For years I’ve thought about what it would take to switch from Insteon to Zwave dimmers, and every single time I decided it’s easier to just replace a dead switch with a new one.  Even now, I’ll probably just end up buying replacements on eBay.

But if I absolutely had to gut my entire house and start over, what’s your preferred brand of Zwave dimmer switch?  And, are you resigned to using a hub to control scenes?  The thing I loved about Insteon is being able to have all switches linked together, without a hub running a scene.  One tap of a switch and everything turns on smooth as Barry White.  None of this popcorn raggedness. 

7 minutes ago, MForman said:

For years I’ve thought about what it would take to switch from Insteon to Zwave dimmers, and every single time I decided it’s easier to just replace a dead switch with a new one.  Even now, I’ll probably just end up buying replacements on eBay.

But if I absolutely had to gut my entire house and start over, what’s your preferred brand of Zwave dimmer switch?  And, are you resigned to using a hub to control scenes?  The thing I loved about Insteon is being able to have all switches linked together, without a hub running a scene.  One tap of a switch and everything turns on smooth as Barry White.  None of this popcorn raggedness. 

Yes, you need a hub with zwave and you cannot avoid the popcorn effect though it's not as pronounced as it once was.

Any 700 series device will suffice. Currently zooz is most popular

1 hour ago, MForman said:

But if I absolutely had to gut my entire house and start over, what’s your preferred brand of Zwave dimmer switch?  And, are you resigned to using a hub to control scenes?  The thing I loved about Insteon is being able to have all switches linked together, without a hub running a scene.  One tap of a switch and everything turns on smooth as Barry White.  None of this popcorn raggedness. 

My preferred brand of Z-Wave dimmer is to not use Z-Wave, and use Lutron instead.  Solves all of the problems you describe, just ... costs a lot of money.

2 hours ago, MForman said:

But if I absolutely had to gut my entire house and start over, what’s your preferred brand of Zwave dimmer switch?  And, are you resigned to using a hub to control scenes?

Tuff question. Probably would want Version 2, 700 series z-wave given that's the latest, I assume it still is. So far I've only used GE Enbrighten, which is not 700 series, and think they're pretty good. I like the packaging as it's more like an electrical switch with screw terminals instead of pig tail wires. I want to try Leviton next, but they're not 700 series yet either. I like the looks of their plug-in dimmer, Leviton DZPD3-2BW. Also interested in giving their fan switch a try, Leviton ZW4SF-1BW Decora Smart 4 Speed Fan Controller.

I'm still confused about the extra nodes that are created when you add a z-wave device in ISY. You get a lot of extras that aren't usable and I wonder if that's just a shortcoming of ISY or the ZooZ 700 stick hub? The names are related to Scenes so is there a way to link switches together in a scene that doesn't depend on a controller? This is from the GE Enbrighten Fan switch.

3 hours ago, vbphil said:

Tuff question. Probably would want Version 2, 700 series z-wave given that's the latest, I assume it still is. So far I've only used GE Enbrighten, which is not 700 series, and think they're pretty good. I like the packaging as it's more like an electrical switch with screw terminals instead of pig tail wires. I want to try Leviton next, but they're not 700 series yet either. I like the looks of their plug-in dimmer, Leviton DZPD3-2BW. Also interested in giving their fan switch a try, Leviton ZW4SF-1BW Decora Smart 4 Speed Fan Controller.

I'm still confused about the extra nodes that are created when you add a z-wave device in ISY. You get a lot of extras that aren't usable and I wonder if that's just a shortcoming of ISY or the ZooZ 700 stick hub? The names are related to Scenes so is there a way to link switches together in a scene that doesn't depend on a controller? This is from the GE Enbrighten Fan switch.

The Isy exposes everything within the device list which is why you have those extra nodes. They are part of zwave regardless of whether or not the mfg. takes advantage of it. 

It's complicated but some zwave devices can be directly linked to another but both devices has to support that ability and class that it uses. For those that do, you're generally limited to 4 -5 devices and they must be in direct range of the controlling device. 

On 5/19/2022 at 10:00 AM, jec6613 said:

My preferred brand of Z-Wave dimmer is to not use Z-Wave, and use Lutron instead.  Solves all of the problems you describe, just ... costs a lot of money.

Which Lutron switches/dimmers would you buy?