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    How are the WD100+ Holding Up?

    I bought some LED bulbs at Costco today - I guess I forgot my existing switches don't do well with LED. They do not have a neutral and require current to pass through the bulb in order to operate - at all. Leaving me with LED's that won't shut off completely. The best I can surmise, these switches require a neutral and receive their operating power through Hot/Neutral - independent of whatever light bulb happens to be installed. That is what I need.

    So it is going to be a long expensive (thousands) road to re-do my switches and I don't really want to do this again in another 5 years. I am wondering if the WD100+ switches are right for me.
    It looks like these have been sold for > than a year - so I am interested in hearing from folks who use these to their full potential; with the double and triple tapping and such, are the mechanics holding up?
    Secondly, any snafu's regarding the HS control of them? The big thing I like about my current Leviton's is they have been extremely stable and always seem to "Just Work".

    All comments welcome!

    #2
    How are the WD100+ Holding Up?

    So, here, I have the wd100+ and ws100+. I use a wd100+ and ws100+ in my living room , 3 wd100+ in my kitchen, 1 wd100+ in my stairwell with a companion switch, 2 wd100+ in my basement.

    In all locations except my stairwell single tap operates that light based on house mode (morning, day, evening, sleep), double tap operates the entire group of lights to a specific dim level based on house mode (morning, day, evening, sleep), triple tap operates all the lights in that room to max dim level.

    In my stairwell I have a door sensor at the top and a motion sensor placed at the bottom. The light will automatically turn on when the door is opened or the motion sensor is tripped. The light will then stay on for 2.5 minutes based on a timer. Closing and re-opening the door or tripping the motion sensor again will reset the timer. We don't have to touch the switch often at all.

    The scene capable features seems to be utilized in locations where I haven't added the necessary sensors or where home control is needed.

    Everything has been working really well here. In my basement almost all the lighting is recessed and I use the indoor Costco recessed lighting bulbs.

    I am actually in the process of adding control to my master bathroom and secondary bedrooms. My next major step will be to add separate wiring for the secondary bedroom ceiling fans to separate lighting from fan control.

    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    Last edited by Kerat; October 7, 2017, 04:46 PM.

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      #3
      We have over 70 of the HS dimmers and switches with a few companions thrown in as well.

      They’ve been installed and working for almost a year and a half. I’ve had two go bad and one is going bad - it loses communication with HS3 and to bring it back to life, I cycle the air gap switch to reset the dimmer.

      We do use the single, double and triple tap features of the switches and dimmers but mostly use motion detectors, luminance sensors and voice to control the switches and dimmers.

      The mechanics seem to be holding up very well but since we prefer the hands off approach to home automation, the paddles are not being used every day.

      We like the looks, the LEDs and the overall feel of them. They feel well made.

      We use Philips warm glow LEDs with these switches and dimmers. When dimming, we get all the way down to a few percent before they turn off. We are also old school in that we like the look of the light from incandescent bulbs; these LEDs have a warm, yellow look to the light. Probably around 2700k.

      Overall, I recommend them.
      Michael

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by Monk View Post
        I bought some LED bulbs at Costco today - I guess I forgot my existing switches don't do well with LED. They do not have a neutral and require current to pass through the bulb in order to operate - at all. Leaving me with LED's that won't shut off completely. The best I can surmise, these switches require a neutral and receive their operating power through Hot/Neutral - independent of whatever light bulb happens to be installed. That is what I need.

        So it is going to be a long expensive (thousands) road to re-do my switches and I don't really want to do this again in another 5 years. I am wondering if the WD100+ switches are right for me.
        It looks like these have been sold for > than a year - so I am interested in hearing from folks who use these to their full potential; with the double and triple tapping and such, are the mechanics holding up?
        Secondly, any snafu's regarding the HS control of them? The big thing I like about my current Leviton's is they have been extremely stable and always seem to "Just Work".

