Leviton Decora Smart Switch, Wi-Fi 2nd Gen, Neutral Wire Required, Works with Matter, My Leviton, Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple Home/Siri & Wired or Wire-Free 3-Way, D215S-2RW, White

Used for nearly every switch in my house. I have some version of these switches controlling nearly everything in my house. I started replacing my switches a few years ago with the Gen1 switches and just recently finished out with the Gen2. The only switches that aren’t these are my bathroom exhaust fans. I’ve written quite a lot here so congrats if you make it through to the end.The switches I have in use now are:DW6HD (Gen1 600W Dimmer)DW1KD (1000W Dimmer, Gen1 but still uses leads instead of screws)DW15S (Gen1 Switch)DW4SF (Gen1 4 Speed Fan Controller, also uses leads over screws)D26HD (Gen2 600W Dimmer)D215S (Gen2 Switch)DAWDC (Gen2 wireless dimmer companion)DAWSC (Gen2 wireless switch companion)Overall I am very happy with my switches. I have not had issues with constant dropping as some have said here. The app works well and I really like the Away feature in it though the same can be accomplished through Alexa. Integration with Alexa works fine. Alexa usually picks up a new switch and let’s me know it’s connected before I can finish entering the name I want for the device. That’s not an issue as it updates automatically once I enter the name I like. They also integrate well with Samsung SmartThings. I use that as I was accidentally sent some ZWave Leviton switches when I ordered WiFi ones so I put them to use rather than throwing them away as Amazon suggested. I also really like that for anyone visiting they work just as you’d expect a normal switch to vs using something like smart bulbs where if the power gets cut things can go a bit funny. My OCD also likes that these don’t stick out/lean one way or the other when switched on/off. They’re very unassuming looking which to me is good.My house is only a few years old, none of the switch boxes are metal and just about everywhere has a neutral wire already in the box. The only places I had issues were in some of the 3-way switches where whoever wired the house seemed to cut some corners and didn’t run all the wiring these require, along with not keeping things in their standard place (e.g. red wire hot, black wire traveler, etc.) so for a while some of my 3-way switches weren’t 3-way. The Gen2 wireless switch companions remedied this though.Like many others, in general I prefer the screw terminals. However, there were a couple of instances where having the leads was handy. For the neutral wire I did like using the lead as it is more flexible than cutting a piece of 14/2 and using that. In my kitchen dual gang box, which was very crowded even before I changed the switches, it did actually save me some space as I could get rid of the extra rigid wiring and use the existing wire nut already in the box on the house neutrals so I wasn’t adding anything. The other instance I preferred the leads was in a bedroom. Whoever wired the boxes liked to strip a portion of the hot wire, loop that around the hot terminal on the switch and then terminate the hot wire on the second switch in the box rather than using a wire nut with two leads coming off of it. Both switches were connected on a continuous hot wire. I was able to cut the wire down to the stripped part and then just nut both switch hot/black wires to the house hot wire. The looping method they used is a pain with the screw terminals on the Gen1, but I’ve made it work before. The leads made that easier however, overall I would prefer the screw terminals.The wireless switch/dimmer companions are awesome. They solved my 3-way wiring issue and are super easy to setup. I was afraid there may be some delay after pushing the rocker, but it’s an instant response. If you’re using Gen2 switches and wish you had a 3-way light somewhere you don’t these make a really easy fix for that especially since you can stick them to a bare wall with the included adhesive pads. Hopefully the battery life lives up to the stated 5 years, but I won’t hold my breath.I also really like the fan controllers. I have pull chain ceiling fans without remotes in all bedrooms and the living room and these make it really to control the fan speed either with the switch itself, voice, or an app. Much better than my short wife trying to stand on something to pull the chain.Gen1 vs Gen2As stated above, overall I like the screw terminals better than the leads on the Gen 2.Updating the switch firmware is easier on Gen2. In the My Leviton app you can choose to Update All Gen2 switches at once. For Gen1 switches you have to do them individually still. Gets old fast when you have a lot of them. The addition of the wireless switch companions for Gen2 is great. I don’t use Apple Homekit so I can’t speak to how Gen2 works there.ISSUESMost of the issues I’ve encountered have been more the fault of the house wiring or some other external factor rather than an issue with any of the switches themselves, but they’re not without fault.– Some LED bulbs just don’t play nice with the dimmers. Maybe this is my fault for trying the less expensive bulbs, but I’ve noticed the EcoSmart from Home Depot don’t always dim very well. Other brands work better, but I have yet to find an LED bulb/switch combo that gives 1) the dimming range or 2) dimming smoothness and 3) no flicker on dimmer settings than 100% of an incandescent bulb. You can get one or two, but not all 3.– I have had some disconnects. I haven’t had enough that I’d call it unusable or a deal breaker, but it happens. Most things with wifi will sometimes drop. This is much easier to deal with on the dimmer switches since you can pull out the bottom dimmer rocker and it cuts power to the switch effectively letting you reset its connection. I wish the plain switches had something similar where I could cut their power without having to flip a breaker. Honestly, when a non-dimmer isn’t connected I don’t do anything. It’ll eventually reconnect but sometimes it’s a day and sometimes it’s a few days. If there was an easily accessible reset button on the plain switch that would make things so much easier.– I have had 1 switch (out of 26) just up and die on me… so far any way. It was in my super crowded kitchen dual gang box which I think contributed to its death. However, and this is a plus, Leviton support was great. They walked me through some steps (which I had already tried, but I understand they need to check their boxes) and then they sent me a new switch. It was all handled very well, no run around or anything. Also, since it was a Gen1 switch that has been discontinued they replaced it with a Gen2 equivalent.Overall I am very pleased with the switches and how they operate day to day. If the one hadn’t died and they could address the resets on the plain switches I’d give them 5 stars all day. I’m not sure who to blame for the dimming, if it’s Leviton or LED bulbs in general so for the moment I won’t hold that against them. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

High quality, easy to set up. I have purchased a lot of smart home products. This is the “name brand” experience, they work well. I use them to control a light and a fan in my bedroom. Alexa integration works well. There are little lights behind the plastic that indicate power and connection status. Green is powered off, connected to wifi. Orange is powered off, not connected to wifi. No light indicates powered on and connected to wifi.

These 2nd generation switches and dimmers are a major improvement over the Gen 1 switches. The 2nd generation dimmer performs substantially better than the 1st generation.Among the benefits, the new ones also support Alexa and Google in addition to Apple Home and Siri, which is what I currently use. I’ve been replacing all my 1st generation devices with these. Since installing, I had only one dimmer fail on me. I called tech support and they advised me to pull up on the bottom of the dimmer lever for 5 seconds. The switch immediately powered back up and was back online in seconds. The old switches often needed to be re-paired after a power failure. That has not happened so far with these despite several occasions when I have powered down circuits in the house.I will also say that pairing them now is improved. You first pair the switch in the new Leviton app and then pair it in Apple Home using the supplied pairing code. I have also found this process to be more reliable than in the past. With the first generation switches, I often had to reboot my phone to get pairing to work.