I bought a three of the the GE Iris (Z-wave) 3-way light switch packs. I have two 2-way light switches and a 4-way light that I am trying to install. I figured I could use the aux light switch that I wasn’t using from the other two lights in order to make the 4 way work. As far as I can tell this should be a problem. I hooked up the two 2-way switches with no problem they work exactly as expected. 2 Black, 2 white, 1 copper and they work great.
Where I run into problems, as could be expected is on the 4-way. The primary switch for my 4-way light is hooked it up exactly the same way except I have a single red (traveler) wire connected. One the first aux switch I have 2 black, 1 red, and 2 white. I hooked up the red to the traveler terminal and and 2 white to the neutral terminal. I tied the black off together, not attached to the switch at all as the instructions say no load connection should be hooked up.
The second aux switch I have a total of 7 wires. 2 Black, 2 white, 2 red, and a copper. Hooked the copper to ground, like with the other switch tied off the 2 black wires together, not attached to the switch. I hooked both white wires up to the neutral terminal and I originally hooked both red wires into the traveler terminal which didn’t work. I did some reading that indicates that one of the traveler wires is hot? Any suggestions on how I should be hooking this up or what I might be missing?
I have attached a diagram of what my house wiring looked like originally. It is 3 switches controlling multiple lights.
You cannot use standard switches with the GE/Jasco Z-Wave kits from Lowe’s. This is discussed repeatedly in these forums. You can only use the GE/Jasco switches, one primary and one or more auxiliary remotes per circuit. This also means that they do not use standard 3 or 4-way wiring. They use their own wiring scheme as described below.
You do not say which switch models you have. I’m going to base this post on the Lowe’s 45637(ZW4001 GE/Jasco 45609) On/Off switch and the GE/Jasco 45610 auxiliary remote. Below is a wiring diagram for 4-way installation of these switches.
Thanks for the response. Apologies if I wasn’t clear, I was not using standard switches as part of this 4-way. In fact I have exactly the parts you described. As it turned out I had it wired correctly the whole time, I had a bad switch. Just to cover my basis I moved the primary from my 4-way to one of my 2-way’s that was working and vice versa. The problem followed the switch. As soon as I put the known good one the 4-way everything worked perfect.
Thanks again for the response i appreciate the feedback.
Wow I literally JUST did the same install and went nuts trying to figure out what I had done wrong with the wiring as I felt I understood it all perfectly. Turned out I was correct and what it ended up being was a bad dimmer switch. Thats what i get for buying used on ebay. It was the first and only used Z-Wave device I have bought and I probably wont be doing that again. As soon I got the new one and wired it up everything worked perfectly.
Hi, I have a 4-way at home (with 3 light switches) that look exactly like this diagram. I swapped all my single and 3-way switches at home, but I just could not get the 4-way to work properly!
I added labels to the original image with “Switch A, B, and C”. Can someone give me some direction as in:
Which GE dimmer or aux switch goes to where? Especially, my question is, does the dimmer itself needs to go in the 4-way switch location? Or it needs to be somewhere else? Or it doesn’t matter?
actually , because you have friendly wiring, you can put the primary anywhere, but it is easy to explain if you do this:
Box A,
You are wiring it consistent with the way it is wired Line to Line, Load to Load, Traveller to Traveller, but you have to “Jumper” the neutral wires by connecting a short white wire to the neutral connector and the other end to the Neutral on the switch, and ground.
Box B
Connect the two black wires (short them, yes. They are not used in the GE switches, but they need to be connected) and connect the two travelers to the traveller connection on the switch and again, Jumper the white neutrals… and ground.
Box C
Connect the two black wires, connect the single traveler to the traveller connection on the switch and again, Jumper the white neutrals… and ground.
The auxiliary switches work by creating a pulse (signal) that is sent via the traveller/neutral connections, not like a typical switch (3-way, 4-way or otherwise).
I struggled trying to setup a 3-way tonight. In the slave box, I have a black/red/white/ground wire. I hooked up the Red (traveler), white and ground. nothing to jumper.
what was weird was the main. even though this is only a 3-way, the original switch had 3 blacks, 2 reds, and a white connected to it. Like an idiot, I didn’t take a picture just to have a backup. Like it was supposed to be a 4-way. For the life of me I can’t get it working. I can’t seem to find the load or line, with any combination of the black wires hooked into the switch. (same GE as this thread talks about).
I’ve done what you suggest in box A, and tried all possible combinations of using 2 out of 3 black wires connected to the switch.
Clearly I have no idea what i’m doing, and honestly, my electrician neighbor usually helps me get this working. He’s on vacation, and I figured at this point I could do it myself. er… nope.
I’m sure i’m missing some key data points here… any help to troubleshoot appreciated.
