3 way and 4 way options - Blue Series

Product Support Wiring Discussion
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1

I am in the process of preparing for a new build. I’ve searched and found some older discussions plus one relatively new one, but they didn’t quite answer my question and I didn’t want to tag on to someone else’s discussion.

In a 3 way or 4 way setup, I understand how they work with aux switches (I do this already in my current house with many Jasco switches). However, it always bugged me that some locations with 2 or 3 switches don’t always match because the aux switches are missing the LED indicators. This leads me to want to use all smart switches in my new house. However, my understanding is that this method uses Zigbee Binding (or Zwave Association in the Red series), and if the hub were to fail, that binding would break. For me, this would be a deal breaker and would have to resort to using aux switches.
Do I understand this correctly? With binding, is it as fast as using aux switches or is there a delay?

2

Yes, but also no. Both Zigbee binding and Z-Wave associations require a hub to set up but then function fine if the hub is offline.

3

Thank you for the clarification. Besides the obvious cost factor, any other down-sides to this method that I should consider?

4

In my opinion, not really. I had done the Aux approach with Gen 2 switches. When I upgraded to Gen 3 (current Gen), I replaced all of my Aux switches with Blues and group binding.