little bit more expensive
even on the Zooz side you're gonna find
that Zooz for about $40.
GE Dimmer 38, Leviton around 45,
and that Lutron those prices stayed pretty consistent.
Now, again you're gonna need the add-on switch
for all of these other switches.
You don't need one with the Zooz,
however because you're using a regular three-way switch,
you're not gonna get the dimming capability out of
that secondary switch box, so the Zooz
on the primary one will be the only one
that will allow you to do the dimming,
you're just gonna hold it down and it's gonna
turn the brightness of the light up,
hold it down, turn the brightness down.
But on the secondary side, this is still
only gonna turn it off and on.
Now the nice thing about this is when you
turn it on from the remote's switch,
it will remember the last of the dim position,
but if you turn it on and it's not bright
enough, you are gonna need to go over to
the other switch and turn the switch up
manually or you're gonna need to do it
from an app or from your Amazon Alexa or Google Home.
Now when you look at these switches side-by-side,
they're all gonna look pretty similar.
Some minor differences are going to be
the way the indicator light comes in here,
I can't find an indicator light on this
particular Leviton model.
But the Zooz and that GE switch look
pretty similar.
Both the Zooz and the GE have the
fins on the side here, in case you
don't know, that's what these little
things here are, is their heat sink fins.
If you put these next to each other
into a wall box, you're gonna need to
remove those fins so everything fits
in there just fine.
So that's that.
The Leviton switch does not have the
heat sink fins on the side,
it looks like they found another way
to solve their heat problem.
When we turn these things over,
again, the GE and the Zooz are
gonna look pretty similar.
And the Leviton does look different
and you have more of the little vent slots there.
These again are all Z-Wave plus switches
and they're all pretty nice.
Now let's rock them over on the side real quick
and just look at the profile of those rocker switches.
So you can see the lowest profile of them all
is pretty much on that Zooz right here,
it's got a nice action to it.
It's kind of firm to touch.
That GE switch, it's a little more
(mumbles) of the bezel than that Zooz is,
and again it's kind of firm to the touch.
And that Leviton switch, but it's got
a nice light touch to it.
Very responsive, you don't have to push it real hard.
So it's not the big positive action that you
have to get on the Zooz and the GE switch.
But all in all, these are all three really nice
Z-Wave plus in-wall switches.
As I mentioned, thesmartesthouse.com sent me
these switches for free in hopes that I would
mention their website.
I haven't decided if I will or not.
♫ I bet you think this song is about you, don't you
That was creepy.
But anyway, there's a link to thesmartesthouse.com
in the description below.
They were also nice enough to provide
a coupon code for DIY smart home guy channel supporters.
This coupon will get you 10% off of purchasing products.
You can find the coupon code over on my patrion page,
that's patrion.com/diysmarthomeguy.
Now the Zooz switches come in these normal
decor or paddle-style switches as we
were showing you earlier.
And they also have these toggle-style switches.
And these are available as both dimming and non-dimming.
One of the things that people complain about
a little bit, and this is with all of the
toggle-style smart switches, not just the Zooz,
is that these things stick straight out.
And some people don't like that, they're just
used to all their life seeing these things
at that angle and they don't like the
fact that it sits there in the middle.
But the paddle switches, you know,
these rest in the center also but because
they're such a low profile there, you don't
really tend to notice that they rest
in that center configuration as much.
And again, when it comes to that three-way
switch configuration, not needing that
add-on switch can be a big deal to some people.
As Edward recently asked, "If I use a Z-Wave
"smart switch, do I need an add-on switch?"
This is one of the most popular questions
on my three-way switch installation video.
And if you're using a GE, Leviton or Lutron
switch, the answer is yes.
You'll need to spend an extra $15 to $20 on a
special add-on switch or pico remote.
But that's not the case with the Zooz in-wall switches.
They designed their switches to work with
a normal three-way switch in the auxiliary box.
Meaning, the box that doesn't have the smart switch.
