Amazon Basics Single Pole Smart Switch, Neutral Wire Required, 2.4 Ghz WiFi, Works with Alexa, White, 4.65 x 2.91 x 1.74 in

Nearly impossible to install. Here is the trick if stuck. Although I’m not an electrician, I’ve installed multiple three way smart switches of other brands. This was the worst.The cause of confusing is that if installing just one smart switch, you have to change the wiring of your not smart switch and this is not clear in the instructions (but is apparent if you look at the wiring diagram). Also you may not know which wires are which or have the tools to tell.So here is what to do:First connect ground and neutral lines, those are pretty clear and easy to ID. I’ll ignore those for the rest of the discussion. This is what finally worked for me after hours of attempts including tech support calls with no luck. This is the method of removing as many variables as possible.You will need a simple single pole $2 hardware type “dumb” switch. You will no longer need a 3 way dumb switch, just a single pole dumb switch.First, attempt to set up your single smart switch as though it were a single pole. Turn off your power to the area. Take your not smart 3 way switch out and replace with a simple 2 screw single pole hardware dumb switch, put it in the ON position. In the On position this effectively connects all 3 wires (and avoids the confusion to home DIYers of which wire is the traveler/common/etc. and which screws on the dumb switch to connect to). 2 wires go together at one screw, one wire at the other.For your smart switch don’t use the brown traveler line because for now you are setting this up as a single pole (your other dumb switch in ON is essentially no longer a switch (for now)). That leaves you with two wires from your smart switch to connect to the three in the wall. Since the traveler is joined to both other wires on your dumb switch in the ON position, any connection of wires here should get your light working. Turn on the circuit. It will take up to 15 seconds for the LED lights to bounce between green and then orange to signify off.Next identify your wires in the dumb switch box. One is a traveler and the other two could just be wired together if you wanted to remove this switch from the wall and cover it with a plate.Turn your dumb switch OFF.If everything still works, the traveler is the single connected wire on the dumb switch and also luckily the one wire you ignored in the smart switch box. You can connect the brown smart switch wire to the unconnected wire and you are set.If the LED on the smart switch no longer lights, that is because you effectively cut power to the smart switch (the LED indicator will turn off). Tag your wire with its own screw on the dumb switch as “not traveler”. Put the “not traveler” in a position on the dumb switch so it is now sharing a screw. In the ON position on the dumb switch, everything should still work but turn it OFF. If it stops working, that means you have turned off the connection to the other not traveler; label the wire connected to a screw by itself as “not traveler”. If on the other hand it keeps working in the OFF position, that means the unlabeled wire sharing a screw is the other “not traveler”.Now that you know which cord in the dumb box is the traveler, hopefully wire colors or hints like which wires are wrapped around others, you can deduce or guess which is the traveler in the smart switch side. You want to remove the traveler from the equation for now. Cap it and make sure the two inputs to the smart switch are not to the suspected traveler. Remove the traveler wire from the connection to the dumb switch.If it still works, you now have a successful single pole operation. If it doesn’t work, label your wire that was just capped in the smart box as “not traveler”, plug that into red or black and try again. If it doesn’t work again, your non-labelled wire connected to you smart box is the traveler (which we are trying to remove from the equation); if it does work, the wire you disconnected from the smart switch was the traveler. It will be working when the spare unconnected wire in the smart box is the traveler wire.NOTE that you do not need a 3 way switch in the dumb box, a single pole switch is all you will ever need.Given you have most things connected, now you can connect the brown traveler wire on the smart switch to the traveler wire in the smart box. On the dumb side, make sure both nontravelers share a screw (or use a short jumper wire to join them) and the traveler gets its own screw. This way the power is always running through your switches to power the smart switch because flipping the dumb switch only routes current through the traveler or not.You did it! Congrats!Also, the brightness settings from 40%-100% are basically the same, different levels of dimming occur at like 3% and 5% and 10%. Just seems like an odd scale system.

Neutral wire required. Neutral wire required. They weren’t kidding!Disclaimer – This is a review and story of how I went about installing a Amazon Basics smart 3-way switch in my home. I do NOT take any responsibility for any knowledge that was learned or applied from my experiences mentioned in said review. Make damn sure that you know what you’re doing. If you do not know what you’re doing, stop right now and either return the switch or pay a professional to have said switch installed.There was a quote somewhere on the main page for said item stating that most homes, built after 1978, have a neutral wire bundle in the junction box for a light switch. However, when your home was built in 1970 (or earlier), like mine, that’s not always the case. Any room in my house, that has a set of 3-way switches, do NOT have neutral wires in the junction boxes for said switches; the neutral wire is inside the junction box for the light fixture in the ceiling.So, what does one do when you’re in a situation like I found myself in? 1. give up and return said switch; refer to my disclaimer. 2. call a electrician and pay through the nose to have them figure it out; again, refer to my disclaimer. 3. Do what I did, which was apply my electronic technician education and figure it out myself.The trick was figuring out what the contractor did when they were building my 53 year old home while applying 1960/1970s residential wiring codes. I used a multi-meter and test light to identify the “line” or “common” wire and the wire which is the “load”. The load is the wire that connects to the center of the threaded receptacle for a ceiling light. Neutral(white wire) is still neutral; which I didn’t have readily available. And ground, a green or bare copper wire, is always ground. Everything was coming together.Once I had everything figured out, I had to get a neutral wire to the junction box of which the 3-way smart switch was going to be installed. Luckily, there was a light switch, in the same wall, in the next room. I cut a hole in the wall, took some Romex wire and tapped a new neutral wire off of the existing neutral from the light switch in the neighboring room.You might be asking yourself, “why does the 3-way smart switch need a neutral wire?”. The Amazon Basics 3-way Smart switch needs a neutral wire in order to have a complete power circuit; that being a hot/common/line wire, a neutral wire and, of course, a ground wire. If you attempt to install the smart switch, like any other dumb switch, which only has the load wire, common/line wire, traveler wires and ground wire installed, the switch will NOT work because it needs that neutral wire in order to complete the circuit to the smarts of said switch.P.S. the smart 3-way switch can be used without the second 3-way non-smart switch. It just won’t be a smart 3-way switch. But if you don’t plan on using the Amazon Basics 3-way Smart Switch as a 3-way switch, then by a smart switch. Best of luck, make damn sure you know what you’re doing and follow my disclaimer. Thanks.