Ray, it’s actually in the instructions that came with the switch, and it works very well. I have 6 3-way circuits at home and they all work fine. Here is what you need to do:
On the “load” side (left on your picture), you need a regular 1-way switch. You can keep the old 3-way that you have now. Take one of the travelers (let’s say the black), and connect it together with the common (black, hot). Let’s call this traveler T1. The other traveler we’ll call T2 (red in your picture).
On the load side (switch to the right in your picture), you need to connect the wires as follows: T1 (black/white) to AC-L (on the dimmer), T2 (red wire) to YL/RD (on the dimmer), Black wire (in your diagram) connects to LOAD (on the dimmer).
On the left side of your diagram, (near top), there are two wires connected with a wire nut. Do you also have 2 white wires in the back of your switch on the right? If so, those are the neutrals, and they need to be connected to ports AC-N on the dimmer. This dimmer REQUIRES a connection to Neutral, if you have no neutral, the dimmer will not work.
So, first thing is to check if you have neutral wire in the box on the right of the diagram. If so, then you can use this dimmer. If not, then the dimmer won’t work. Typically, and depending which state you reside in and what the local building/electrical codes are, you may (or not) have neutrals in the back.
Thanks so much for your help. Answer to your question below.
“Do you also have 2 white wires in the back of your switch on the right? If so, those are the neutrals, and they need to be connected to ports AC-N on the dimmer. This dimmer REQUIRES a connection to Neutral, if you have no neutral, the dimmer will not work.” - there is no additional wire except for the 3 wires (black, white, red + ground)coming that box. So there is no neutral.
Would it be possible to make the Smart dimmer work on the left side of the diagram? If so, what would be the right wiring? As for the neutral if install on the left box, can I just tap into the neutral from the AC line coming into that box on the left?
Does anyone has a internal schematic of the Feit Smart Dimmer? Meaning how is each terminal connected to each other when it is on and when it is off? It is kinda weird to have the traveler carries 120V.
From my experience, those boxes DO require a neutral to function at all. Think of it this way: the smart switch is an electronic device, and it needs power. This means it needs both a live wire and a neutral. Without the neutral chances are very slim. Yes, at first I thought an always-live traveler was ‘odd’, but in fact it is required to work, as it is the only way to ensure the switch is always powered on, whether the light is on or off.
It seems to me you have two options:
You have another wire (Ground) in all boxes. You can ‘re-purpose’ that wire to act as neutral, but be careful how you wire it up from the switch on the left of your diagram. You’d also have to remove the ground connections from your light appliance and smart dimmer.
Try to feed a neutral wire at least between the light appliance and the smart dimmer.
If you want to experiment with different wirings, I did the following: I bought some wires/switches from the local hardware store, and built-up a mock-up circuit on my desk. I used a simple extension cord and cut it in two parts. The first half of the cord plugs into the wall and feeds my contraption, the second half comes out of the smart dimmer and feeds a room lamp. You gotta be very careful here and make sure you know EXACTLY what you’re doing. To further mitigate any risk, I would plug the whole contraption into a GFCI enabled outlet.
When you have a 3-way installation, typically it’s 2 switches, one close to the Hot/Live (left side in your dropbox picture) and Load Side (closer to light, right switch in your picture).
Thus, in your picture, the Load side is the switch on the right side.
Your initial post indicated that you want to install a single switch (on the left side). That is not possible. There are 2 options to use those smart dimmers in a 3-way installation:
1 smart dimmer instead of each of the two 3-way switches
1 smart dimmer near the load side.
You cannot use a single switch near the hot/live side only.
If the neutral is just needed to power the smart dimmer, why can’t I tap into the neutral (that goes to the load) on the left side of the diagram feed it into the AC-N on the smart dimmer to power it, assuming it doesn’t affect the operation of the smart dimmer/switch? Will that messed up the smart dimmer?
Correction, ideally I want to use the smart dimmer on the left side and regular/dump switch on the right. But I guess based on what you said it is not possible given that there is no neutral. The alternative of using just one smart Dimmer instead of two 3-way switches might be an option given that I can control this via Alexa anyway. I assume the 2nd option of using one smart dimmer on the load side require some new wiring to bring the neutral in? I further assume that I can still use the dumb switch on the left side?
Is there a smart dimmer that doesn’t require neutral? That’s would be the 3rd option?
Correct, you can run a neutral between the light appliance and the smart switch/dimmer on the right (in your schematics). This is exactly what I meant in my earlier reply. Sorry, should have been clearer.
The challenge here sometimes is that most wiring id behind walls, and at times very difficult to get to.
Correct, per the included Feit instructions, there are two options to use their smart dimmer (and I’m using both in my house).
Regular Switch on left + Smart dimmer on right (per your schematics)
TWO smart dimmers, one on each side.
In either case, both boxes must have a neutral wire available (to power BOTH switches).
Correct, that’s a valid option. If you no longer need to control the light from two locations, and rely solely on Alexa, then I would hard-wire on the two switches, and put the smart in your preferred location. If you want the switch on the right side, you can ‘re-purpose’ the two travelers to carry BOTH Hot and Neutral to the right switch. I did something similar in my house and I replaced a 4-way with a 3-way installation.
Yes, you’d need a 1-way (dumb) switch on the left and a smart dimmer on the right. You also need to somehow find a way to get a neutral wire to your right switch.
