Insteon Smart Dimmer Wall Switch, 600W, 2477D (White) - Needs Neutral Wire - Requires Insteon Hub for Voice Control with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant

I've had Insteon for about 10 years now. I currently have about 85 products installed throughout my home. I like stuff to just work. While I'm a "talented amateur" and can generally install things and troubleshoot them, I don't want my wall switches and voice control to be a second job. Also, I started using voice control through an App a few years before the Amazon Echo came out, so when Echo came out I was really ready for it. Insteon and Amazon Echo have really been successful for me. And now I can control my lights, TV, stereo, home theater, etc. with just voice. Here are the pros and cons of Insteon:Pros1. Very Reliable Switches & Modules. I have about 60 wall switches, wall dimmers, plug-in dimmers and switches, outdoor modules, and in-wall outlets installed and running right now. Most have been running for years; some for 10 years or more. I’ve only had one dimmer switch fail after about 7 years. I actually waited until now to give my review because I read someone say he had to replace everything after 7 years. A lot of my stuff is over 10 years and still working perfectly. I’m also very happy with the one micro in-wall module I have installed for my pole light. It has worked for about 5 years outdoors (inside the pole) winter, summer, rain, or shine without any problems or hiccups. I have a friend with a house almost completely wired with Insteon. He’s very happy with the devices and has extensive, very complex programs running on his ISY. I initially just manually configured my devices at first but after I had installed a bunch of them I decided to try the ISY. So, I have had the ISY for maybe 8 years and it has worked flawlessly. It’s not made by Insteon but controls everything better than the Insteon Hub. See my “Cons” section below for what I have found problematic about Insteon devices, the hub, and the ISY.2. Switches and Modules Work Without a Hub. Once installed and set up, Insteon switches work just like regular mechanical switches. They don't forget their settings during a power outage or if the Wi-Fi goes down. If you set up two switches to act like a three-way switch to control a light from two locations, for example, it will continue to work like that even if you don't have a hub or it breaks, the power goes out for a while, your Echo goes off line, or the Wi-Fi goes down or is totally removed from the home. All of this stuff has happened to me, but if the power is on, the light switches work.3. Dual Band Keeps Everything Synced. As others have noted, Insteon uses a dual band network system. This includes both a powerline network and a radio-frequency (RF) network. Each switch, module, and a lot of other Insteon devices are little computers that check in with each other so that, when you flip a switch, it works every time, and it and all others on the network know what position the switch is in. This is super important when you have two or more switches and voice control operating the same devices. I've never had a device get out of sync with others. Occasionally, I will see that the lights on the switch are out of sync with how the device is currently set but that self-corrects the second you use that switch and is almost unnoticeable.4. Insteon is great for solving problems. One problem I had was a pole lamp outside that had no switch. All the homes in the neighborhood were wired up like this so everyone's pole lamps provided outdoor lighting for the street and neighborhood. I understood this but didn't like not being able to turn my light on and off when I wanted to (like on Halloween or when sitting outside on some lawn chairs). Finally, when the dusk-to-dawn sensor broke and I replaced it, it started flashing on and off rapidly at dawn and dusk when the light was "in between." So I added an Insteon micro switch to the pole lamp and then a regular wall switch to the wall by my front door where the porch light switch was. Bingo, I now have a switch for my light and, with my ISY hub, I have set up a dawn to dusk timer so the neighborhood doesn't go dark. Another problem I had was three light switches on different walls in my kitchen. One controlled the pendant light over the ceiling, one controlled the island lights and one controlled the lights over the counters. It was crazy! To turn on all the lights, we had to go to three different walls. Also we couldn't control them all when coming into the dark from the garage. So, I just put three Insteon switches in, linked them up, and now they all turn all the lights on. I can still use the Insteon Hub App or Alexa voice control to turn the individual lights on and off. My house wasn't wired up very conveniently so I have solved many problems like this.5. Insteon Hub, ISY, and Lots of Other Hubs are Available. There are lots of hubs and software control options for Insteon. Most people think the ISY994-i is one of the best solutions and I agree. It allows you to install, set up, configure, replace, uninstall, and have total visibility on what is happening with your Insteon devices with a lot of accuracy, ease, and fine granularity. There’s also the Insteon Hub, 2245-222. I have that too. When the Echo came out, the Insteon Hub was quickly configured to work with it while the ISY took longer and requires a bi-annual fee. So I just hooked up the hub parallel to the ISY and that has worked fine. There are lots of other hub devices and PC software but these are probably two of the