Anybody ever encounter any Jasco/GE Zwave Plus Fan switches (14287) with unthreaded faceplate screw holes?
I just did, discovered it after I had the installation all but done.
For those that have a couple to be installed...check the faceplate holes first. Should be a tapped for a #6 x 32!
Lesson learned...lol First time I've ever seen that. But they were definitely untapped, or possibly tapped for 4/40. Fortunately a bit and a tap solved the problem, but I'll definitely check first in the future.
I’m starting hate these things. I have been hearing stories about these things failing. It finally caught up with me this weekend.
One of the switches in one of the bathrooms stopped reporting. I did the usual fix to air gap the switch but when I did the switch was dead and blue LED flashing.
I had a spare switch on hand so I replaced it. When I turned the breaker back on, the switch immediately to the left on the switch that was replaced died, complete with blinking blue LED. I was pissed!!
Planned obsolescence? Maybe. The date codes were one digit off!!
Was this with GE on/off switches? Those are the only ones I've had trouble with, and only 15xx date codes. Dimmers and fan controls have been no problem.
I am fairly sure I have more GE switches and dimmers than almost anyone on here, and have never had one fail in this house or my other house. 200+ devices.
Not that they can't fail, there are plenty of reports of that out there.
But no data I've seen shows that they fail more often than other brands.
Hey, I tried 2x zooz dimmers and 1 failed in 3 days. They must stink, that's a 50% failure rate.
Possibly as high as 15% accoring to JDRoberts... I don't think any hard data exists on failures between brands, but that's true with just about every consumer product. My experience echoes that of a lot of people. A quick search turns up numerous reports of failures, so yeah, I'm with @JDRoberts on this... These have an abnormally high failure rate. You have been more fortunate than a lot of us.
I had 4 or 5 of my original 15 fail. All GE 12722, all 15xx date codes. All upon power restore either after an outage or after turning the breaker back on.
I also have 8 GE fan controls and had 20-something dimmers, absolutely no issues with any of them over the same installed period.
And back to OP's comment, none were missing threads. The wall plate screws were tight going in the first time but they all went in successfully.
Only one of mine (so far) has been missing the threads. On close examination, it looks like the hole wasn't even drilled out properly. I had to run the #6 bit through it to get it large enough to run the tap into it.
Of course, since I sheared off one of the screws in the first hole I attempted to install a face plate screw in, I had to drill that out too... But the good news is that both holes accepted the tap, so all is well in the end.
It just caught me by surprise, as I've never seen that on (any) switch/plug before, but I suppose it's likely a common manufacturing mistake, albeit rare in the quantities these things are manufactured in!
To be fair, I have not had one of these fail to operate. I have noticed that my GE devices almost always want to be "excluded" before I can include them in my network, but my longest serving unit is 3+ years old, and has never even hiccupped.
But, post installation, I've never had a Zooz, GE, or Cooper Zwave switch or outlet fail. For that matter, considering the fact that I've mixed quite a few vendors devices, I'm surprised things work as well as they do. I'd be upset if I had the failure rates you report though!.
My devices have been on 3 generations of the ST hub, and now the HE hub, with no issues. Rather remarkable really.
If I began to have the failure rates you're seeing, I'd be definitely looking at alternate vendors, but I'm not sure I'd hop to Lutron. As cool as many say it is, a proprietary wireless protocol seems a risk to me. Lutron is a big, well known company, but that proprietary protocol limits your options. If Lutron opened up their protocol to the world at large, I'd probably consider it more seriously.
At this time though, I'd be more comfortable switching to an alternate Zwave Switch/Plug vendor rather than hopping to a completely new protocol.
FWIW, I am almost finished transitioning from GE to Lutron, all switches and dimmers are done, just waiting on their fan controls to be released to finish. I absolutely love it...it just seems so much more refined in form, fit, and function than what I was used to. Not that there was anything wrong with GE....it's like going from good to great IMO.
The first failure occurred after a power outage last summer. At the time I attributed it to a "dirty down" and did not think anything of it. That is until 2 more failed this weekend. There's not been a power outage in months this time.
I'm considering it too, but it doesn't make economic sense to replace things that are working. I've got a bathroom to build this spring and may use that as an excuse to try the system out. If I do, I'll probably relocate a few Jascos from other rooms and install the Lutrons in higher traffic areas.
