Need help in deciding which switches to purchase to complete my install

[mjarends]

I have a large number of the LZW30-SN and LZW31-SN’s (both are Z-Wave 500 series) installed currently. When I initially installed them back in 2020, I went with the dumb switch approach for n-way’s with the intention of eventually swapping them out when Inovelli either released their own Aux switch or the Zigbee switch (which was going to have better support for these n-way configurations).

I am finally ready to upgrade my n-way switch installs and have a few questions that I hope either Inovelli or the community can help answer. For some background on my install, I can use either Z-Wave 500/800 series switches, Zigbee or Matter (although I do not currently have any devices).

My requirements for the new switches are:

Matching with the existing switches

• In my install, the new switches would be going into gang plates with the older model switches, so matching is important.
• I already know the coloring of the white paddles will be slightly different. The older models were not a pure white so they look slightly off next to my wall gang plates.
• Additionally I read on the forums that the newer switch’s LEDs are not an exact match with the older 500 series models. Is it possible to get the newer model’s LEDs to match close enough that they are not noticeable? Is there a model that matches better than others?

Smart features need to available at all ends of the N-way install

• According to the docs, the Aux switch only supports dimming/switching with the older 500 Z-Wave series switches which is why I am also looking at possibly upgrading my existing LZW30-SN /LZW31-SN switch in all of my N-way configurations.
• I am trying to decide whether I should go with smart switches on all ends of the N-way install or the smart switch/Aux switch approach. For those that went with the Aux switch approach, are there any features that you miss?

Thanks for reading and in advance for any help/guidance offered.
Mitch

[mjarends]

Follow up on this with info on what I ended up going with in case it helps someone else. Additionally I sent a similar question to Inovelli sales and they provided some good input that helped me in making my decision.

For my setup I ended up going with Blue Series VZM31-SN for all of my N-way setups so that I could use Zigbee bindings to keep everything in sync. Using this setup, switches stay in sync with the current diming levels, etc. and I get the added benefit of being able to use the buttons for additional controls, etc.

There are definitely differences between the LED lights/colors and the color of the paddles. After some trial and error I was able to find a brightness and a color that is close enough to the original white color that we were using everywhere (my wife also approved). The paddle color difference is subtle and not easily noticed but it would be great if there was an option to update the older ZWave paddles to match as they are not a pure white.

Feel free to reach out if there are any additional questions.