best and most convenient. Another pro to the ISY is its programming capability. You can set up lots of complex "if-then" type programs using its straightforward drop down menu programming choices.6. Great Amazon Echo Voice Control. Amazon Echo integration has been great with Insteon. I can voice control almost everything I want to in my house. It's worked so well, I no have gotten a supply of Insteon switches to set up my bathroom and closet lights. I didn’t think I would need or want that, but…now I do. The way you turn on lights with voice is different than how you do it at the wall switch. For example, when I head up to bed at night, I say “Alexa, turn on the stair lights. Then when I’m half way up the stairs, I say “Alexa turn off the living room. Then, I say Alexa turn on the master bedroom lights. Finally, as I open the bedroom door, I say “Alexa, turn off the stair lights.” So every room is already lit as I get to it. Nice! I have a bunch of Echo dots around the house to achieve this. Within a few hours of installing the Insteon Hub, in September 2015 when Echo integration was established, I was controlling dozens of my devices with voice control. It has gotten better and better over time as both the Hub firmware and Echo firmware have been improved as well as their connection with each other. Breaks of that connection which can happen when there has been a power outage or a firmware upgrade of one of the devices used to be both more frequent and more difficult to recover from. As I said, I just like things to work and don’t want to come home to a dark house and hear Alexa say “I’m sorry, the Insteon Hub is not working.” She always blames the hub for a broken connection even when the Hub appears to be working fine. Sometimes I have had to reboot everything (Wi-Fi router, Echo, Hub, ISP connection) and go in and remove the Insteon Skill from the Alexa app and re-establish it to get it working again. Very frustrating. But at least as I’m walking around cursing, my Insteon switches still work on manual mode even if using my fingers feels wrong. Capt. Kirk never had this problem on the Enterprise. (Oh, yeah, he actually did when the computer was mad at him or something.) But, as I said, that has been much more infrequent. I’ll estimate, I’ve had three such instances so far from Jan 2018 through October 2018. And the last one was in July. Recently, Insteon has installed multiple firmware upgrades without any interruption of my Alexa voice control capability and the whole system seems to come back up seamlessly when there is a power outage now – as it should.7. Great for Holiday Lighting. We have a lot of setups for holidays like Easter, Halloween, and Christmas with various lights and displays. I use a set of 5 Insteon wall plug-in on-off modules. Their “official” names in ISY and the Insteon Hub are “Temp 1,” “Temp 2,” etc. But then I can put them in groups in the Alexa app and name them Holiday, and Christmas, and Easter, and Halloween, and whatever else I want. “Alexa, turn on Halloween” or “Alexa, turn on Holiday” both work equally well. Then, I have installed a wall switch that doesn’t physically control any circuit. It’s connected up to the electricity but I can then configure it with the hub or the ISY to control any other Insteon switch or module I want to. In this case, I use it to turn on and off the Temp plug in modules. That way, if the Insteon Hub or Alexa go down for some reason, the switch will still work and I can turn my holiday lights on and off. You probably didn’t know you needed this but it is a great way to control the holiday lights.8. Control Ramp Rates, Brightness, etc. Check out the Insteon site for the directions and manuals for the dimmers and see what can be done. Some really cool stuff. Setting the Initial Brightness Level. For example, I read on line that setting the maximum brightness of a regular incandescent bulb to 93% is hardly noticeable AND makes the bulb last much, much longer. So I did this for all the bulbs connected to dimmers using the ISY. I think you can do it manually as well, not sure, but if so it is definitely much harder than with the ISY. I don’t think you can do this with the hub. You could turn it on to just 93% but not have that be automatic every time. Also saves a little money at electric bill time. Ramp Rates. Okay, I never even heard of ramp rates until I started installing Insteon dimmers. This is the rate at which the light bulb goes from total dark to full on and vice versa. I especially use this in my home theater. I start up the projector and get everything running and then I tell Alexa to turn off the lights. They “ramp” off slowly making a cool effect. Then when the movie is over, the lights “ramp” back on slowly so your eyes aren’t suddenly hit with blazing lights after being in the dark for two hours. Again, I didn’t know I needed this until I did it but now I “can’t live without it.”9. Great Support Forums. Both Insteon and ISY have some of the greatest volunteers in the world on their forums. These folks know everything there is to know and, if they don’t, they will definitely offer great tips on how to troubleshoot the issue. Lee comes to mind. If he says it; just cash the check.ConsSorry, there are some cons too.1. My Insteon Hub Failed. As you’ll see in the reviews, the Insteon Hub has a number of awesome features like easy to set up and use and has an okay smart phone app and works great with Alexa. The cons are that people say it tends to fail and need replacement. I’ve only had one for 3 years and already replaced it once. The second con on this is