I spent last week installing several Z-Wave plus switches, and ran into a little problem with one of them. The circuit is for outside sconces on the garage, and also powers the external outlet. The breaker is an ITE pushmatic GFCI. With the switch wired up, the breaker will not reset. I tried disconnecting the load, and that did not help. After triple checking the wiring, I moved the line in the panel to a spare standard breaker and it reset as expected. I would like to resolve the issue and return the line to the GFCI breaker if I can. I found a few posts related on the SmartThings forums (with no real solution), but nothing here. Anyone ever have this issue when installing a smart switch on a GFCI?
Are you 100% sure that you are wiring up the line,load and neutral correctly on the smart switch? What model smart switch are you trying to use?
What reset correctly? The new, standard breaker? What I'd wonder is if you remove the Z-wave from the GFCI, and you reset the GFCI breaker when it's wired into the circuit without the z-wave.
Yes, without the switch, it resets fine. It was fine before with ghe standard switch too.
Okay...if you're going to make me ask every question twice, I'll ask them one at a time....
Are you sure you have it wired correctly when the switch is installed?
Yes, I already stated that I triple checked the wiring. The switch is a Zooz Zen21 Gen3. It works fine on the standard beeaker. The GFCI is likely 30 years old.I have others in the panel I could switch to see if others do the same. I will try that tomorrow and report my findings.
Is the problem switch wired with a neutral, or is it one of the no neutral types?
If it has a neutral, I would connect the line and neutral without a load and see if the GFCI still senses a fault.
Thanks for your suggestion, but I already stated that I tried that. It does have a neutral connection. It is connected properly.
When I get home, I will do some additional analysis on the circuit to check for leakage current.
I just thought of something. I might have connected the neutral to the neutral of the other circuit in that box. That would bypass all current that the switch uses! Duh!!!
For those that don't kmow, a GFCI compares the current flow on the line and neutral. If they are equal, then all is good. The delta A is fairly small... i think <20mA, depending on the device spec. Iwill confirm my suspicion when I get home, then hopefully mark it as solved. Perhaps this will help someone else in the future.
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Sorry I was thinking instead of reading.
Fixed it last night. I was correct that I tied the switch's neutral to the other neutral in the box. It is critical for GFCI breakers for the neutral of that circuit to be exclusive to the devices on its line. I knew better, just overlooked it.
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