I have installed about 10 Blue 2-1s and 2 Aux switches in my home. Generally I’m pretty happy with the functionality of the switches and the automations/scenes I’ve been able to set up with Home Assistant.
However, one of the top annoyances (and source of WAF demerits) is the “feel” and reliability of the paddle buttons. I am surprised I have not found more people discussing this already (or maybe I just don’t know what to search for), but wanted to see if others agree.
My experience has been:
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The “success rate” of pressing the paddles and having the press be recognized is less than 100%. Specifically, it is possible (even common!) for a light press or an off-center press to make a “click” sound and feel like it clicked, but not actually trigger the switch to turn on. In practice I would say this happens to me about 5-10% of the time and I have to do a double-take and “re-press” the switch.
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The buttons have what I would describe as a “spongy”, “springy”, or maybe “squishy” feel that is different from a normal light switch. Specifically, you have to press the button in by a few millimeters (I didn’t measure, but it feels like too much) before it triggers any click sound/feedback. This means that if you press too lightly, the button springs back and you don’t get any click sound at all…and the switch does nothing!
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The feel of the Aux switches does not match the feel of the Blue 2-1 switches. I now have two switches next to each other on the wall that look the same, but feel different, which can be jarring. If anything, I think the Aux switches are a bit better since it feels like the amount of pressing/travel required before you get a “click” noise is less than on the Blues, and the click feels more firm, less springy.
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Just to note, I believe I have also noticed click-reliability issues on the config buttons, but this is less of an issue since I don’t use them as often, and am usually more intentional with my presses when doing so.
The reliability issues are most annoying for switches that face away from you when you walk into a room, or when you try to press a switch quickly as you pass by. For example, when I walk into my bedroom and it’s dark, I reach my arm out to the right and try to press a switch that’s now behind me on the wall, as I keep walking. In this situation there is no way I’m going to hit the switch dead center and press it with full force every time, unless I really consciously slow down and look where I am pressing. This added friction makes me have to think about pressing the switch, which for something as basic as a light switch, feels like too much overhead! With our old dumb switches, you could easily hit them without thinking about it, so long as you hit anywhere on the correct side of the paddle — you could press much more lightly and there was no need to be near dead-center.
So, I guess what I’m wondering is…
- Is everyone else having this same experience with the switches, or is it somehow just me?
- Is there any way I can “mod” my switches, tweak the installation, or order replacement parts to fix these issues?
- Is there any hope of future Inovelli devices including better paddle hardware designs to fix this for good?
I’m very appreciative and supportive of the brand and product lineup that Inovelli has built so far (thanks @Eric_Inovelli!) — which is why I wanted to share this feedback. To be honest, these annoyances (and associated spousal complaints) did really make smart switches feel like a “downgrade” from our original dumb paddles at first, and I seriously considered whether the benefits really outweighed the pain points or whether I should return them. Now that we have more than a year of use under our belts, I think we have gotten more used to these quirks. However, we’d still be much happier if there were a way to fix them, if not on our current switches, then hopefully at least in future product releases (next time I get the urge to replace another 10 switches throughout the house…lol!). Another way to put this is: I believe that the features of the products are great — it’s unfortunate that the paddle hardware makes them feel less “premium” and detracts from how otherwise awesome the devices have been (…minus my dumb bulb dimming issues!).
Also worth noting — I have not really tried other brands of smart switches, because I did my research up front and chose Inovelli based on the feature set offered. It may be that these types of issues are common among all smart switch brands — but I just wanted to offer this “first impression” feedback that I suspect may ring true for some other folks as well.