that they don’t have an easy reliable backup and restore feature so you have to do that manually. I’ve heard they have introduced something or are working on it so that may be changing. Because I have the ISY, I had all the information I needed to set up a new one. Otherwise, I would have had to open up all the switches to get the addresses off of them!? Note: You need the addresses, so keep them in a spreadsheet or something when you get them. That's another reason to have an ISY too or instead. Don’t put the micro switch in the wall or pole lamp without writing the address down! Finally, when it fails, you have to contact Insteon to get them to release your login information. Otherwise you can’t use the same login information and email account to set up a new device. If it breaks on the weekend you’re out of luck until Insteon gets back to you during the business week. To their credit, when mine broke, they got back to me in a couple of days. But by that time I had created a new email address and set up my new hub already. Good idea to have a spare handy.2. My PowerLinc Modems (PLM) Have Failed. To use your PC or an ISY or another device to set up and install your Insteon devices you need a plug in controller like the PLM. These tend to fail also. I’m on my 3rd one, I think, in about 10 or 11 years. I think it’s the power supply that fails on these and the Insteon Hub. Right now I don’t have a spare because mine failed a couple of years ago and I haven’t replaced it yet. But it’s a good idea to keep a spare PLM and/or Insteon Hub on hand so you can restore your system quickly. This is especially important now that we have voice control. Who can live without that now?My Keypads Have Failed. I’ve had several of the very cool keypad dimmers and switches installed. They have 6 or 8 buttons and each can be used to control different lights or scenes. At one time, I had one in my home theater room that could control all the lights individually and then the rec room lights too. It seemed cool at the time but I never really used this feature. Finally it broke, then several of my other ones broke and now I don’t buy them. I have one on the fritz right now. It still sorta works. This is usually the first step to not working. I use the ISY to “restore” the programming on the device and sometimes that will fix it for a while. Until it doesn’t. I can’t recommend the keypad dimmers and switches.Low Voltage Devices Cons. Insteon has a lot of low voltage devices that work off batteries and don’t plug in. This means they are not dual band and don’t connect to the powerline network but just through the RF network. This means there are problems for the hub or ISY to find them and adjust, fix, or restore them. These include door sensors, motion sensors, leak sensors, mini-remote switches, and other stuff. I’m not too happy with most of these mostly because of changing batteries, trying to connect to devices far from another device, etc. They’re just too much work (for me) for what they do. I bought a bunch of mini-remotes before voice control and they work pretty reliably. For example, I had one by my seat in the home theater that I could use to turn the lights on and off. And I have one by my bed and my wife’s side of the bed to control all the MBR lights. These all work great but, with voice control, I don’t use them much anymore and/or I don’t like charging them up with a micro USB so I plan to replace them with hardwired switches. That’s a hassle too with fishing wires and drywall work but hey, one and done, right? And no more hunting the things down and replacing or charging the batteries. Then voice control will provide all the remote control I need better.ISY Cons. The ISY has a lot of great features but it has a few cons too. One is the PC interface. It’s java based and that is just not good. It’s less secure and it needs to be upgraded almost every time you turn it on. This is a hassle to do just by itself. Also, it doesn’t scale very well so, if like me, you have a 4K monitor, it is hard to read. It’s not a modern interface with nice text and graphics, fully scalable, with a dashboard and secondary screens and links to key functions. Also, only a few third-party smartphone apps. The best one of these is about $65. It needs to be part of the ISY, come with, and at no extra cost. Also, maybe it has to have a PLM, but I would prefer that that function be built into the ISY so you only need one power supply cord, one network cord, etc. and maybe it wouldn’t fail as often. I haven’t used the ISY skill for Alexa but it requires a subscription based connection (about $25/year) to their cloud.Bottom Line. I like Insteon switches and plug in modules and will continue to use them for new and replacement applications. They are long lasting, have reliable remote control, their unique characteristics makes them great for solving problems. I like having both the Insteon Hub and the ISY and using the Hub to integrate with Alexa which it does very well and using the ISY to configure the settings for each device and run some simple programs the Hub can’t do. I don’t like the keypads or the low voltage devices although the mini remotes are good quality, work well, and probably have their place for certain applications especially if you don’t use voice control. Like most of the other protocols out there like Z-Wave, ZigBee, Alexa, Google Home, etc. you can’t just buy one protocol and call it quits. None of these is solidly plug and play yet. They all still need a lot of troubleshooting and using several eco-systems to get the smart home you want.

