I have 3 GE 26933 Dimmers/MS (bought them at a different time but all 3 looks the same).
They are working almost 100% fine but once in while all 3 (randomly) failing to report
"inactive" condition. I am using built-in driver but I am aware about community driver
exitance. I did not try it because I think, it will not help for the problem I am seeing.
My ZWave network is very stable at this time (no ghosts, etc.) and all other ZWave
devices including battery powered MSs are very happy.
I notice, when I do a refresh for these GE Dimmers/MS they are reporting back a
correct status. So, I created a rule(s) to work around this annoying problem but
I wonder if there is a better/real solution for this phenomena.
Here is a rule example:
I don't think the community driver would help with that.
I can't really help, as I haven't seen that on my 20+ motion switch/dimmers. Or if I have, it hasn't been enough that I noticed.
Thank you for your response.
To my eyes if something happens more than once is an indicator for
potential problem.
These 3 Dimmers/MS are all from Amazon but I bought them approximately
6 and 12 months apart. It is very unlikely they are from the same batch.
Unfortunately there are no similar devises from different manufacture.
Also first Dimmer had a very unreliable communication after I migrated
from C5 to C7. But this was attributed to few ghosts and few not really
compatible devices. After I stabilized ZWave mesh everything became
very stable and reliable except for this phenomena with all 3 GE devicers.
Jasco is pretty good about honoring their warranty, the length of which, as I recall, was recently extended. Contact Jasco support, perhaps they will replace the units. I’ve never seen this on mine.
The problem is intermittent.
I cannot easily reproduce it even to convince myself 100%.
But I will try to contact Jasco.
Maybe there is a firmware update available for these devices.
Unfortunately Jasco does not give out firmware updates to end customers. Ever.
I will no longer buy Jasco/GE dimmers or switches. They are not reliable long term. At one point I had about 12 in service. But over a period of 2 years, 8 of these have died (stopped working all together) or have stopped reporting back their status to the hub. (when manually switched, the hub doesn't know the status). I hear that Jasco will replace the switches/dimmers, but I don't want to deal with maintaining and replacing these all of the time. I have six Inovelli switches / dimmers that have been in service for the last year with no problems other than they are a bit finicky to get working correctly. The problem with Inovelli is that they try to do everything and consequently they don't do anything very well. Maybe another year or two they will get things lined out. Nonetheless, I have decided to replace all my switches and dimmers (starting with GE/Jasco) with Lutron over the next year or two. I wish Lutron would also manage motion detectors, locks, doors, water detectors, and garage door openers, If they did, I would completely convert all devices to Lutron.
I’ve been using GE/Jasco switches since I started my HA journey in 2015. They have been very reliable except the 2017 vintage of switches. These have a date code sticker of 17XX on them. They upped their warranty in 2018/2019 to 5 years because IMO they realized they had a manufacturing issue with this vintage. Power outages or breaker flips would send them into the constant blue light blinking or clicking. I’ve asked them point blank and they won’t acknowledge though. They have honored the warranty and replaced all of my switches and the newer Enbrighten have been reliable.
I support you on the Lutron switches as many others will as well. But I would encourage you to swap out the GE switches under warranty and either hold them as backups or sell them via this or the ST forum or eBay to offset your Lutron expenses.
