GE CYNC Smart Light Switch, Paddle Style, Neutral Wire Required, Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi 4-Wire Switch, Works with Alexa and Google (1 Pack)

I was installing this to control our porch lights. I had wanted smart switches to replace a number of existing switches in our older home. However, all of the ones I had previously reviewed required the neutral wire, which we do not have. So, I was very happy to find the GE Cync which does not need it.Installation was straightforward. Only took about 15 minutes after I figured out how the existing switch was originally wired. The switch is controlling 3 LED lights on the porch. I had no issues installing, the app worked immediately, the device was added to Google Home, and I was able to control the lights by voice, through the app, through Google Home, and of course manually flipping the switch. There are other traditional non-GE Cync switches on the circuit, and everything seems to play nicely with each other.I'm very happy at this point.Update 1/9/23:I've installed the second switch controlling an outside light above our garage. Initially it had a 60 watt LED and using only 5 watts, was below the 15 watt required minimum and so it was flickering. I swapped for a 300 watt equivalent, 33 watt actual, and it worked fine.I set up a scene/routine to turn the porch and outside garage lights on 30 minutes after sunset, and off a few hours later. Works with no issues whatsoever.Having seen these work, becoming more familiar and comfortable with them, understanding the benefits, I ordered another 12 GE Cync switches of various flavors and will probably add more over time. Our 1960s home has many of the original switches, and it's wonderful that we can bring it in to the modern age without much effort, even with the old wiring.Update 1/17/23I now have 12 switches installed and working well, and more received and waiting to be installed. Since I'm doing so many of these, I thought I'd pass along lessons learned that may help others.3-way works just fine. As another comment/reply mentioned, travelers aren't needed. By default, all lights within the same grouping will be switched on/off when any of the switches in the group is toggled. Just wire each independently and handle the 3-way functionality within the app and/or Google Home.In one bedroom, we have track lighting, where there is a power adapter/injector at one end that plugs into a wall outlet controlled by a switch. The GE Cync switch works in this configuration. Don't plug anything else in to the outlet controlled by the switch. We originally had six 60 watt equivalent LEDs in the track lighting (8.5 watt each) and the switch did not like the configuration at all through the wall outlet. I swapped out one of the LEDs for a traditional 60 watt incandescent, and it now works fine. The incandescent and five LEDs are all 60 watt soft white and you cannot tell any difference between them at all.If you have multiple switches in one room, by default, without changing any settings, using any of them manually by hand will control all of them. If you want them to be independent, then put each in its own group within the app. Within the app, all the switches in a single room can be controlled as a group (flipping the on/off toggle) or individually (click into the room and then flip the individual light). This is the same within Google Home.If you run into trouble with flickering, try using more powerful bulbs. I believe folks are seeing this so frequently because they are using LEDs and there's really no guarantee what they are drawing, no matter what the info/spec says on the product page - most are cheap Chinese. If you're using the switch on a single LED bulb, be aware that it's going to need to be 150 watt equivalent if not more to get you above the 15 watts minimum. If more powerful LEDs don't do it for you, then fall back to a lower power incandescent. If you have one switch controlling a bunch of LEDs and have issues, then change just one of the LEDs for an incandescent and it will resolve. I did this with the track lighting previously discussed as well as another location where there were only LEDs in a string.In our kitchen, we have two switches (dual gang) which are about 4 or 5 feet from the microwave. When the microwave is used, both switches lose network connectivity.If you purchased used/like new switches, the person who returned it likely tried setting up already. Out of the box, it will likely not be in setup mode when you put power on it. Hold the button or switch in the on position for at least 10 seconds and then let go, the indicator light should then flash blue for setup mode.I have found QA to be iffy. I've successfully installed 12 so far. I've returned 3. Two were "Used Very Good" and were defective. This was no fault of Amazons since these were from third-party sellers on the site. The third that was returned was new out of the box and electrically would not power the lights. So, keep this in mind, as there are lots of used ones and this should alert you to the fact that folks are returning many of these for one reason or another. Also, factor this in when you purchase - depending on the price differential, for a few extra dollars it may save hassles and headaches if you just buy new.DW ordered some Kasa smart plugs. I told her to give them to friends or family, I'll buy the GEs so we can have it integrated with the GE app.We continue to be very happy with all of it thus far.Update 1/25/23We now have over 20 devices installed and doing well. For those asking if the switches work with fluorescent bulbs - yes, for me it is. In my garage, we have four sets of four four foot fluorescent tube bulbs - ceiling mounted shop lamps. I was unsure if the GE Cync switch would work, but I decided to try. One thing to be aware of - depending on the ballast, it may or may not work well. On three of our four sets, the switch worked fine. However on the fourth set it was making some percolating sounds and kind of flickering. I realized that a few years ago on the three working sets I had replaced the 40 year old magnetic ballasts with newer GE electronic ballasts. The fourth set still had the old magnetic ballasts. I had the replacements, just never got around to replacing. So, I took 30 minutes, replaced the old heavyweight magnetic ballasts and then all four sets work fine together on the one paddle switch. Additionally, with the fourth set, the bulbs appeared to be dim and kind of burned out. It's now nearly impossible to get fluorescent tube bulbs. My local hardware store had LED drop in replacements, so I gave them a try, and they worked great in the shop lamps with the new ballasts as well as with the switch. No problems.