I would like to say this switch will work with extant X-10 devices. Don't believe every review you see, some say it will and some say it won't. I was skeptical but I had one 3-way circuit in my basement and the X-10s that worked well in the past had burned out, and didn't respond to signals anymore. I had tried some of the after market X-10 knock-offs, but they only worked on the circuit they were a part of. The signal penetration to other circuits in my house didn't go out anymore.So I replaced both switches from bad X-10s to these wired for 3-way circuits and they worked. However, you must realize a couple of things when you do this. These switches have only 3 wires and a naked ground wire, one is for line, one for load and one for neutral. These switches DO NOT use the TRAVELER WIRE used on your old X-10 3-way switch wiring. You simply leave that traveler in the wall, just tape it up and push it back out of the way. Insteon wiring is very simple and it has a very simple 7 step instruction sheet. If you just follow the instruction sheet and leave the traveler in the wall you can't go wrong.*********SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT YOUR NEUTRAL WIRE*************:In some cases you will find that you are installing your new Insteon Switch and the house electrical box has no neutral wire to make a connection. This is not uncommon because in old fashioned 3-Way wiring (2 toggle switches controlling one Light), usually the most distant switch WILL NOT have a neutral because all 3 leads (Red Black and White) were necessary for conventional 3-Way circuit wiring to work.I had 2 distant switches with no Neutral Wire to be found. In this case you may solder your little white neutral wire from the Insteon Switch to the Switch's Naked Ground Wire, then ground your switch to a naked copper ground wire present in your electrical box. I recommend soldering this connection because it is difficult to get the very small gage White Wire reliably connected any other way. If You just twist and wrap with tape you will probably get a shaky loose connection. This is called "Witching a Ground, or Witching a Neutral." These insteon switches, just like the old X-10 Fluorescent require a neutral connection for the electronic circuitry to work in the switches. The circuitry only uses a few milliamps, and it's in play all the time. Don't worry, this will not bypass the circuit overload safety of the the fuse or breaker in your electrical panel, and in many cases it is necessary for the circuitry inside your switch to work.Keep in mind, the accidental shock hazard is practically zero in this SPECIAL CASE because the ungrounded circuit necessary to operate the electronics of the switch is self contained and encased in non-conductive plastic. If this low power circuit becomes defective, voltage cannot leak out to a conductive touch surface and result in a shock. It's the same principal you see in a double insulated drill or jig saw. These hand tools do not use an equipment ground either and they are safe to operate because they have all plastic touch surfaces. Electrical defects will not result in leakage of electricity to the plastic touch surface. Yet equipment grounding is very important and essential in safe use of PLUGGED APPLIANCES with metal surfaces which will become electrified if their circuitry becomes defective and leaks current to metal touch surfaces. The circuitry of the Insteon switch is encased in plastic, yet some people might still object to combining its neutral wire with its ground.However, here is another way to accomplish this and be just as safe from accidental shock and not conflict with the NEC. Connection of the Neutral Wire is a much discussed topic and I don't think anyone has mentioned this OTHER method in the comments section. I know a few commenters have stated they could not find any other way to make the switches work without Witching a Neutral to a ground wire. This idea of Witching a neutral to a ground been opposed by others who cite both safety issues and legal issues with this practice. These are legitimate concerns, although I do not see a real accidental shock or fire safety issue, the legal issue remains in the minds of a lot of people. Here is one other way to do this without any conflict with the NEC or safety.This alternative to "Witching a Neutral," would be to use your old traveler wire in an X-10 circuit as a neutral. This could be accomplished by just connecting the dead-end of it to a Neutral Wire (in the opposite switch box) which will have a neutral wire somewhere to make a connection.You will need to locate the BUNDLE OF 3 WIRES AND A NAKED GROUND WIRE running between your 2 boxes for the switches. The Wires in this BUNDLE (or cable) are Red, Black, and White and one is a naked ground. One of the wires will be dead and not connected to anything at either end. Hopefully