I purchased 4 Zooz Zen27 V3 dimmers to replace my old but reliable non-plus dimmers. As soon as I installed them I noticed how cheap and flimsy the toggles felt. So far, 3 of the 4 dimmers have failed within 2 weeks of installation. These were installed in in the same locations where the previous dimmers have performed perfectly for 5+ years. In one case, it completely locked up and would not respond to either Z-wave or physical toggling. The 3rd switch has now failed. It responds to Z-wave, but not to physical toggling. All 4 of these switches are now being replaced with GE/Jasco switches. Not happy with Zooz and will not be purchasing their products in the future.
Tagging @agnes.zooz - so she can respond to your experience.
But as a counterpoint, I have several Zooz dimmers and switches (Zen22, Zen21, Zen30). The oldest among the date back to 2016. None of them have failed.
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Interesting. Totally different than my experience as well.
I've only had a few failed devices to date, one Leviton Switch, and 4 or 5 GE/Jasco Enbrighten in wall zigbee outlets and 1 of their Zwave Plu enbrighten outlets.
To be fair, the Zigbee outlets died due to some sort of electrical Surge, and the Zwave one may have died for the same reason. But the Zooz? Solid.
Having said that, I almost never touch many of the smart switches, as they are all automated...but they don't seem any more flimsy (to me) than other brands, and are dramatically better feeling than an older generation Jasco/Honeywell Zigbee smart switch I have.
Seems unusual for sure, perhaps Zooz had a bad batch?
S
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Sorry to hear about the issues you've experienced @dean! We haven't seen any issues with the paddles but depending on the installation, whether it was a single pole or a 3-way, what type of load it was controlling, there might have been a few factors that contributed to the failure. Sometimes if the wall plate is on too tight, this may affect paddle operation. The ZEN27 uses MOSFET which is actually a more expensive component than TRIAC used by most other brands but it has a lower rating for LED lights so it's not always the best one-to-one replacement. If you get in touch with our support and provide more details about your set-ups, we'll do our best to get to the bottom of the failures. This type of failure rate is not normal at all and we haven't had a bad batch of hardware for any of the switch models to my knowledge so I'm sure we'll be able to assist here!
Thanks for the tag @aaiyar 
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This past summer I installed 60+ Zooz Zen23/24's V3s at a client's house - these are "toggle" style switches that are fairly common in our area. Short story is all but one or two are working well.
The issues I've seen are "jammed" switches which require a hard up or down push to operate - due to improper installation / over torquing AND erratic switch behavior due to using the longer standard screws for the faceplate instead of the shorter ones that come in the box.
I think they are great - The V2s have been working in my house for over 2 years.
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I have a house full of Zen 21, 26, and 27 switches of varying hardware versions. I find them very finicky for inclusion (relatively short distance to hub necessary) and having a z stick for exclusion is a must. That said they work perfectly for led bulbs and smart bulbs, single pole and three way. Haven't had one fail yet. Lost lots of levitons randomly in the past however and a few GE zigbee outlets.
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Yeah the inclusion is very troublesome but getting better with each firmware release I think. One thing that helped on some stubborn ones (V3's) was upgrading the device firmware to the latest version using a secondary controller (Z-Stick or equivalent UZB). Not sure it was the firmware itself or the act of firmware reset but some switches seemed more behaved afterwards. You do have to exclude/reinclude each updated device though.
Check with the folks at Zooz they are usually very responsive.
Well, I have installed at least 100 light switches of various brands, and have never had a problem. Don't know if these failures are installation related or something else, but I do not intend to use them in the future.
All smart switches? How many different kinds? - I'm not trying to pin you down just curious. I think the gold standard for these things is Lutron but they are very pricey and have their own limitations.
The ones I've installed are GE Enbrightens, Zooz "toggles" and Inovelli Red & Black paddle switches. They all require a bit more care (maybe Zooz a little moreso) when installing due to the internal stuff but once in are usually pretty good.
For my project I totally expected more failures and had the client purchase a little more than necessary.
I have a house full of Zooz and have had generally good experiences. Mostly Zen26 and 27s, with a few 21s and a pair of 30s. All told something like 35 switches and not a single failure. The Zen30s have been a bit troublesome during inclusion, and driver support for these could use improvement, but they work.
