Black Series Dimmer Switch (Z-Wave)

Inovelli makes the best smart dimmers I've seen. Good-looking, smooth to operate, it's almost as intuitive as "dumb " Lutron Maestro dimmers (which, unfortunately do not have a "smart" version short of spending a small fortune on a RadioRA2 system). I'm also pleased that these are built by a small company that listens to their customers and makes improvements in their updatable firmware (which I have already updated since buying these dimmers). So why the four stars and the "almost"? Because if the Red Series dimmers are in stock, spend a few bucks more and get those. The Central Scene feature alone is worth it in terms of WAF.

I now have 6 of these (plus a black-series on/off switch) about which I'm very enthusiastic. As I told someone, they're built like brick outhouses with stainless steel lining and fixtures! Seriously, although I don't have lots else to compare, as an old engineer (electrical), I always appreciate well-designed, well-made, reliable products, and this is in that category. The only problems have been with my (new) Hubitat Elevate hub, also a nice product, but it has had problems enrolling these switches for S2 security. Not that it matters to me, as there is no need for it here. But there was some hassle, and Hubitat has made a significant firmware upgrade since, so it may no longer be a problem.

I have 4 Black dimmer switches installed in locations that have no neutral wire and no easy way to fish new neutral wires. I am using these with an Aeotec Z-Stick Gen5 and Home Assistant with 120-300W of incandescent lights. The killer feature that prompted my purchase was the no-neutral installation and in general, the switches work well. Pros: * The z-wave reception anecdotally seems better than other switches I have, though this is very hard to verify with any debug data. * A lot of configuration options, many of them useful. Cons: * Despite many configuration options for ramp rates, the switches do not feel "instant" when operated locally. However, they are good enough for areas we don't use often. * Unfortunately, the z-wave range check feature did not seem to work reliably at all. I spent quite a large amount of time trying to understand it, but after having multiple switches successfully include despite the range indicator turning red, I gave up on trying to use it. * Using the z-wave program button on the switch to toggle behavior like the presence of a neutral wire seemed to work, but when using Home Assistant or the OpenZwave Control Panel, the state of the neutral wiring parameter always seems to be wrong. The switch does operate, so it's not clear if the parameter is in fact set correctly in the switch and merely reported wrong. These are decent z-wave dimmers and if you don't have a neutral wire, they are a very good option despite a few shortcomings.

I have installed three of these in my place, they are very easy to install, and work really great. The LED indicator is really useful. I have all of them paired with a Hubitat hub and pairing with it was really easy as well (just follow the instructions on Inovelli's support page and use its driver).

We have 4 black dimmer switches installed, all in non-neutral set up, one in a 3-way configuration with a GE auxiliary switch. We have a SmartThings hub, which is most likely the reason the set up was challenging. It took several attempts at pairing before the S2 security authenticated on each dimmer. One of the dimmers completely froze (unable to reset, no response from ST, no response at the switch). Now that is is securely connected, we have not had a problem. We have 2 more to install, and probably more to come!

If you want the summary, skip to the end of this review. I originally got this for a non-neutral setup. I figured with 6 LED bulbs, it should surpass the 25W requirement imposed on a non-neutral setup. First attempt, after successfully changing the settings to no-neutral via the buttons, I got intense flickering. I changed one bulb to an incandescent to mimic the bypass circuit, and it worked better (not as much flickering) but there was loud buzzing at the bulbs and at the switch at various dim levels. But the worst part was that the Z-wave connection was so flaky that it would often get stuck so I couldn't turn the lights on or off, either with the SmartThings app or directly at the switch. Now all that said, inovelli has clearly stated they've only tested a small subset of bulbs that they guarantee to work and my bulbs aren't on that list, so it's not their fault. I'm just bringing this up because if you have a non-neutral setup, just know that everything has to be perfect for it to work well; it's not nearly as robust as a setup with a neutral wire. How do I know it works well with a neutral wire setup? Well, I finagled my wiring to get a neutral to the same switch (and same bulbs), reset the switch to factory settings, and tried again. What a night and day difference. Even though they're the same 6 bulbs that aren't on inovelli's list of tested bulbs, they actually work perfectly now, no flickering or buzzing at all. While I still had a Z-wave connection problem at first, I excluded the switch and re-included via SmartThings and now it's flawless. As for the dimmer itself, I have many Leviton and GE/Jasco ones around the house to compare them to... mostly Leviton. The biggest improvement I have seen with the inovelli dimmer over the Leviton is how smooth the dimming is. The Leviton has a separate dimming "paddle" but it dims in increments and feels clunky. I thought I would miss the separate dimming "paddle" of the Levitons, but I'm finding myself to prefer the single big paddle on the inovelli for on/off and dimming purposes. Also, IMO, the light LED bar is very slick and informative. The Leviton also has a status LED, but it's very small and isn't used to as high of a potential as the inovelli. Features-wise though, they both capture all the most used ones, like min-max dim levels, dim speed, on/off default dim levels, etc... so it's a tie there. One last thing, I also do really like the extra "setup" button. While it might be a little easy to accidentally touch, it makes setting things up and checking basic Z-wave connectivity a breeze. In summary, in a neutral setup, these switches work great, just as great, if not with a slight edge over my tried and true Leviton Z-wave dimmers. In a non-neutral setup, they don't seem nearly as robust. The standout feature to me is how smooth it dims as well as how slick the switches look. They also come very nicely packaged, including a short neutral jumper wire, which was a great touch!