EDIT: I got it to work. Long story involving some mixed colors, a remodel, and a lot of learning on my part. :o
I just tried it again but I am seeing some strange behavior. I wonder if anyone has seen it before. So I wired according to your suggestion. Afterwards, the main GE dimmer works perfectly, but the 2 Aux switches don’t work. The strange thing is, when my light is on and I press dim on any of my 2 Aux switches, the light flickers, as if it is sending the “pulse”, but it is not dimming.
I also tried shorting the black wires AND the pink wires in Box B (the middle one) so I can isolate just Box A and Box C. Again, the primary works fine, but the Aux is not responding.
Any suggestion for me please?
[quote=“Bulldoglowell, post:6, topic:178521”]actually , because you have friendly wiring, you can put the primary anywhere, but it is easy to explain if you do this:
The auxiliary switches work by creating a pulse (signal) that is sent via the traveller/neutral connections, not like a typical switch (3-way, 4-way or otherwise).[/quote]
I just tried it again but I am seeing some strange behavior. I wonder if anyone has seen it before. So I wired according to your suggestion. Afterwards, the main GE dimmer works perfectly, but the 2 Aux switches don’t work. The strange thing is, when my light is on and I press dim on any of my 2 Aux switches, the light flickers, as if it is sending the “pulse”, but it is not dimming.
I also tried shorting the black wires AND the pink wires in Box B (the middle one) so I can isolate just Box A and Box C. Again, the primary works fine, but the Aux is not responding.
Any suggestion for me please?
I too am having this same issue. My guess is that the 2 red wires (Travelers) can not be tagged together at the 4-way location. My only question is that if this is the case then where does the extra traveler wire go? My guess would be with the line/load but I am hesitant to try that without more knowledge of my switch configuration. I could use some help.
Why not use zwave technology and abandon the travelers? That won’t work with your GE kit, but the total cost of doing it with leviton dimmers today would be about $120 (three switch locations).
I figured mine out with the pulsing issue. So there are two types of dimmer switches. If you have a dimmer switch that doesn’t have a connection to the Common line (white) It may not work with the wiring diagrams provided. Also if you are having the pulsing issue you may have a bad dimmer. Meaning you may have applied 120v power to it and killed it. This will cause the switch to work at the main but when using the dummy switch via the traveler to send the pulse signal dimmer switch won’t respond or just cause the lights to pulsate.
This gives me hope. I will buy another GE dimmer and see if that is the issue.[/quote]
Did you buy the Main’s or the kit form Amazon? There has been alot of the the GE AUX not working threads only to find out the Main switch was bad and they were purchased from a bad batch on Amazon.
Only after confirming his wiring was correct he tried other (switches mostly AUX at first) but after the 3rd Main switched everything worked. I found several other threads on here a that lead me to ask him if he purchesed from amazon and everything fit.
I got a new 3-way dimmer kit to replace my existing main switch, and viola! My 4-way dimmer set up is all working now!
I really didn’t think it was the main switch issue given that the switch was working locally. Thanks for everyone’s posts to educate me the pulsing issue points to a bad main switch! I definitely learn something new.
[quote=“jeff3lo, post:14, topic:178521”]I got a new 3-way dimmer kit to replace my existing main switch, and viola! My 4-way dimmer set up is all working now!
I really didn’t think it was the main switch issue given that the switch was working locally. Thanks for everyone’s posts to educate me the pulsing issue points to a bad main switch! I definitely learn something new.[/quote]
So for the record was the bad one bought threw amazon?
How can I get around an installation that apears to have a different neutral in one box then the other? All the switches need to be on the same neutral as the lights right?
How can I get around an installation that apears to have a different neutral in one box then the other? All the switches need to be on the same neutral as the lights right?[/quote]
It appears to have a different neutral? You need to be sure about your wires. The 45610 auxiliary switch needs only two wires between it and the 45609/45612 master. It needs a neutral and a traveler. If you don’t have two wires between your 45609/45612 and 45610 that you need to run wires or use a wireless Z-Wave controller for the remote, such as the Linear WT00Z-1/Evolve LTM-5
How can I get around an installation that apears to have a different neutral in one box then the other? All the switches need to be on the same neutral as the lights right?[/quote]
It appears to have a different neutral? You need to be sure about your wires. The 45610 auxiliary switch needs only two wires between it and the 45609/45612 master. It needs a neutral and a traveler. If you don’t have two wires between your 45609/45612 and 45610 that you need to run wires or use a wireless Z-Wave controller for the remote, such as the Linear WT00Z-1/Evolve LTM-5[/quote]
That is correct, one of the boxes with a 3 way switch does not have the same neutral as is in the other 3 way box. Both boxes have neutrals, but they are not tied to the same neutral wires (there is actually 4 neutrals (all tied to gether) in the 2nd box, and 2 in the first box. An ohm reading confirms no neutral that ties the 2 boxes directly.