How To Program 2 Zooz Switches In a Virtual 3-Way With Regular Bulbs

Zooz switches were designed to connect to regular mechanical wall switches in 3-way installation to simplify the installation and reduce your product cost. But in some cases, you may want to use 2 smart switches to control the same light instead. Never use the wiring diagrams in the manual to connect 2 or more Zooz switches together. Please follow these wiring instructions if you would like to use 2 smart switches in a 3-way set-up with regular bulbs (click here for instructions featuring smart bulbs).

You can connect any Zooz models in a virtual 3-way when using regular bulbs. Remember that dimmers need to be connected to high-quality dimmable LED bulbs or incandescent bulbs only. The recommended models for virtual 3-way installations are the ZEN71 on/off switch, ZEN72 dimmer, or ZEN32 Scene Controller. These models don't rely on current readings to change and maintain status and will allow you to program your smart switches with the most flexibility, regardless of the hub you use.

Here are the most common use cases for this scenario:

Dimming from both locations in a 3-way. Instead of using an on/off switch, you can use 2 Zooz dimmers and have one of them control the bulbs directly and the other dimmer control the primary one via Z-Wave using direct association or central scene commands (scroll down for detailed programming instructions).
Uniform look and feel on all of your switches. All of your wall controls will look the same and the light will always be turned on by pressing the top paddle and turned off by pressing the bottom paddle. Looking at all of you Insteon folks out there!
Multi-tap triggers aka scene control available from both locations. Both of your switches can now be programmed to trigger scenes and other devices with double tap or held-down triggers.
You only have a 14-2 romex with 2 wires instead of 3 traveling between the 2 boxes which prevents you from installing your smart switch with a simple on/off switch safely. To address this limitation, it's always easier (and cheaper!) to create a virtual 3-way rather than pulling an additional wire between the boxes.

Please click here for wiring instructions of your virtual 3-way set-up.

Once the switches are wired, you'll be able to control your lights from the primary switch or dimmer. This is the dimmer that has the load connection in. The remote switch/dimmer (the one that only has line, neutral, and ground in) will need to be included to your hub and programmed to control the main device via Z-Wave first.

You can program the virtual 3-way in 3 different methods:

1. With direct association where the switches are linked together and communicate outside of the hub. Your Z-Wave system needs to support this feature and both switches need to be added to your hub with the same level of security. We recommend that you use the ZEN72 or ZEN77 models with the latest firmware for this scenario and program them according to the instructions below for the best experience:

Dimmer Instructions
- Main dimmer (connected to load): no changes in settings
- Remote dimmer: set parameter 7 to value 11 - this is a new parameter that hasn't been added to selected platforms yet so you can accomplish the change by clicking the bottom paddle 4 times quickly after you add the dimmers to the hub (the LED indicator will flash 3 times to confirm the change - it will only do that the first time the change is activated so watch closely)
  - Home Assistant Users Only: If using 2 x ZEN77, you will need to Enable Smart Bulb Mode on the REMOTE dimmer only (Parameter 15 set to Value 0)
- Set direct association for Group 3 only, adding the device ID's for other dimmers in the group. So if dimmer A is your main dimmer and dimmer B is your remote dimmer, add dimmer B to Group 3 on dimmer A and add dimmer A to Group 3 on dimmer B.
- IMPORTANT: The remote dimmer can then only be used from the paddles (you need to hide it in your interface not to trigger it via Z-Wave) while any Z-Wave or wireless control of the light needs to happen from the main dimmer A. This will ensure both devices stay in sync at all times.
  - SmartThings users: , Group 2 can be programmed in the Basic Set Assoc. Device Network ID setting, and Group 3 can be programmed in the Multilevel Set Assoc Device Net ID setting.
On/Off Switch Instructions
- Main & Remote switches: no changes in advanced settings
- Set direct association for Group 2 only, adding the device ID's for the other switch in the group. So, if switch A is your main switch and switch B is your remote switch, add switch B to Group 2 on switch A and add switch A to Group 2 on switch B.
- IMPORTANT: The remote switch can then only be used from the paddles (you need to hide it in your interface not to trigger it via Z-Wave) while any Z-Wave or wireless control of the light needs to happen from the main switch A. This will ensure both devices stay in sync at all times.
  - SmartThings users: Group 2 can be programmed in the Basic Set Assoc. Device Network ID setting

We've included Direct Association programming instructions for the most popular Z-Wave hubs below:

2. With central scene commands where you use the multi-tap button functionality of the switches. They communicate through the hub which needs to support central scene commands, including "start level change" and "stop level change" commands for remote dimming. Here are detailed central scene programming instructions for the most popular hubs:

Z-Box Hub
Home Assistant
Hubitat
SmartThings (no support for remote dimming with this method)

3. With smart rules using the status reported by each switch where you need to create an If... Then... scenario to link the devices together. This is only recommended if your hub doesn't give you access to direct association or scene control features. The steps to create these automations will depend on the user interface of your hub so please refer to the manual of your system for details. Here is an example of the 4 rules you would need to create to sync the 2 switches:

If switch A is turned on, then turn switch B on.
If switch A is turned off, then turn switch B off.
If switch B is turned on, then turn switch A on.
If switch B is turned off, then turn switch A off.

If you have any questions about setting up a virtual 3-way installation, please contact our tech support team and we'll be happy to help you.