Now take note, you'll need to rewire the
regular three-way switch, but you don't
need to purchase an add-on.
I'll be showing you how to wire the Zooz
in a three-way application in an upcoming video.
So now's a good time to subscribe.
You'll also wanna slap that bell icon
to be notified when new videos are released
or if I stream a live broadcast.
Another popular question that I get is
"Do I need a neutral wire to make this switch work?"
For the Zooz, GE, and Leviton switches,
the answer is absolutely yes.
Now I've seen advice on some message boards
that recommend using a bare ground wire
in place of the neutral wire if you don't have
the white neutral, but I'm not really
gonna recommend that here.
If you're absolutely sure that you don't have
a neutral, you may want to check out the Lutron
Caseda line of switches.
I did a video that installed this switch
not too long ago.
You'll recognize this switch as the one
that I use to control my bar light.
It's a great switch and it gets pretty good reviews.
So let's talk about how to get this Zooz
installed into the smart things app.
When you go to bring this thing into your
smart things, or wink up,
you'll notice that the instructions tell
you to turn the switch off, then on, then off.
This is a no-go according to Zooz.
The proper way to do this is to
tap on the switch three times in the up
position within a couple of seconds.
So let's get this into the smart things app.
So we're gonna come over and we're gonna
hit that little plus right there in the
upper right hand corner.
Let's...
Okay, so we tap that up three times
and you can see that the light came on,
that's annoying, and that brought it
in as a Z-Wave dimmer.
So we'll select that.
And we'll rename that.
Okay, so we're gonna go in, we're gonna
look at that dimmer.
Right off the bat you can see that you
have on and off.
And you can see that that brightness level
came up to the last level that it was set at.
And you can just swipe that around on the app.
And hit that down pretty low.
So lets see how low we can get it.
Sometimes how low the light will go is
a function of the light bulb more than it
is the switch or the app.
Okay, removing it should be just as easy.
Let's go into that Zooz dimmer there.
And this time we're going up into settings
and we're just gonna say remove.
And we'll go tap that three times.
This time I did it three times in the down position
and it has been removed, there you go.
Okay so let's go over to the wink app
and we'll essentially do the same thing.
Okay so on the wink up, we're gonna follow
the same process.
This time we're gonna go down to
add a device.
Scroll down here to lights.
And you won't see the Zooz on here.
I'm gonna have a little bit of fun.
I'm just gonna actually click the
GE in-wall smart dimmer.
Just for fun.
Connect now and we're gonna tap up
three times on top of that switch.
And we have a success.
Done.
So that's the thing.
I believe personally, that the way
wink does this, is as long as the device
is similar to the one you're trying
to pair, it's gonna bring it in just fine.
So you don't have to worry about it too much.
We could have just used a generic Z-Wave switch
and that should have worked as well.
But in this case, I just wanted to try using
the GE and it did fine.
So we'll bring that in, there it is.
So it's the one called light bulb.
We are going to turn that light bulb off
and it's gonna ramp down.
Now the folks over at Zooz also told me that
at this time you can not control the ramp rate
of that switch, however they are working on
a firmware update to allow you to do that.
So we'll be looking for that very soon as well.
But again, same features that you'd have
here in the wink up, turn it off and on,
as well as control that brightness level.
So I gotta admit, the last product that had
me this excited was the Innovelis two channel
plug-in module.
So it's definitely worth checking out.
If it passes my lab burn in test,
this is my new go to wall switch.
Especially considering the price.
And don't forget to check out my patrion
page for the 10% off coupon code.
Thanks again to thesmartesthouse.com
for donating these switches for this video.
For more reviews, tips, and smart home products,
visit azhb.com
Don't forget to subscribe and don't forget to click live.
Over here are a couple of other videos that you might enjoy.
And thanks to all of you that already support me
over on patrion.com/diysmarthomeguy.
Until next time, cheers.
That was creepy.
For more infomation >> Smart Forfour 52 kW Joy Edition - Duration: 0:58. 
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