Cracking Buttons on ZEN32

[kenm]

I’ve had two plates with same crack at different intervals. I did receive replacements. The first was identical to original plate and second replacement had a black plastic spacer behind the buttons. Perhaps this spacer is to help mitigate a gap as pressure is applied to the buttons. I am very gentle when pushing these zen32s

Sounds like there's hope that I'll get a replacement but I haven't heard back from Zooz nor TheSmartestHouse. I've reached out to both.

[ewkearns]

Clearly, a design flaw. A sharp internal corner, especially offset from the point where the user presses, is a recipe for failure.

[ecetron]

Looks to me like a stress crack from the manufacturing process... Especially when they all crack in a similar fashion and all from the very distinct stress around the LED opening...

[mwoo68]

you can see crack right through the boss to the LED corner. This seems more like pressure was applied. And believe me, Im very gentle with my switches. I think buttons should be a bit thicker in plastic to alleviate this issue.

One of my replacements came with a new rubber spacer. Not sure if it’s resolved as I am very gentle with the buttons.

Looks to me like a stress crack from the manufacturing process... Especially when they all crack in a similar fashion and all from the very distinct stress around the LED opening...

[kenm]

I received an email from Zooz support yesterday thanking me for the pictures and details asking me to confirm my shipping address. I received another email a few hours later telling me they were shipping a replacement. I suspect I'll get one with the rubber spacer.

[TC1]

I received an email from Zooz support yesterday thanking me for the pictures and details asking me to confirm my shipping address. I received another email a few hours later telling me they were shipping a replacement. I suspect I'll get one with the rubber spacer.

Which would hopefully mean any units bought now would have the modification.

[kenm]

Which would hopefully mean any units bought now would have the modification.

Yes and No. They likely purged stock at The Smartest House but not sure about Amazon and particularly Amazon.ca. I need to order a new one when they have the next sale so I can check that one as well. It appears they have taken a "fix on fail" approach.

[TC1]

Yes and No. They likely purged stock at The Smartest House but not sure about Amazon and particularly Amazon.ca. I need to order a new one when they have the next sale so I can check that one as well. It appears they have taken a "fix on fail" approach.

Yeah, what's funny about Zooz products is that you can always get them from Amazon at a decent price, but Prime guarantees a fast delivery.
But if one waits for a sale at Smartest House, you can get the product at a great price (blows away the competition IMO) but pay extra for shipping (depending on order size).

Like many things in life, it depends...

[racerfern]

Looks to me like a stress crack from the manufacturing process... Especially when they all crack in a similar fashion and all from the very distinct stress around the LED opening...

Absolutely, look as it goes straight through that standoff in the middle rather than around it.

[kenm]

Absolutely, look as it goes straight through that standoff in the middle rather than around it.

The thing that would make me think it's not from manufacturing but stress due to use, even gentle use, is the fact that the "fix" appears to be to add a rubber spacer behind the buttons. If it were a manufacturing process problem you'd think they would have just re-molded new parts.

[racerfern]

kenm Possibly, but then the cracks would be random, depending on the habits of the individual owners. We'll find out soon enough after the new ones infiltrate the market.

[kenm]

I took a couple of pictures of the old vs. new design with the rubber spacer and sent them to a friend who's a mechanical design engineer Her analysis is the button has a design flaw. The rubber spacer keeps the LED light pipe, which is mounted to the button itself, from contacting the surface-mounted LED when the button is pressed. The "post" on the button that depresses the surface-mounted button on the PCBA is the same height as the light pipe, but the light pipe needs to be a little shorter to take into account the travel of the button on the PCBA. The rubber spacer keeps the light pipe from contacting the LED which removes the stress on the button.

[TC1]

Back when I was a young engineer, we had a technical term for that: oops.