Leviton Decora Good Z-Wave 800 evaluation: It is OK to say no to Wi-Fi

Greatest Costs Right now: Leviton Decora Good Z-Wave 800 Dimmer (mannequin ZW6HD)

₹9,531.22

Good lighting controls that function over Wi-Fi are nice, as a result of they don’t require a hub; they join on to your router. The draw back is that they have to compete with all of the different shoppers on your house community: Your computer systems, gaming consoles, media streamers, sensible audio system, residence safety cameras, sensible plugs, and lots of, many extra.

I dwell in a really small residence—lower than 800 sq. toes—however there are nonetheless greater than 80 units linked to the Eero 6 router in my Ring Alarm Professional. Provided that the Eero 6’s sensible restrict is 128 shoppers, there simply isn’t a whole lot of room for gentle switches and dimmers. Therefore, my affinity for Z-Wave, the linked residence expertise on the coronary heart of Leviton’s Decora Good Z-Wave product line.

I first embraced Z-Wave after I constructed a wise residence from the bottom up again in 2007. A Z-Wave hub will take only one slot in your router’s consumer checklist whereas managing as much as 232 Z-Wave shoppers. And in contrast to Wi-Fi and Zigbee, which each function within the 2.4GHz radio spectrum, Z-Wave units use spectrum within the 900MHz frequency vary, which isn’t solely lots less-crowded, but additionally renders Z-Wave indicators much less inclined to being absorbed by a house’s constructing supplies. For the in-wall Leviton Decora Good Z-Wave dimmer and on/off change reviewed right here, Leviton specifies a variety of fifty toes from some other Z-Wave system or your house’s Z-Wave hub.

In contrast to Zigbee, Z-Wave isn’t a part of the Matter ecosystem—and I actually don’t care. I’m not throwing shade at Matter right here; I simply haven’t discovered that customary to be important to how my sensible residence operates. I’m an iPhone consumer, and it might be nice to have all my sensible residence units integrated into my Apple Residence app, however I’m additionally an Alexa consumer and I exploit voice instructions spoken to my Echo sensible audio system way more typically than I pull out my smartphone and faucet on its display—or summon Siri—to function my sensible residence units.

Michael Brown/Foundry

Provided that the assorted generations of Z-Wave comprise an put in base of greater than 100 million units, in accordance with Silicon Labs, it’s only a matter of time earlier than somebody comes out with a Z-Wave-to-Matter bridge. I’m not solely keen to attend for a Z-Wave-to-Matter bridge, however I’m additionally not satisfied I’ll ever actually need one.

Specs

Each the Decora Good Z-Wave Dimmer 800 Collection (mannequin ZW6HD) and the Decora Good Z-Wave Change (mannequin ZW15S) use the latest-generation Z-Wave 800 chipset, which is backward-compatible with each earlier model of Z-Wave, and the Z-Wave Plus protocol. As for the Z-Wave hub I exploit, I selected a Vivint Good Residence panel as the muse for my first sensible residence in 2007, and I had it put in in my new residence after I moved from California to the Pacific Northwest within the fall of 2023.

You don’t want a professionally put in sensible residence system to make use of Z-Wave units, after all; there are various, many DIY options, together with Ring Alarm Professional, LG’s Homey line, Residence Assistant, Samsung SmartThings (Samsung’s earlier hub and Aeotec’s model that’s; the newer Samsung SmartThings Station doesn’t have a Z-Wave radio).

Maybe crucial factor that you must learn about these Decora Good merchandise is that they rely upon the presence of a impartial wire within the field the place they’ll be put in. In case you don’t have that and may’t carry a impartial wire to the field, you may need to contemplate considered one of Lutron’s Caséta or Diva Good merchandise. In addition they rely upon a hub—Lutron’s personal, which isn’t appropriate with a Vivint system—however they don’t rely upon impartial wires.

Michael Brown/Foundry

Each the dimmer and the change can deal with incandescent masses as much as 600 watts, LED and CFL (compact fluorescent) masses as much as 300 watts, and MLV (magnetic low voltage) masses as much as 600VA (volt amps). These are each paddle-style switches that include white paddles mounted on the system that you may swap out with an ivory paddle that comes within the field. If you’d like one thing different than white or ivory, you should buy color-change kits in gentle almond, grey, brown, or black for about $4 every.