        All comments welcome!
        I have had Jasco, Cooper, Linear and HomeSeer switches and dimmers. I got rid of the Linear quickly, the Jasco devices were very reliable and I kept a few. Since they are not instant status, the only ones I kept were close to the controllers and were utility switches. I have had a fair amount of trouble with Cooper devices, they have almost all been replaced with HomeSeer switches.

        I started phasing in HomeSeer switches and dimmers mid-summer last year. They have been very reliable and the dimmers work well with LED and incandescent lights. We don't have any CCFL lights. The central scene device opens up a whole new world of control possibilities. Like Kerat, we use different scene controls for different functions and they are always reliably triggered. We have standardized the functions as much as possible, so the same scene in different rooms has similar results.

        They are essentially the same mechanics as Jasco, Dragon Tech, Zooz and others so I don't expect any mechanical issues.
        HS4 Pro, 4.2.19.0 Windows 10 pro, Supermicro LP Xeon

        Comment


          #5
          I can't speak to how well they hold up, as I've just installed my first set of HS switches and dimmers in my new (to me) house. I'm very impressed so far with the build quality, ease of installation, and of course the double and triple tap features. I've only started experimenting with them and exploring possibilities for events based on the central scene. I'm sure there are other threads talking about that, so a link would be nice.
          HS Pro 3.0 | Linux Ubuntu 16.04 x64 virtualized under Proxmox (KVM)
          Hardware: Z-NET - W800 Serial - Digi PortServer TS/8 and TS/16 serial to Ethernet - Insteon PLM - RFXCOM - X10 Wireless
          Plugins: HSTouch iOS and Android, RFXCOM, BlueIris, BLLock, BLDSC, BLRF, Insteon PLM (MNSandler), Device History, Ecobee, BLRing, Kodi, UltraWeatherWU3
          Second home: Zee S2 with Z-Wave, CT101 Z-Wave Thermostat, Aeotec Z-Wave microswitches, HSM200 occupancy sensor, Ecolink Z-Wave door sensors, STI Driveway Monitor interfaced to Zee S2 GPIO pins.

          Comment


            #6
            I can't speak to other brands as the HS brand switches are the first ones I installed. After a few months with them so far so good. No failures to report and "they just work" is a great description of them.

            We use double/triple tap for different things. Usually single tap controls only the local load while double/triple will do things like set all lights in a room to a certain dimmer value, or turn all lights in a room (or floor) off. Our exterior entrance areas have triple tap set to turn on all exterior lights just in case the wife ever gets spooked and wants to flood the yard with light. Or she could ask Alexa to do it for her.

            In our family room we have Philips Hue 3rd gen color bulbs in the ceiling fan. Those bulbs always turn on to 100% brightness when power is restored, so double-tap up on that paddle first turns on the lights, waits 1 second, then sends a command to the lights through the Hue hub to dim them to 50%.

            The switches themselves feel solid and well made. My only gripe, if I had to find one, is I'm not a fan of any back-stab style electrical device. I would much rather these switches had exposed screws on the sides so I could loop the copper and tighten the screw down on them rather than the current setup that tightens a small plate against the conductor.

            Comment


              #7
              Thanks All - I went ahead and bought a 5-Pack to give em a good try-out. Probably do 5 at a time till they are done. I'm sure I'll have good experiences as most of you have.

              Comment


                #8
                I am happy with mine.

                I started installing them across the house back in May of 2016. Apart from a few early issues that have been addressed in firmware updates these switches, dimmers and companions have been rock solid for me. I have had zero failures in this time and I am continuing to buy more and install them as I update each room. I do use the double/triple tap features quite a bit.

