- Designed for rooms, halls or staircases with light switches at both ends of the area; includes both primary dimmer and auxiliary switches
- LED light on primary dimmer shows switch location in a dark room
- For use with incandescent lighting only
- Requires in-wall installation; requires neutral and traveler wires
- Easily create your own lighting control system
Product Description
GE Z WAVED DIMMER… More >>
GE 45613 Z-Wave Technology 3-Way Dimmer Switch Kit
Tags: incandescent lighting, light switches, lighting control system, staircases, switch kit, traveler, wave technology
#1 by mb on July 4, 2010 - 9:46 pm
I’m having the same problem that the other reviewers had, which is that the light does not reach full brightness, except while the auxiliary switch is held down. I called the support number, and they told me this is a known problem, which they think has to do with the distance between the primary and auxiliary switches. But their engineers are still working on debugging it. (How long have they been selling this?) They customer support representative suggested I exchange the product for a different brand. (At least they didn’t have me try a bunch of useless troubleshooting steps.)
I do not agree with the other reviewers about the manual though. It’s fine. That’s not enough to give it more than one star, though.
Amazon should stop selling this product, since it has a defective design, and the manufacturer acknowledges it.
Rating: 1 / 5
#2 by kman on July 5, 2010 - 12:35 am
I purchased this product (GE 45613 Z-Wave Technology 3-Way Dimmer Switch Kit) last week and spent an entire weekend (~12 hrs) figuring out how to get this working. Firstly, the instructions are garbage. Besides the circuit diagram, it helps an average Joe in no way. It’s more or less for a qualified electrician to install. Regardless, I managed to install the switches in my staircase, but at first the auxiliary switch wasn’t controlling the dimmer properly. I gave up and finally decided to call an electrician. He was very confident and claimed he has installed switches like these before. So he was able to install the switch, infact, he did the same installation as I did, but I just didn’t have the patience to really play around with it to see it working. Anyway, so after the switches installed and they were in conjunction, I soon after realized that the lights were not at full brightness. Like the reviewer before for this product said, when you tapped and held the auxiliary switch, the lights will go to full brightness, but as soon as you let go of it, it will go to about 70% of its full brightness. I thought maybe after syncing it with the remote control, it’ll go to full brightness, but that didn’t help either. After the full weekend of frustration, I finally took of the switches and was thinking of burning them, but I thought why waste $$$ on such a useless product. It’s not worth the $$$ to waste!
On the contrary, I have GE’s 2-way ZWave switch (GE 45606 Z-Wave Technology 2-Way Dimmer Switch), and so far it works flawlessly. Literally, plug and play.
Rating: 1 / 5
#3 by J. MCBRIDE on July 5, 2010 - 1:49 am
I am now returning my second GE Z-wave 3-way dimmer switch set and I’m not going to try another. The auxilliary switch didn’t work with either set. The downstairs main switch is fine, dims up and down as expected. The auxiliary switch, installed upstairs, turns the overhead light on, but can’t turn it off. Instead, once lit, the overhead just flashes a little brighter when tapping the top or bottom of the toggle. The instructions were confusing so I had an electrician install the switches. He couldn’t get it to work, even after I called him back a second time. I called GE customer service who said it was defective and return to Amazon. Looks like my new unit is “defective”, too. So much for going with the “big name” brand.
Rating: 1 / 5