Leviton DZ6HD Z-Wave Plus Dimmer Keeps Losing Connection

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Getting a little frustrated. I have a dozen or so Leviton DZ6HD dimmers for the sole reason being that they are one of the only dimmer's I've found that actually work with my recessed lights which are the Costco Feit 4" & 6" recessed LED's. I've tried almost all dimmers out there and haven't gotten any others to work except these.

Now my issue is I have no issues really with any of the other dimmers. However my kitchen dimmer seems to drop it's Z-Wave connection every week or so. It's gotten to the point where I don't even bother dropping it and re-adding it again. I just use the actual physical switch most of the time which defeats the purpose. It's on a 3-way with another switch across the room. The switch only has nine 6" LED's on them, so plenty of power on a 600w switch. Also interesting about these in particular, is that I don't get any buzzing on any of my other dimmers or LED's with these dimmer switches. But for some reason the kitchen gets a little buzzing from both the dimmer and LED's which is odd. Not sure if it's something to do with the 6" vs 4" in use in the rest of the house or maybe because one of the dimmer is in a 5-gang box with 3 of the 5 switches being Z-wave dimmers? No clue.

Honestly I don't think I've ever been more frustrated with anything technical related than I have trying to find such a simple solution of a functioning Z-Wave dimmer and LED recessed lights. People should win awards for finding a working match that doesn't flicker or buzz or hum or flat out not work whatsoever (I'm looking at you GE Z-Wave dimmers...).

Anyways, figured I would post here and see if anyone has had any similar issues.

Thanks!

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Just some debugging info, on the Z-Wave Details page that dimmer only has a "Last Sent" timestamp and no "Last Received" like all the others.

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Off the top of my head I can think of 2 possible causes on this one:

  1. Strength of mesh
  2. Not enough draw/loose connection

Leaning toward #2 due to the buzzing. Couple of things to look at:

  • Try replacing one bulb with an incandescent to see if the buzzing stops, and then check the zwave
  • Take the switch out and check all the connections - neutral is the one I commonly have issues with
  • Get a switch voodoo doll and stick it full of needles
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I had that issue with one of my Leviton dimmers. Updating it to firmware 1.2 solved it for me.

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Hahaha I like option 3 personally. I feel like that would be the most satisfying at this point.

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Is there a write up of how to check the current firmware version and also how to update them?

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I always find these conversations funny. It is a chicken & egg thing - is it the dimmer that's the issue, or the crappy LEDs that were really designed for traditional non-digital dimmers and went through basically zero interoperability testing?

I use GE dimmers everywhere in my house. What I've found is that some LEDs are simply better than others. GE LEDs for instance flicker and don't work well at all on GE dimmers (which I find ironically amusing). With the exact same dimmers and Philips LEDs - everything works perfectly.

I will also say that every single Feit LED I've tried (3+ different ones at different times) has been a royal piece of ****. I wouldn't take/use them for free, let alone pay for them. Which is why I standardized on Philips - they always work for me, and on every dimmer I tried them on.

Anyway, back on topic. Zwave devices not working is almost always one of a few things:

  1. Faulty device (actually broken or shitty firmware)
  2. A bad repeater somewhere in the data flow (somewhat rare in zwave unless the device is defective)
  3. Weak signal (not enough repeater devices, or not in the right places)
  4. Broken/poorly performing hub
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I used the HomeSeer Z-flash to update mine. If you have a C-7, you can use the built in Device Firmware Updater to view the firmware version.

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This is so true. I have a couple GE LED Edison bulbs and figured, hey it’s same brand, they had to have tested compatibility right? Wrong. I still get intermittent flickering depending on dim level. Almost like theres so little power draw it starts to cause issues with the dimmer.

I did replace my living room recessed with the philips recessed and those are on a GE dimmer. Still get flickering at full brightness so I have to step down the max brightness setting. I’ve found the Leviton’s have a larger dimming range than the GE’s at least for my applications when I’ve tested them.

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So for some more information, I can rule out a poor Z-Wave signal as I have multiple Z-Wave devices in our main living area (open floor plan) and even multiple Z-Wave devices in the same electrical boxes as the one I’m having an issue with. Also a few 3-way devices with the companion switches as well.

I think I need to dive into the firmware and see what version they all have and if I need to upgrade that in any of the devices. I know the electrical connections are solid so that is safe to rule out as well.

*Edit: my hub version is C-5 so it seems I’ll have to do the more manual process for checking and upgrading firmware. Or buy a new hub :joy:

Thanks for all the help, tips and ideas. Much appreciated!

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