I bought one of these switches because I liked the designed. Installation wasn't too difficult, set up in the app was not the easiest but not overly difficult. The first one I bought was a dimmer switch with motion sensors, but I also bought multiple on-offs later.The dimmer switch with motion sensor was an absolute nightmare. GE says you should use at least a 15w bulb, or use the adaptor: "3-Wire Switches and Dimmers have a 15W minimum load requirement. Depending on the bulb type or the wattage of your lights, you may experience functionality issues that would require the use of the Cync Bulb Adapter (included in box)..."No problem, I bought 2 15W LED bulbs and hooked them up to the dimmer switch - for those keeping track that's DOUBLE the wattage listed as required. I STILL had issues with lights flickering, and the switch losing power. I then installed the adapter - so that's 30W of bulbs AND the adapter. STILL had problems with the lights flickering and the switch powering off.I disabled the motion tracker entirely from the app, making the switch just a dimmer switch. All the problems went away, didn't even need the adapter anymore. So while the switch appears to have around a 15W minimum, the motion tracker MORE than triples that requirement.So, after fixing my issues with that switch, I bought a bunch of dimmer and non-dimmer switches. I've had them installed in the house for a couple months now. They work pretty good, occasional issues with a switch not turning on when pressed, but a second press solves it. Might seem like I'm not hitting the button the first time, but the button makes an audible click when pressed, so it's definitely getting pressed.Everything else is good - until today. Randomly during the day, every light switch indicates it can't get WiFi. It can get WiFi, it's on WiFi, I can actively turn them on and off from the app without issue, but they're all indicating they have no WiFi. Worse still, they're drawing extra current for some reason, making some lights that never had issues before flicker when they're off. WiFi was working fine - connected via my phone to WiFi and it was fine, ran Netflix via my WiFi on TV and it worked fine. But all the light switches still indicated an issue.I tried factory resetting one of the switches so I could reconfigure it but that was a mistake. Once it had gone into setup, the app refused to find it. It could still find all my other lights, but even while the reset light was blinking blue (indicating it was ready to be setup), the app would not find it.Ultimately, I had to turn the breaker off to all my light switches to get them to reset, and I was able to reconfigure the one I had reset. Only trouble now, the one I reset now randomly turns off when the light is on. I can solve it by changing the bulb type (to the wrong type), but it causes the light to make an extremely loud buzzing noise, so I assume it's doing something it shouldn't be.All in all, it's turned into a total nightmare. I can't possibly recommend these switches. For the cost, they shouldn't have anywhere near the problems they have. They're $50+ a switch - at that price, they should be FLAWLESS.EDIT:My problems only got worse. I now have multiple switches that will not respond at all, cannot be factory reset, can't be operated through the app, and won't start functioning when I power cycle the breaker.This is effecting switches on different breaker boxes and in different rooms. 1 of the switches is a 3-way with another GE switch and the other switch works fine, so this isn't a light wattage issue. One of the non-functioning switches is in an electrical box with another GE switch that still works fine (including through the app) so it's not a wifi issue. The switches have just stopped working - they're completely dead.These switches are defective. They're not worth $5 - yet alone $50.