Eric,
Your info is correct. The problem never went away. It did get better for a while, though the bulbs in the chandelier would still flicker now and then. It may have also rebooted once in a while, but that was very rare. I could no longer trigger a reboot with multiple taps. Basically I got tired of making noise about it, and I had accepted that it -could- be the bulbs, since they are the cheap ones the builder used. Usually, taking the dimmer to maximum brightness and then power-cycling was enough to correct the flicker, at which point I could set it back to the desired level.
A few days ago when I used the chandelier, the bulbs flickered, so I tried my usual fix. It made it worse - the flicker changed to longer random flashes. After several off/on attempts and brightness changes it stabilized.
Last night when I turned it on, it was still at the previous dimmer level and it looked OK. I wanted the lights a little brighter, so I brought them up slightly. They started to flicker. So I tried my standard fix: full brightness, off/on several times. The flickering got steadily worse, to the point the lights would not come on at all. I used the air gap to power cycle the switch. It rebooted two or three times (not certain how many times it booted, I just saw the status light go through the boot sequence more than once) and then failed completely. I tried the air gap again, but to no avail. The status light does not come on at all. The main paddle does not work. The small button does not work. No smoke was released, and no unusual sounds were heard - no telltale “pop”. Naturally, this happened at a dinner get-together for my son’s new in-laws.
The bulbs are 40W equivalent LED units, rated at around 9W each, IIRC. They are dimmable. I have a second VZW31 on a different electrical circuit in a virtual 3-way configuration with the switch that failed (ZWave direct association). That switch works. It has no physical load, it’s just an auxiliary switch for the chandelier since the builder neglected to put a chandelier switch by the chandelier (the acutal switch for the chandelier, where the failed switch is, is in the kitchen. Go figure). The association works. It’s a little spotty sometimes - the dimmer level sometimes gets out of sync - but that’s minor and more likely just an RF communication issue rather than an actual problem.
I have not updated the firmware. No wiring changes were made. I could swap the remote unit to the location that powers the chandelier for testing. I may do that anyway so I have a functional chandelier again.
Kaleb has notified ZWaveproducts to replace the switch, but their initial reaction was to deny the replacement since it’s over a year old. I’m not surprised by that.
EDIT: Also, no configuration changes have been made in 10 or 11 months. The circuit breaker was not tripped, nor was GFCI triggered.