Well, I believe Inovelli makes switches that do not require a neutral. In such case, the dimmer and the light appliance are essentially mounted in ‘series’ and the light is fed a min-max voltage depending on the resistance of the smart switch. I’ve read/heard that, it is sometimes difficult to completely turn off the light as the switch needs a minimum of current to run. If it totally disconnects (cuts off power to the light) then you won’t be able to ‘wake-it-up’ at all. Should ask people on here who have experience with Inovelli, … I do not
I’m trying to follow the circuit you drew and install the dimmer on the load side. However, I have two questions:
In step 4, it says connect hot wire to both Feit dimmer ‘AC-L’ and ‘Common’ on 3-way switch. Does the hot wire here need to be the same hot wire? My line side is on the 2nd floor and load side is on the 1st floor. Both sides have the line wires. However, they belongs to different circuit breakers. If I connect the 2nd floor line wire to 3-way switch and 1st floor line wire to the dimmer. Does that mean I have to turn off both their circuit breakers to cut the electricity?
Another questions is that, I have two 4-way switches in the middle. Can you help draw a circuit how to add the extra one?
The installations for 3-way (controlled from 2 locations) and 4-way (controlled from 3+ locations) are VERY different.
Which specific installation are you interested in, 3-way or 4-way ?
The 3-way installation is fairly easy and has been working fine for me. The 4-way installation is very flaky, sometimes works fine and other times not at all. In fact (today), in the 4-way installation I can turn the light on/off only from the Feit dimmer, none of the other 2 switches controls the light. It was working fine when I installed it, but a couple of days after that is stopped working. I suspect the reason is because two of my switches are on two ‘different’ hot/lines (i.e., 2 different circuit breakers).
As you may know by now (based on all the above posts), there are 3 different ways/circuits to do a 4-way installation (control from 3 switches).
The only circuit/option I have not tried is the one below. I do not like it too much as it requires 3 smart dimmers. You have to re-purpose the two travelers (between all your switches) as AC-L and YL/RD. In such case, all dimmers are fed from the same circuit breaker. I did try it on my desk, with 3 smart switches, and it works fine. If I recall (it’s been a while), all 3 switches show up as a single one in the App, this felt odd at first, but I think it’s better that way, as it does not clutter the App.
I have 4 switches controlling the same set of lights on the upstair corridor. Two 3-way switches on hot and load sides and another two 4-way switches in the middle. My goal is to install only one dimmer on the load side.
I’m currently using the solution on the instruction and have both the 3-way switches working. However, both 4-way switches in the middle lost their functionality. I’m trying to follow Chifan’s solution on post#28 and came up those two questions above.
Your replay seems addressed one of them that it’s not feasible to use two different hot wires feeding hot side (3-way switch) and load side (dimmer). Then I have no idea how to provide electricity to AC-L on dimmer from the hot wire all the time.
I think your best bet, though no guarantee, is to try the solution given in my previous post (#50). It’s the only one that seems to have multiple dimmers all cascaded, and with all the same wirings. I’ve only tried 3 switches, not more. Because you have 4 switches total, none of the other solutions (in previous posts) will work for you, assuming I have the correct understanding of how this dimmer switch actually works.
You can try the solution proposed by ChiFan in post 29, and wou need the following modifications:
Insert a second 4-way, between the left-most switch (3-way), and the middle 4-way (functioning as a 3-way).
Note that the middle switch (in post 29) is wired as a 3-way (even though it’s a 4-way).
You still have the issue that the hot wires feeding the multiple switches might come from different breakers … and I think the dimmer does not like that. For the dimmer to work properly, it ‘compares’ the voltage on various wires … and if 2 (supposedly hot) wires do not show the same exact voltage (phase difference between 2 breakers) then most likely the dimmer is ‘sensitive’ to such voltage and will mis-behave.
Now, I have implemented the solution in Post 29 (with 3 switches only, not 4). It worked fine for 2-3 days, then it stopped working.
Hey all, I’ve installed my feit smart switch + 3-way switch and it’s working. But I did not touch the 3-way switch wiring. Should I? The pic is from the feit installation instructions. Per the FEIT directions, should I disconnect / cap the “NOT USED” wire for the left switch?
Hi, I was wondering if anyone ever found a way to install the Feit smart dimmers where there are 4 switches controlling one fixture?? (2 are 3 ways on the ends and 2 4-ways in the middle)
@Andria … Yes, in principle, post 51 should cover what you’re after. You just need to re-purpose the travelers between your 4 switches. One traveler becomes the HOT, and the other the YL/RD. You still need to connect to NEUTRAL in each box though. That layout should work (in principle) for many smart switches (cascaded). Last, I would try this out on a desk, with the intended wiring first, before going after switches in the wall.
One more detail, you have to use only smart switches, a pricey solution.
I installed 2 dimmers on a 3 way chandelier everything seems working except when turned off, it’s not turning off completely bulbs still glowing a little bit. (these are led bulbs).
Obviously with the regular 3 way switch (before the Feit dimmer installation) it was completely off. Anyone has this same experience?
I’ve seen that on my patio lights as well (LED). One of them turns off completely, the other does not. I suspect the switch is faulty and I plan on replacing it. The ‘problem’ with LEDs is that they pull very little current.