you can single out the White one as the one not in use. Just make sure when you are getting a dead wire! Check it with a VOM, it should be dead at all times. It should be dead when the light is on, off, or anytime. This dead unused wire will be converted to a Neutral for the distant switch which has none. Connect this dead wire from the bundle running between the 2 boxes to a NEUTRAL WIRE that will exist in the first box. Make sure you select a true neutral wire when you make this connection. It will be a White Wire, but keep in mind, not all White wires are Neutral. A White Wire will be hot if it is on a circuit carrying 2 legs of 230 volts or if it exists as a part of another conventional 3-Way switch. Use a VOM to make sure you connect your DEAD WIRE BETWEEN SWITCHES will be connected to a true neutral in your house wiring. Neutral wires are dead all the time, Use a VOM (Volt Ohm Meter) to test this. True Neutral Wires will always test with Zero resistance (0 Ohms) with a naked ground wire. Call an electrician if you do not follow this, or can't use a VOM (Volt Ohm Meter).I should point out that this very common wiring method is not shown in the wiring diagrams Fig. 2 thru Fig. 4 for this switch. All the Fig. wiring diagrams only show 2 wires what run from one switch to the other. There is always a neutral wire shown in the Fig.s but it seems to be coming out of nowhere. Just look for a BUNDLE OF 3 WIRES and a naked ground, If you see a BUNDLE LIKE THIS, it is the most common wiring method, and it will have no neutral at the most distant switch. If you don't see this BUNDLE connecting both switches, the other wiring diagrams will apply.Hope this helps someone. It can be a mess at times, and there are 3 ways to solve this problem: #1 Witch a Neutral to a Ground, #2 Do it this Way, or #3 rip out the walls and fish in a neutral wire all the way back from your Electrical Panel.I would add that there is another much less common wiring method for the connection of two (3-Way switches) that has a neutral existing at both ends (boxes). You will not see it very often, and it's depicted in Fig. 3 for this switch. It's when the hot wire starts at one switch and the load is carried directly to the light bulb from a terminal at the other switch. If it's like this, you are lucky, because a white neutral wire will exist at both switches. In this rare instance, you will not need to Witch a Neutral or String the Neutral over from the other switch that has one.Almost all the time, electricians will run the (cable) BUNDLE OF 3 WIRES AND A NAKED GROUND between 2 switches. It's for their convenience because this way the load leaves the SAME box that has the hot wire. The only advantage for this less popular wiring diagram is when the light is much closer to the distant switch. You won't see this much because the logical location for the other switch usually has nothing to do with the location of the light. But you won't know, until you test it with a VOM and see which kind of a 3 way circuit it is.***********ADDRESSING THE INSTEON SWITCHES WITH X-10 SIGNALS*************After you have finished wiring and turned on the power, you must address both switches. You can do this with an X-10 console device. I have several, if you don't have one, they are still sold on the internet and they are not expensive. Just press the clear button on the new Insteon switch for 3 seconds until the switch starts blinking, Then send it a signal from whatever X-10 address you choose with your X-10 console and it will take that address. Make sure you address both switches with the same console address. Then you must address the 2 new Insteon switches to each other. You address them to each other the same way, except you press the clear button at the top of one switch for 3 seconds until it starts blinking, then send it a signal from the mated switch you installed, they do it vice-versa with the other switch so that both switches may communicate with each other. When I did this, all the X-10 switches with the same address in my basement responded to both on and off. This is great, because I want to have at least a couple of switches so that when I hit them, they cut on/off every light in my basement, without having to go into every room, and cut them off one at a time. These new Insteons are sending an X-10 address signal all through my basement, and I have 4 circuits for light there and all of them are responding to this new Insteon circuit. Gradually, I plan to replace the other 3 circuits when they go out with Insteon, but no rush, they still work. These switches are just as good or better than x-10, no traveler wiring, and they are addressed exactly like you did with the old X-10 Fluorescent switches that are no longer being manufactured. I think there are a lot of people with broken X-10s that will be happy with this as a replacement. I hope that helps.