Wiring three-way switches

With Insteon, I wire 3-way switches with one controlling the light and the other as a dummy switch that's paired to the live switch. Is that the way Z-Wave switches work as well?

I have z-wave 3 way switches that are not the same - my advice is look your switch up and follow the directions. I think (if I remember correctly) my homeseer 3way (at least for their series I got a few years ago) is wired just like a normal 3 way - other zwave 3 way hookups can be different. One of the many things I love about zwave

[jay (support)]

Some Z-Wave switches will do that via associations, but not all. You'll want to confirm with the manufacturer(s) that the switches support the necessary associations.

Yes, those I mentioned came with a special (different) switch that was intended to only be the 3 way slave. No avoiding doing some research - know your wiring, switch type and number of switches in the set up since some set ups can have more than two switches (depending on your home of course). Good luck and be safe - also remember most wiring fires are a product of poor/loose connections……

Thanks to you all. Now I just need to figure out which model switch to get!!!

some z-wave wall switches now can be connected in an n-way circuit and (if you choose) you only have to replace one of the n-1 original switches with a z-wave switch and you can leave the other switches as their original "dumb" selves. the z-wave switch will serve as a dimming load controller. the other n-2 switches will work similar to how they would work in the original configuration in that toggling the position of the switch will toggle the state of the light - i.e. between off and previous-dim-state. in other words, the the z-wave switch senses when the traveler is toggled by one of the original switches and toggles the load accordingly. i believe one such example switch is Zooz brand Zen77

win: this can save some money
lose: you don't have full control (dimming) from all the original switch locations - only toggle on/off.
win: less work to do on installation
win: you don't have to deal with buying and installing different special sub-types of "slave" switches
win: you don't have to deal with idiosyncrasies of z-wave associations
lose: aesthetic and UI inconsistency of having a mix of old/dumb and some new/smart switches in different locations

for me personally, a lot of my n-way switches are in hallways and stairways. many of those locations are places where i use a motion sensor to control the load 99.6% of the time (so don't generally touch the physical switches). so for me, i might consider this option if i were doing it all over again. (i currently have mostly insteon switches installed).

Good info, thanks - one of these days I need to replace a lot of old v2 zwave wall switches and most are 3 way.

One more win - that big bag of original switches I kept may actually be useful