The economic designs of the dimmer and change are essentially barely completely different. Each have a small inexperienced LED centered beneath their paddles that glows when the system is receiving energy. These make the switches straightforward to seek out at the hours of darkness. The Dimmer has a stack of seven inexperienced LEDs to the left of the paddle that gentle up in sequence when the change is turned on (lighting up from backside to prime), turned off (from prime to backside), or when the dimming stage is modified (the LED representing the brightness stage glows brighter than the opposite six). Dimming the linked load is achieved by urgent and holding the underside of a slim toggle on the right-hand aspect of the paddle; doing the identical to the highest of the toggle will increase the sunshine output. The vertical orientation of the dimmer mechanism is an enchancment over the horizontal toggle on earlier-generation Z-Wave dimmers.

Set up and setup

I put in each switches as single-pole units, however each may function in 3-way eventualities the place the linked load could be managed by a change—or switches—at different places within the room. In a 3-way set up, nevertheless, you’ll have to buy considered one of Leviton’s “companion” switches: the Leviton DD00R Wired Dimmer Companion or the DD0SR Wired Change Companion (road priced at about $23 and $17 respectively).

The Decora Good Z-Wave dimmer and change each have pigtails (line, load, impartial, traveler, and floor) that you simply’ll connect with {the electrical} wiring in your house utilizing the offered wire nuts. Whereas each units are significantly bulkier than their dumb counterparts, I had no drawback stuffing them aspect by aspect again into field after I’d made the required connections.

Michael Brown/Foundry

Each switches include two-piece wall plates that cover the screws that connect them to the switches (you screw one piece to the change after which snap on the second piece that’s uncovered to the room), however I couldn’t use them as a result of I put in each switches in the identical field. I made a run to the ironmongery shop to purchase a standard 2-gang wall plate, which value lower than $3. I might have opted for considered one of Leviton’s “screwless” wall plates, however the retailer didn’t inventory them and one would have value greater than twice as a lot as the traditional plate, even on Amazon.

The following step is to enroll the units to your Z-Wave sensible residence hub of alternative. Doing so with a Vivint sensible residence panel requires contacting buyer assist, which I did by way of on-line chat, and asking them to supply entry to the installer’s menu on the management panel. When you’ve offered your verbal password, they’ll unlock the panel and supply the installer password wanted for the following step. You received’t have to contain anybody else in case you have your personal Z-Wave hub. In both state of affairs, you’ll provoke pairing on the hub, then push a button on the change so as to add the system to the hub’s Z-Wave routing desk. Rinse, lather, repeat for every new Z-Wave system you want to add to your system.

Efficiency

There’s not lots to say in regards to the efficiency of the Leviton Decora Z-Wave change, aside from it really works. I linked it to pair of dumb BR30 LED ceiling lights in my hallway, and it dutifully turned them on and off: on the change itself, with the Vivint app and on the bodily Vivint management panel, and with Alexa voice instructions (I have to say “Alexa, inform Vivint to activate—or off—the hallway,” however that’s a Vivint factor). You are able to do the identical with a “Hey Google” command in case your sensible residence revolves round Google Residence.

Michael Brown/Foundry

The identical is true of the dimmer, besides that I can specify within the Vivint app, management panel, or as a part of my voice command the share of brightness at which I need the dual LEDs within the linked ceiling fixture to glow). Extra importantly, the dimmer management to the appropriate of the first paddle easily dimmed and brightened the linked LED bulbs and the corresponding inexperienced LEDs to the left of the paddle precisely displayed the brightness stage. Tapping the paddle to show the bulbs does so immediately however tapping it to show them off progressively dims them till they’re off—after somewhat greater than 2 seconds. At no level did any of the LED bulbs flicker or behave erratically.

This evaluation is a part of TechHive’s in-depth protection of one of the best sensible lighting controls.

Must you purchase the Leviton Decora Good Z-Wave 800-series?

In case you’ve settled on Z-Wave as your sensible residence ecosystem of alternative, nobody makes higher lighting controls than Leviton. The Leviton Decora Good Z-Wave Dimmer 800 Collection (mannequin ZW6HD) and the Decora Good Z-Wave Change (mannequin ZW15S) characteristic the newest technology of Z-Wave 800 chips, they usually’re robustly constructed, straightforward to put in, and appropriate with a variety of sensible residence and residential safety hubs.

Whereas Leviton doesn’t provide Z-Wave 800 in-wall retailers or fan-speed controllers, or plug-in dimmers and sensible plugs with the newest technology of Z-Wave silicon, it does provide these system sorts with earlier generations of Z-Wave expertise, and people merchandise are totally interoperable with these new ones.

Leviton is likely one of the largest producers of sensible lighting controls, and it was one of many earliest adopters of Z-Wave expertise. You should buy its Z-Wave 800 sensible dimmer and change with confidence.