I have a GE z-wave switch that bit the dust today, blinking blue LED and won't respond to digital or physical on/off commands. I know that it's bad to force remove devices, but I don't think I have a choice here, it won't exclude. What's the best thing to do here?
if it doesn't let you do anything, I can't see any other way either. Following
My thought is to put it in exclude mode and tap up down up on that switch. You probably already tried that, though. If that doesn't work, then ... kick it.
Option 1: Buy a replacement. Shutdown hub, move USB radio stick to: Open Zensys Tools (windows) or OZWCP (linux/rPi) and perform a REPLACE.
[ REPLACE is a two step process.. first, get it to land in the Failed Devices list of the controller by clicking "has failed" til it agrees that it has. Then you can a) remove or b) REPLACE which assigns the old device's address to the new device, thus leaving your automations intact. ]
Option 2: Force
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Yep tried that...no luck.
Will the device eventually be removed from the stick if I do this?
IMHO agree with you. There is no choice. Why is it bad? Asking for a friend.
This is the 3rd or 4th GE switch I've had do this when powering back on. 2 were from power restore after an outage, other two (including this one today) were from turning the breaker back on after doing other wiring work. No idea what causes it.
Mixed results. Bruce says they will, several people have had to resort to "Has Failed + Remove" to clean up their sticks. I haven't had that occur recently so I can't say what the current Hub Firmware will do. Back in May.. yes, I can answer for back then.. not much good today though 
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Did you pop the airgap? It's not explicitly mentioned. Also, if this is the 3rd, are the previous two available to see if they work now, after weeks have passed?
The question is, how old are they? Wondering if he hit the "2 years mark" that some people predict, the failure rate of these GE switches increases exponentially. I am counting my days. I have a house full of these and knock on wood, I only lost 3 or four in over three years 
I am waiting for the doomsday so I can replace mine with Z Plus...
@bobbyD
I have several from 2014 and all of them are working the same as they did back then.
Is it just the switches or both switchs and dimmers?
As the rumour has it, the 127xxx models are the ones that appear to have an increased failure rate after the two years mark. Now that you've mentioned 2014, I need to update the period I had mine, is 5 plus years, not three. Time is flying lol
Yep, popped the air gap, tried breaker back off and on again, no change. I haven't saved any of the old ones, just pitched them after replacing.
2+ years. They have all had 2015 date codes on them. I think I purchased in early-mid 2016. I'm not sad about it, gives a good excuse to replace old models with Plus models like you said.
Just switches so far for me, model 12722. None of my 12724 dimmers have failed so far.
Failed switch has been force-removed, and a new Plus switch is in it's place. Automations moved over, and z-wave repair running. Thanks for the feedback. And @csteele I like hearing the technical solution using the software to access the stick, even if I don't follow it
Interesting fact, the ones I lost were also switches. None of the dimmers. They either started blinking like yours, or went into a neverending clicking noise on their own.
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