                The only complaint that I have is there is not a good solution for updating firmware if you don't run a HomeSeer controller. I'm using OpenHAB and the only way I have been able to update firmware is using the HomeSeer Z-Flash utility. (https://shop.homeseer.com/collection...nt=37821396684). I don't have a problem using the software to update firmware but you have to buy it. So to update bug fixes in your HomeSeer ZWave switches and dimmers you have to buy extra software to perform the update. To make matters worse the software is a bit clunky and arduous to use. There really should be a free solution to update firmware for a product.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by savageautomate View Post
                  The only complaint that I have is there is not a good solution for updating firmware if you don't run a HomeSeer controller. I'm using OpenHAB and the only way I have been able to update firmware is using the HomeSeer Z-Flash utility. (https://shop.homeseer.com/collection...nt=37821396684). I don't have a problem using the software to update firmware but you have to buy it. So to update bug fixes in your HomeSeer ZWave switches and dimmers you have to buy extra software to perform the update. To make matters worse the software is a bit clunky and arduous to use. There really should be a free solution to update firmware for a product.

                  How is it a problem in the switches that your chosen software, OpenHAB, doesn't support updating the firmware of devices? It will be the same for the Aeon Labs (or whatever they call themselves these days) devices and any others that push out firmware updates.
                  Originally posted by rprade
                  There is no rhyme or reason to the anarchy a defective Z-Wave device can cause

                  Comment


                    #10
                    My only gripe, and it's with all the switches from the same OEM (GE/Jasco, HS, Zooz,etc.), is with the ground screw. It feels like it's stripped straight out of the box. It doesn't turn nicely like the side screws. Minor issue, but a negative just the same.

                    Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

                    Comment


                      #11
                      RE:How are the WD100+ Holding Up?

                      I've had three and a companion in use for nearly a year and a half. When we moved, they moved with us and we added 22 more dimmers and switches. Nearly all of them get used several times a day to turn and off their main load or get double/triple tapped to control other lights. In the last 8 months that we have had the 24 running, one WS100 sorta wigged out. It would turn itself on and off in no apparent rhythm or fashion. Replaced it and new switch worked perfectly. Accidently installed the "bad" one and it has been functioning fine ever since.

                      With few exceptions, I like the WS100 over the WD100. You get two extra "Taps" that, at least for us, come in handy. Dimmers are great, but we found that we only have 1 or 2 levels that we like in most cases. Those we can put on a tap. It did take a bit of getting used to to remember that two or three taps off actually turned lights ON! EDIT: Now that the WD-200's have arrived, we're going to swap out a few switches for the new dimmers with COLORFUL lights!

                      Bottom line, 1 semi-failure in 8-18 months is not bad! Comparing that to the GE switches and dimmers we have, the HS products are vastly superior. We had a GE outdoor appliance module literally melt and then burn. Had a GE fan switch stop working after an incandescent bulb in the fan, blew out. The bulb didn't get broken, it simply came to the end of it's useful life and took the Fan Controller Switch with it. We've had 3 of the old school paddle switch dimmers just stop working. All of this in the same 8-18 months. Tried to save money with the GE (Cheaper and could use the same wall plates) and totally came out on the bad side of that plan.

                      Your mileage may vary, but the HS WS/S100's have been working very well for us.
                      Last edited by outbackrob; January 27, 2018, 12:04 AM.
                      .

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                        #12
                        YMMV

                        I have just over three dozen HS switches, dimmers, and accessory switches deployed in my house. The dimmers and accessory switches have been solid as a rock, but so far three of the switches have suffered relay failure. I have little choice but to yell a few choice expletives as I fork out more money for identical replacements that I worry will suffer the same fate down the road, as I am committed to Z-Wave and need the multi-tap capabilities, but don't know of any alternative manufacturers. If this keeps up then I'll have to do something more drastic, as I'm not going to keep throwing good money at bad relays. Hopefully it won't.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          I've got >50 HS dimmers and switches installed in my home, with ~25 more to be installed soon here. Knock on wood here, but I haven't had a single issue yet.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            I've had one WD100+ out of 5 stop dimming.
                            It had been working (same lights) for nearly 6 months. Then one day no more dimming functionality.

                            Working with support right now on it. Tried readopting, cutting power, nothing seems to work. It functions properly as a switch right now and the LEDs show dimming occurring, but the lights just fail to dim.

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