I really want to get rid of the rest of my old non-plus dimmers and would prefer 700 series Z-Wave devices. Zooz seems like the best choice. EXCEPT Zooz's website is extremely confusing about compatibility issues. In particular my house is FULL of can lights. Over the years I've retrofitted all of these with FEIT retrofit LED lights from Costco. (See picture). These work super well and I've had great success with them. HOWEVER, from what I can tell the Zooz dimmers may not work with them? Can anyone give me any pointers here which if any of them would work? Zooz seems to make way too many similar devices...
They should work fine I've used those before.
I am using them as well with the Zooz 71 and 72.
I have used a bunch of other Feit bulbs and they work OK on Zooz dimmers. Just OK because you only get about 20-80% range for dimming. With the Zooz you can set the min/max range so you don't have the issue of dimming it too low makes it visually turn off. I thought this was just normal for LED bulbs, as the Sylvania bulbs I have are similar (better but not full range). I just put a dimmer on a fixture we have some fancy Phillips bulbs in that get warmer as you dim them, and those will go all the way down to 1% and stay on.
Does the Zen72 work with GE companion switches for 3 way? In other words can I directly replace the old GE Z-Wave switch?
No, Zooz switches were created as a direct response to customers looking for an alternative to GE and other brands that require an add-on switch. Our devices can connect to regular on/off switches or momentary switches (for the ZEN71 and ZEN72 models) only.
There are certain scenarios when you can also create a virtual 3-way with 2 Zooz switches where one is programmed to control the other via Z-Wave - you would need custom wiring instructions here so please contact our support for more details.
Regarding Feit and other big box brands, we don't recommend using electronic switches with them in general since they tend to cause failure on the PCB due to abnormal spikes and drops in the drivers. While hopefully the quality of their components improves, the compatibility may also get better. We also applied additional protection mechanisms in our switches in the latest version which should help these issues too. I hope that helps clear things up a little!
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It does. Unfortunately I have a ton of FEIT retrofits and a ton of 3-Ways with GE Add on switches. So, Zooz doesn't look like a good candidate for my Z-Wave Plus upgrade. Haven't had any compatibility issues with the Jasco switches of any brand or vintage with the FEIT LEDs but I appreciate they honesty here. Thanks again.