The only real issue I had related to using a load the switch couldn't handle. I have a Zen30 that controls two sconces on my front porch with the dimmer and a post light near the driveway with the relay switch. When I installed the switch the two sconces on the porch had halogen post lamp bulbs installed, and the switch kept locking up and requiring a hard power cycle. After discussing with Zooz support I switched to LED bulbs in the sconces, and the lock ups vanished. I wasn't aware that halogens can cause spikes in the current draw, and it seemed these spikes were more than the switch could handle. I've been careful to ensure the loads attached to my switches are within allowable limits, and haven't had an issue since.
That is an excellent point - for the project I used Enbrightens for bathroom fans as Zooz is not recommended (edit: for some switches!).
https://www.support.getzooz.com/kb/article/90-can-i-use-my-zooz-light-switch-with-a-fan/
Although the Zen30 relay CAN be used with a bathroom fan, since it's a true physical relay (I think) and not a solid-state device. Also, during a separate conversation I had with Zooz support to establish the correct switch/bulb combinations for a light+fan+night light unit in one of my bathrooms, I learned some bathroom fans can be run on a Zen21. Smaller, newer fans may be workable. Best to check with Zooz before shelling out $.
Or just read the article linked by @erktrek... it does cover this. I just didn't read it before replying 
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Yep.. the article mentions this.
... ZEN21, ZEN23, and ZEN30 switches are the only ones rated to handle the specified fan loads. ...
Rather than taking chance decided to stick with Enbrightens for those few that required it. Those switches also light up when either on or off (configurable via HE) which is a nice feature.
edit: In my prior discussions with Zooz they felt it was not a good idea in general - maybe this has changed with newer switch versions. That is something @agnes.zooz can maybe address.
We found that the newer fans produce a smaller inrush current and are acceptable to use with the ZEN21 and ZEN23 switches but our top recommendation here is still the relay on the ZEN30 Double Switch since it was built to handle fan motors.
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As the original poster, I thought I would add a bit more detail about the last switch problem. Removed old non-plus dimmer that had been working for years. Installed the Zooz dimmer. Inclusion was easy. Everything working great. This particular dimmer is mostly controlled by RM, and only occasionally controlled manually. On a few occasions I turned the light on or off manually. No problems. Then one day I tried to turn the light off using the paddle. The LED on the bottom of the switch lights up, indicating the switch is off. However, the light is still on. I hit the top of the paddle, and the LED goes off (light still on). Then I hold the top of the switch, or the bottom of the switch, to brighten or dim the light. Does nothing. Still works fine via Z-wave, just does not respond to manual operation.
Sounds like it got into smart bulb mode, somehow. There is a specific button press combination that can get it into this mode--I've had to warn family members not to mash buttons indiscriminately or they might trigger something like this. For the Zen27 dimmer, you can alter this parameter (#15) in the device configuration page by disabling manual control, OR you can get yourself into smart bulb mode by pressing the upper paddle 10 times quickly. Have you tried another 10 fast taps on the upper paddle to see if it restores manual operation? Alternatively, have you checked the device parameters to make sure manual operation is enabled? (set param 15 to 1)
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Thank you for your reply.
I checked the documentation that came with the switch and it does not even mention a Parameter 15 (or disabling the paddle). I then checked the device parameters in the Hubitat/Devices and Parameter 15 was enabled (the default). Then I checked the State Variables (configVal15) and it was Zero, which is paddle disabled. By hitting the top of the paddle 10 times, I was able to change the parameter 15 State Variable back to one (paddle enabled). As best as I can tell, there is no way to disable changing Parameters on the paddle without also completely disabling the paddle.
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This is an option I would love! A parameter that can only be set via zwave that turns off any and all manual parameter-altering options. @agnes.zooz and @Eric_Inovelli, is this possible in future firmware releases? Great idea @dean! Kid-proof and wife-proof my switches...
Yeah totally -- we have this slated for an alternate version of our firmware
This came up in our forums where someone wanted to install these in a public setting and didn't want people messing with the config button (changing parameters). I agree @eppower and @dean -- excellent idea!
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Absolutely, we have since changed the button sequence to disable manual control to a more complex sequence so it's not disabled accidentally but we'll also add a parameter to lock the button for parameter settings.
@dean feel free to send me a message if you still have any of the switches and would like to receive free replacements with updated firmware. We'll just need your original order number to get that resolved!
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