Maybe I’m the odd duck in caring about this, but how is the responsiveness / feel / speed of the switches & dimmers?
I know that much of it comes down to the controller so please list that as well.
As for the feel, do they feel quality, dare I say ‘commercial’ grade? Many of the ZWave (or smart switches for that matter) feel chintzy and sloppy. What’s everyone’s honest opinion?
Hubitat Elevation owner here…
I have four different brands of switches/dimmers installed. I won’t name them, because I don’t want to trash a manufacturer online. But, I will say these are my go-to in-walls for everything except fan controllers and only because they haven’t finished Project Windy City (Hello, Inovelli? hehe). The feel (and color match) are at the top of the list.
They feel quality & they respond quickly & they WORK! No issues whatsoever, so far. Just make sure you have the latest red-series dimmer driver update released on 11/13. That got me for a bit.
Also, no hum (I’ve seen others mention that somewhere).
Cheers!
I have 30+ of the red series on/off installed and I’ve been very happy with them. For reference I’m using Smartthings, but that actually doesn’t matter that much because what I’m saying will apply if you walk up and tap the switch (no controller).
The build quality feels very good. They don’t feel cheap to me and the buttons feel solid.
There is a noticeable audible click when you press the button (sounds like a relay switching). This doesn’t bother me at all, but it is there.
There is a noticeable delay when you push the button. Somewhere (maybe here in the forum) I read this is because it needs time to ensure you aren’t going to hit it again for a double to triple tap, which makes sense to me. In my opinion it takes a little getting used to, but it is short (fraction of a second), but you still may find yourself reaching to hit it again.
The biggest and really the only significant thing that bothers me is the configuration switch. Because of its top right placement and the fact that it sticks out slightly passed the actual rocker there are definitely times where I go to hit the switch to turn it on and I hit the configuration switch instead. I haven’t looked into it, but my plan is if possible to make a single hit of the config switch turn the lights on as well, which should mitigate this. Also, long term I don’t plan on hitting the switch very often, I just haven’t gotten there yet in all the rooms.
My past experience has been with GE. I’ve read some people who did not like those switches, but I actually liked them. That being said I’m not upset I went with these switches instead. I believe their feature set makes them the best light switch on the market and the build quality so far feels just as good as those.
Edit: Also I just noticed that in the smartthings activity log I can see a running tally of how much power my lights are using. I’m used to only seeing instantaneous values in other products, so that is very cool.
@Wright100, you replied with exactly what I was worried about for speed. I haven’t dug into the all the zwave configuration parameters, but I’m hoping there’s a way to eliminate the scene delay for switches that you don’t care to have the feature on.
Maybe I’m old school, but when I smack a light switch, I should get light right away with zero delay. I understand why the delay is put there, but I would hope it’s configurable.
Does anyone know for sure if it can be configured for instant on/off?
@samduster - On Hubitat you can change the parameter for speed. Default it 3, I have mine set to 1. It’s not instant, but not too bad. I felt the default was too slow for my taste. I haven’t tried 0 though.
I have LZW30 (black switch, non-dimming) and it has the delay when pressing the switch. Since it can’t do multi-touch-scenes or push-hold-to-dim I don’t understand why it has the delay.
Hmmm, what exactly is Hubitat changing if it’s not configurable by the manufacturer? Could Hubitat be adding its own delay and that’s what you’re changing?
I use ST and the default also feels slow. I’m getting used to it but would much rather have a faster response. It also feels decently slower (all relative of course since we’re in seconds category) than the GE I have controlling a switch beside it and that also has the double tap functionality so hopefully, a firmware update would increase the speed.
@gbenrus25 - When I get home, I will take a screenshot. Not all parameters are configured from the config button, or at least that is what I believe. Something about not enough space in the chipset to allow all features customized from the button.
Cool thanks. Does it appear to be a Hubitat parameter or is it exposed by the device handler?
@EricM_Inovelli if it’s being exposed by you guys, is there a way to get that parameter added to the ST device handler?
Thanks
Ah, the dimmer device handler. I thought you were referring to the on/off device handler. I’ll check out the dimmer DH to see if there’s something in there that can increase the speed of the on/off also. Thanks for posting.
Ah yes, sorry for confusion. I thought it was originally about the dimmer.
I do not think he is referring to dimming speed but rather the delay there is before any light action is taken because the switch is waiting for additional clicks to trigger a scene. I dont see anywhere in the ST app to control scene wait time or disable it yet.
Has anyone found out how disable checking for scenes to speed up the switch?
@cmminear - I’m not sure if it will speed up anything or not. To test, install a switch without adding it to a Z-Wave controller. See if it speeds up any. If it’s checking for scenes (black series don’t since it’s not scene capable), then it’s most likely baked in the firmware.
That is not really an option for me as I need it connected to a hub.
It would just be for testing to see if it’s slowing down the relay from “shutting” or “opening”. I don’t think these switches will be as fast as a dumb on/off switch. There’s no electro-mechanical relay to switch in an dumb switch.
Oh I see. I will have to try that tonight. But the more I think about it, i think scenes are built in from the start because a double tap up on the switch will not turn it on. I was just hoping for a config option that i could turn off the wait period where it waits for you to click the switch a second time to trigger a scene.
Definitely understand. It was a little hard to get used to and the other half is still balking at it. Perhaps @EricM_Inovelli can confirm the possibility or not.
I tried pulling up the installation manual online for the LZW31-SN, but their site is pointing to the LZW30-SN pdf
